4 Reasons We Shouldn’t Listen To Celebrities For Political Or Personal Advice

But let’s cut the political correctness for a second and ask the questions that many of us have been wondering in the back of our mind: What makes celebrities the experts on politics and culture? Why should we be listening to them and heeding their advice? What makes them worthy of being our role models?

Miley Cyrus told us last year that “abortion is healthcare.” Taylor Swift insisted in a 2019 Vogue interview, “Rights are being stripped away from anyone who isn’t a white cisgendered male.” Joaquin Phoenix used his Oscar acceptance speech to tell the audience that drinking milk is a cruel, privileged act. What happened to the days when celebrities were just that—celebrities? It feels like every actor, singer, and TV host has strong, even radical, opinions about politics and cultural issues. And they just won’t shut up about it. 

As Hollywood gets more and more politically charged — and annoyingly so — we’re seeing more everyday people wake up and push back on the constant finger-wagging that comes from actors and singers. It doesn’t take much thought to realize that these actors aren’t the people we should be idolizing. 

Here are four reasons we shouldn’t be listening to celebrities for any kind of advice:

1. They’re Wildly out of Touch with Everyday American Life

No matter how much they try to convince you otherwise, celebrities live a very different life than we do. They have an entire team of staff members who do their grocery shopping, manage their finances, pick up their kids from school, and drive them everywhere. World-famous celebrities even have armed security guards escorting them to events and guarding their houses. They live in gated mansions. They fly everywhere in private planes. They have private chefs to cook all their meals. They have a housekeeping staff who cleans their dishes and makes their bed. The list goes on. 

Celebrities need to earn our respect.

To say they’re wildly out of touch with everyday Americans is an understatement. While you might hear celebrities complain about white privilege, think for a moment about the immense privilege they all live with on a daily basis. It’s absurd to think that celebrities are equipped to give us advice. They have no idea what it’s like to live in middle class America and be part of the communities that make up the overwhelming majority of our country. 

2. Just Because They’re Famous Doesn’t Mean They Know More Than You Do

Celebrities give us relationship advice, they tell us how to eat, and they even tell us how to vote. As if they know more about life than we do. But here’s the hard truth: just because someone is famous doesn’t mean they’re smarter than you. In fact, we’ve seen many times when celebrities are just downright wrong about serious issues. 

For example, actresses like Emma Watson and Patricia Arquette constantly talk about a gender wage gap that prevents women from excelling professionally. This is a false narrative that’s rooted in fantasy, not fact. Women on average don’t earn less than men because of their gender. Anyone can look at the data and understand that there are multiple factors that go into it.

We’ve seen many times when celebrities are just downright wrong about serious issues. 

Four of the top five highest-paid college majors are dominated by men. For example, aerospace engineering is more than 88% males. Alternatively, four of the five lowest-paid college majors (early childhood education, theology and religious studies, counseling and psychology, etc.) are dominated by women. It’s been documented for decades that men and women have general personality differences that have a big influence on how they choose their careers. Additionally, there are many other factors that contribute to salary differences: women choose less dangerous jobs, men work longer hours, women tend to leave the workforce in their early to mid-30s to start a family, and women don’t negotiate for higher salaries as often. To simply say that it all comes down to gender is ill-informed. Don’t listen to their cries of ignorance.

3. They’re Objectively Not Good Role Models

It’s no secret that most actors and singers in Hollywood party a lot. DUIs are a dime a dozen. Drug use is commonly reported amongst the posh communities of actors. Even when you look at their relationships, you can see that their divorce rates are through the roof. Why would we want our children to look up to that and emulate that behavior? 

Most of them routinely exhibit behavior that we shouldn’t consider copying in our own lives.

We can’t be afraid to point out the fact that most celebrities generally aren’t good role models. That’s not to say they’re all poor role models, but most of them routinely exhibit behavior that we shouldn’t consider copying in our own lives. It’s disheartening to see so many young teenagers idolize celebrities who regularly sing about sexual promiscuity or prance around in their underwear for all of Instagram to see. If we think about the long term wellbeing of our next generation, this isn’t the road we want them to go down. 

4. They’re Incentivized To Take a Certain Political Stance 

Cancel culture is growing stronger by the minute. Last year, Mario Lopez made the simple observation that young children shouldn’t be given the immense responsibility of choosing their gender. He got slammed online so badly that he issued a public apology for fear of his career being ended. J.K. Rowling recently tweeted that a woman shouldn’t be fired for simply pointing out the fact that sex is biologically assigned, not chosen. She promptly became the most hated woman on the Internet. 

Each celebrity has a whole team of publicists and managers who encourages them to say and do certain things.

Make no mistake that each famous individual who makes up Hollywood is expected to support a certain political philosophy. Also remember that each celebrity has a whole team of publicists and managers who encourages them to say and do certain things that will gain them clicks and views and get them more attention online. The quickest way to do that is to be woke — and to be woke loud and proud. A big part of their job is to be as famous and well-known as possible. That means many of them are incentivized to take strong political stands, even if they don’t fully understand them. 

Closing Thoughts

Of course, there are always outliers, and there are surely people in Hollywood who are good-hearted, giving individuals who would make great role models. But it’s important for all of us to remember that just because you’re famous doesn’t automatically make you an authority on life and political ideology. Celebrities need to earn our respect. We shouldn’t naturally give it to them simply because they have millions of dollars and live in a mansion. While they might be entertaining to watch on TV or in the movies, that doesn’t mean we should just put them on a pedestal.