It’s no surprise that the same Hollywood elites who campaigned hard for abortion-extremist Hillary Clinton in 2016 are now enraged by the election of Donald Trump. But while the president-elect’s glamorous critics have been crying “racism” at his every move, one Hollywood veteran has a fascinating take on Tinseltown’s real motives.

Many readers will remember comedian and political commentator Ben Stein for his hilarious performance as a drab, uninspired high school teacher in the 1986 comedy “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” (“Bueller? Bueller? …Bueller?”) But in real life, Stein is a passionate defender of the vulnerable, and an eloquent defender of the unborn. “For me, the number one issue is right to life,” he once said.

This week in an interview with Fox anchor Neil Cavuto, Stein called out Hollywood’s hypocrisy.

“I’ve earned my living in the vineyards of Hollywood for the last 40 years,” he said. In that time, he came to realize that Hollywood is full of “thuggish bullies.” While “some of them are very nice people,” Stein said that many celebrities act as “a united blacklisting front who will go against anyone that they think is politically undesirable.”

“They are not for freedom of speech, they are not for freedom of expression. They are exactly the opposite of that,” Stein said. “Hollywood in general is trying to shut down free debate within Hollywood.”

Stein’s observations ring especially true in light of recent events. Since Donald Trump’s election, many Hollywood stars have been up in arms against the steps conservatives are taking to repeal the Affordable Care Act, defund Planned Parenthood, and otherwise push back against the Leftism that Hollywood promotes.

But don’t be misled. According to Stein, not all people in Hollywood are in lockstep with progressive ideology. “There are plenty of people in Hollywood who like Donald Trump,” said Stein. “They’re afraid to say a word about it because they’re afraid they’re gonna be paying consequences.”

What consequences?, Cavuto asked. “I know for a fact that they pay dearly for it,” Stein said. “I know people who have lost friends, who have even lost agents over this.”

But even if a dissenting celebrity escapes professional sabotage, “to be blacklisted socially, and to know that your friends don’t want to be your friends anymore, it’s a very bad thing.” Stein himself has had a successful career in Hollywood, but it’s been rocky.

“I was looking at a list of people I had at a party when I first came here in 1976,” he said. “Most of them won’t speak to me anymore because I’m a Republican. … Hollywood is a one party, one-policy state. You cannot go against the prevailing wisdom, you cannot go against the crowd, or you’re in real trouble.”

Is Hollywood’s Anti-Racism Just ‘Snobbery’ in Disguise?

“The thing about Hollywood people is they think of themselves as workers and proletarians and the warriors of the revolution, but they’re also snobs,” said Stein. “They’re incredible snobs.”

According to Stein, it was snobbery — rather than genuine anti-racism — that fueled much of Hollywood’s anger during the 2016 presidential election. “They look down on Donald Trump even though he’s rich because they think he’s trashy-rich, like Archie Bunker who suddenly got 11 billion dollars,” said Stein.

Although many celebrities accuse Trump of “racism,” Stein argues that “nobody in the Trump campaign has ever said a racist word, and yet they keep calling him a racist. It’s as if that by calling him a racist over and over again, they can make him a racist.”

Why would Hollywood elites call Trump a racist? According to Stein, they are “using” the word because it’s simply “their favorite word to blacklist someone, is to call them a racist.”

Do Black Lives Really Matter in Hollywood?

As black pro-life activist Ryan Bomberger recently pointed out here at The Stream:

Apparently, black lives matter only some of the time. Abortion is the number one killer in the black community, outnumbering all other causes of death combined. Abortion killed 317,547 unarmed black lives in one year while all other causes of death amounted to 286,797. But no one in the Democratic Party is rioting in the streets. No one is holding a sit-in over the senseless violence that has taken millions of lives. Abortion rates are five times higher among blacks than whites, and double the rate of Hispanics.

Tragically, those who speak up for black victims of abortion may get the worst treatment of all in Hollywood. And in light of Bomberger’s stark observation, Stein’s last words to Cavuto are deathly serious:

“To tell you the truth, it hurt me a lot, when my career was at its peak, when I was for example pro-life, that word got around that I was pro-life, and it hurt me a lot.”