The old adage of never meet your idols has become, why do you care what someone designated as an icon thinks about anything? Why put any stock in them being smarter than you? What makes them someone you want to emulate or adore?
You don't know them personally. You have never shared a meal with them. You have never had a conversation with them. You have never discovered whether they can even have a conversation that is not scripted by some PR person. Can they think, write, analyze, or discuss complex issues in more than a 30 second sound bite? Can they even identify the United States on a map, or better yet, if they can identify the US, can they identify Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri?
Do they even know what Iowa, Kansas and Missouri are?
Maybe it’s the same thing as the line from “if I were a rich man,” how people believe what you say if you are rich whether you are right or not. Society imbues idols with some kind of super human knowledge of reality without them actually ever having earned that level of competence by hard work or just have an honorary degree.
Yes, society measures your importance by your bank account, your recognition/honors and your 15 minutes or more of fame. But, there has to be some modicum of self respect when making life decisions, and you need to not let total strangers hawking mishegas be the deciding factor in what you do on a daily basis and definitely not how to run your lives.
Maybe its my age, but I really couldn’t care less how a superstar votes in an election. In all honesty, I never cared at any point in my life what a celebrity said or did, except if somehow it negatively affected my family. So you will see me rail against those antisemites like Mel Gibson, Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, and the Hadid sisters. But I don’t lose any sleep over it. I vow not to spend money on the things they endorse or go see any movie that they are in. (Of course if I am already paying for a streaming service and a movie comes on and I want to watch it, it will get watched. And yes, they count the number of people who watch a movie, for future projects, but I have already paid for something so I might as well use it.)
Honestly, I am not sure why of late, the only one of the antisemites in Hollywood to receive some comeuppance is Sarandon. Even Gibson has been brought in from the cold. Ruffalo keeps getting paid to be the Hulk and the Hadid sisters appear on glossy magazine covers and earn lucrative endorsement deals. If any of these individuals had posted anything racist their careers would be kaputnik But be a Jew-hating cunt, well that gets you to sign on the dotted line.
People wonder how the world became inured to the Nazis. You can actually see it playing out in real time. The cultural powers that be post one thing after the other about the evil Joos, they suffer no consequences. In the UK you get arrested for posting mean things on facebook, but marching every week calling for Jewish genocide gets you protected by the MET. Meanwhile, lo and behold we have Jews having to travel on separate buses purportedly “for their own safety,” touts the mayor of London. Are we going to discuss what real apartheid looks like now? I guess not, since it is happening to Jews and not to those the international “human rights” bar consider people worthy of human rights.
Oh and by the way, these idols, these icons that so many have spent a fortune to go to their concerts, or buy the products they hawk, have never once posted about the hostages in Gaza. They never posted condemning the rapes, or the sheer barbarism of October 7 either. So much for humanity having moved past the Jew hate that predated the Holocaust.
How many celebrities posted that “Rape is not Resistance” other than Gwyneth Paltrow, Debra Messing, and Gal Gadot? You can count the number on 2 hands and probably not need a few fingers. Even the Jewish “celebrities” couldn’t be bothered. Feminists icons certainly didn’t. Those like Angela Davis actually celebrated the rapes. (Considering she calls for the destruction of the US, is a communist who supported killing people trying to escape East Germany I am glad she is not on my side of any issue. I am pretty sure though that those with Che Guevara T Shirts think she is the bomb, because nothing says freedom like idolizing a mass murdering, homophobic, racist.)
So what exactly got me to think about icons and celebrities and idols. Taylor Swift of course. No, I did not go to one of her concerts. I know many people my age who took their daughters, or sent their daughters and granddaughters, and they had a blast. It was an amazing show apparently. Well she is a huge talent. I remember when she was starting out and she did an interview on 60 Minutes with her mother. Even back then you knew. You knew this 17 year old child was headed for super stardom. I am happy for her. Truly I am. (As I have mentioned before, the husband was worried that she would end up all alone since she seemed unlucky in love. He was very relieved to see her dating the football player. Yes he is the Jewish mother in the household. )
What annoys me however, is that somehow she now has some input into the coming election. No, I am not mad because she endorsed Harris. I am annoyed because what was the point? Who cares who she votes for really? Who really thought she was going to vote for Trump? Does anyone in their right mind think this young woman was MAGA?
Unfortunately, though for her endorsement she posts with a dig about single cat ladies. Talk about mean girls and bullying. (There is also some implication that she has parted ways with a once friend who liked a Trump tweet, apparently not true.)
I wonder though too, what if you were a Swiftee who was going to vote for Trump. You had just spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars going to her concert to be told by her that you are any modicum of deplorable for not voting for Harris. Because that is what her open endorsement implies. Basically she said, “Thanks for the money loser.”
(I wonder too, if she and Selena Gomez knew when they went to the fundraiser for children in Gaza, that the charity was aligned with Hamas. By the way, neither of them ever posted about the hostages, even the American ones.)
Do you think she even thought about this? Do you think she even cares about insulting possibly a sizeable part of her fan base? Maybe she doesn’t care, since this is a major issue for her and she does have a platform. But I don’t think her stance will backfire on her. Not because she might not lose fans. But she is powerful enough to not care. You know because she has what is called the “fuck you” level of money and fame.
(Just as an aside, another icon who has that kind of standing and money is Beyonce. Want to bet she is voting for Harris? Any takers? Do you think she has to make a public announcement about it or should we just assume that she is all in for the democrats?)
I do wonder if icons think through when they do things, or are they so inured to any consequences that they can live outside the realm of reality? Does anyone every tell them, “no?” I mean their lives run wholly on PR.
Meanwhile, another icon that we need to bring down a peg or too…Thomas Jefferson. yes that TJ of the Declaration of Independence fame, Secretary of State and 3rd President of the US. Apparently, not only is he a duplicitous slave owner, the rapist of a 15 year-old Sally Hemings, but he was also quite the antisemite. Nope not fond of the Jews at all was ourTJ, even though religious liberty for all (including the Jewish People) was paramount to him.
In fact, my son learned this about Jefferson in taking an online class about Jewish American history. He texted me all the sayings about Jews by Jefferson. He was quite upset. He kept saying, “never meet your heroes.”
So what do you do under those circumstances? You do what we always have done. We explain how Jefferson was what they call human and terribly terribly imperfect. But it doesn't take away from what he wrote in the Declaration of Independence.
Those words have been the dream of billions of people on Earth for centuries. Our ancestors came to the USA with the dream embolden by those words. People still risk life and limb to travel here because of those words.
There are times you need to separate out the person from their accomplishments as well. As the saying goes we don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater by any means. American democracy, or democratic republic, may not be perfect, but show me a better system of government.
This is why idolizing someone, or thinking a celebrity is more than human is not going to help anyone lead a better life. You can take what the icon may say as far as freedom, but you need to keep in the back of your mind that the icon is human and humans are flawed, imperfect, and can and do at times disappoint. Then also remember to think for yourself. Analyze what is being said. Take nothing at face value. Remember you are as smart or even smarter than those put on a pedestal.
Excellent advice. Researchers and critical thinkers are hard to find. About as hard to find as folks who can sit down and commence an actual discussion.
Thanks for this. I was unaware of Jefferson's poisonous viewpoint on Hallakhah. Disappointing, but not surprising in a man who somehow thought he had a right to own his children as property.