This Is Why You Should Never Take Moral Lessons From Films You Stopped Watching Halfway Through

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

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Jordan Belfort (aka the Wolf of Wall Street) went to the 92nd St. Y to talk about how great and innocent and redeemed he is. The whole night was a predictable shit show with casual sexism and the like, but this bit struck me as particularly funny:

Belfort said people should realize that the actions portrayed in the film were bad and not something they should follow. “If you’re in this audience and you can’t go to see The Wolf of Wall Street and realize that that’s bad, then there’s something wrong with you. You are fundamentally screwed up. It’s obvious,” Belfort said. Belfort said that he idolized Gordon Gekko’s character in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street. He said that had perhaps Gekko fallen, then he would have felt differently. “At least in The Wolf of Wall Street, I lose everything. My life is destroyed. I go to jail,” Belfort said.

In the end of Wall Street, Charlie Sheen wears a wire and narcs Gekko to the feds. Gekko is sentenced to more than a decade in prison and, upon his eventual release, a year of hard Shia.

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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