Ted Cruz has gotten into a public feud with Star Wars actor Mark Hamill over ‘net neutrality’.
On Sunday, the Republican senator from Texas traded barbs on Twitter with Hamill, who has been outspoken in opposition to the FCC decision rolling back regulations on internet service providers.
‘Fear is the path to the dark side…fear leads to anger…anger leads to hate,’ Cruz lectured Hamill, referencing Yoda’s classic advice to Hamill’s character, Luke Skywalker.
The feud started with Hamill’s rebuke of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, over a strange video Pai released touting all of the things consumers could still do on the internet following the repeal of so-called net neutrality.
‘You can still stay part of your favorite fandom,’ said Pai in the video as he wielded a purple lightsaber, with the theme music from Star Wars playing in the background.
‘Cute video Ajit “Aren’t I Precious?” Pai,’ Hamill responded on Twitter, ‘but you are profoundly unworthy 2 wield a lightsaber-A Jedi acts selflessly for the common man-NOT lie 2 enrich giant corporations. Btw-did you pay [Star Wars composer] John Williams his royalty?’
Ted Cruz (left) got into a feud with Star Wars actor Mark Hamill (right) over ‘net neutrality’
The feud started with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s appearance in a strange video (pictured). Pai promoted the rollback of ‘net neutrality’ while wielding a purple lightsaber
Hamill responded, asking if Pai had paid royalties for using the theme music from Star Wars
Cruz jumped into the fray, addressing Hamill as ‘Luke’ and urging him to ‘reject the dark side’
Not one to sit on the sidelines, Cruz leaped to Pai’s defense, tweeting: ‘Luke, I know Hollywood can be confusing, but it was Vader who supported govt power over everything said & done on the Internet. That’s why giant corps (Google, Facebook, Netflix) supported the FCC power grab of net neutrality. Reject the dark side: Free the net!’
‘Thanks for smarm-spaining it to me,’ Hamill shot back.
‘I know politics can be confusing, but you’d have more credibility if you spelled my name correctly. I mean IT’S RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF YOU!’
‘Maybe you’re just distracted from watching porn at the office again,’ he continued, in reference to a September incident in which Cruz’s Twitter account liked a tweet featuring hardcore pornography. (Cruz has said a staffer liked the tweet in error.)
The actor (left) and the senator (right) matched wits over the ‘net neutrality’ debate
Hamill shot back, referencing a September incident in which Cruz’s Twitter account liked a tweet featuring hardcore pornography. (Cruz has said a staffer liked the tweet in error)
Cruz’s clap back referenced the classic Star Wars line that ‘Fear is the path to the dark side’
Cruz clapped back: ‘Yes, that’s it. So sorry to misspell your name. Respond not with facts, but with anger. Who was it that said, “Fear is the path to the dark side…fear leads to anger…anger leads to hate”‘
‘Rather than insults, try civil discussion of facts,’ Cruz continued.
‘Fact 1: until 2015, the FCC had NO authority over Internet. The Net grew free & unregulated. Fact 2: W/ “net neutrality” the FCC declared power to regulate everything said & done on Internet. That’s really bad for freedom.’
‘Net neutrality’ was a set of regulations imposed in 2015 that classified internet service providers as common carriers, forbidding them from charging higher rates for preferential access to ‘high speed’ data lanes.
Content providers cheered the regulations. But service providers said that it hamstrung their businesses, allowing companies like Google and Netflix to consume huge amounts of bandwidth without compensating the network providers.