There is a lot of emphasis placed upon what celebrities say. I personally think there’s too much emphasis on it, and I think there is far too much celebrity worship and far too much stock we place into people who became popular for skills that had nothing to do with their opinions. Though someone who has an incredible aptitude for entertaining and acting might perfectly well be a brilliant person, there is nothing inherently brilliant about those skills, in terms of meaningful insight into social and political commentary. Yet, so much stock is placed upon what people who happen to be popular say, that people who are offended by what they say erupt into a massive frenzy.
Roseanne Barr said something racist that I find highly offensive, and if a friend had said it, I would have left them, giving them a reprimand along the way. Samantha Bee said something in poor taste about Ivanka Trump. I’m not necessarily a fan of Ivanka, but it was highly distasteful, and if a friend had said it, I would not have laughed but would have walked off, ignoring them. There is a tremendous uproar in both these cases from both conservatives and liberals.
In Roseanne’s case, the left wants blood in a highly symbolic fashion to punish what they think exemplifies Trump supporters. They erroneously assume every Trump supporter is a racist, and because her character plays a Trump supporter on a show most of them have never seen, they want an example made by firing the person who plays the character. In Samantha Bee’s case, the right wants blood for a terribly crude thing said by someone they don’t ever watch, and want a symbolic gesture made to show those lefties that they can’t get away with saying whatever they want. We could say both cases are virtue signaling, because ultimately, people can simply do what I would do if these were people who were friends of mine. That is to say, they could simply leave them by changing the channel.
What message is spoken the loudest when someone says something you think is both offensive and stupid? Leaving them to speak such stupid things to themselves. If these TV shows lose popularity because of what is being said by the stars, then the TV shows will go away, and you don’t have to worry about it.
At the same time, you don’t have to be offended by what you hear, simply by not listening. You don’t have to read Roseanne’s tweets, and you don’t have to listen to Samantha Bee on her show. Both instances demonstrated a lack of tact, crudeness, vulgarity, and disgusting language. Who wants to hear that sort of thing? Instead of dwelling on it, I prefer to leave it. I’m sure Roseanne’s show is entertaining to a lot of people, but it’s never been anything I particularly enjoy, so it doesn’t bother me not to watch it. And, I have never been a follower of Roseanne on Twitter (nor a follower of anyone else, because I’m tweet illiterate). I have never liked Samantha Bee’s show, and so I don’t watch it. I only knew of her comments because someone decided it was actual news. Conservatives would have neither heard of the comments nor would ever have been offended by them if news had not been made about them.
This article is a little shorter than I’d normally write, because I think the answer to all of this is simple. Just walk away. If someone wants to put forth thought provoking ideas that are well articulated and stimulating, I will listen, even when I disagree. But, when people want to say stupid and disgusting things, I just close up my ears and listen to someone else. You have a remote control for your TV, and you can choose to follow whoever you wish to on Twitter. Use your remote, and follow different people.
Danny Chabino
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