Celebrity Apologies Are Meaningless

Nowadays it seems like celebrities are always apologizing for something. At this point, all these apologies are just making apologies that come from celebrities less valuable. The modern American cultural landscape is in apology inflation. Celebrities have incredible amounts of power and yet they are almost always doing something stupid. It isn’t everyone of course, but it is significant enough of an issue to talk about it.

For some reason a lot of the time it is Anti-semitism that celebrities are apologizing for. Anti-semitism is one of the world’s oldest forms of prejudice. Anti-semitic tropes have been around for a long time. Some of those stereotypes were spread by the Nazis during the 1940s. Anti-semitism is usually spread through conspiratorial thinking. The idea is that Jews rule the world and that they control the entire financial system.

Anti-semitism

These conspiracies are very Anti-semitic for many reasons, however, a simple one is that this isn’t true at all. The thing about these conspiracy theories is that they all have a nugget of truth in them. That’s why many theories have so many followers. The nugget at the center of the “globalist” conspiracy, l is that there is a section of the population in control of the financial systems. Those people are the capitalist class. Some of them are Jewish yes, but not an overwhelming amount as described in the conspiracy.

Overall, celebrities getting caught in Anti-semitic conspiracy theories is bad. Celebrities have a voice that can reach millions of people. They need to be responsible with that voice and the power that comes with it. It’s like celebrities weren’t paying attention when uncle ben said “with great power comes great responsibility.” So why are they so irresponsible with that voice?

Fame Is Fortune

Celebrities are constantly apologizing for the misuse and abuse of power they have. Some make Anti-semitic comments, and others make racist or sexist comments. Some celebrities are just plain bigoted. Celebrities are usually rich people. In America, rich people rarely face consequences for their actions. Yet, the apologies keep flowing in. The reason why is that celebrities live and die by their fame. If one can stay in the limelight they have more opportunities for even more fame and even more riches. The only thing that can stop this is people deciding that they aren’t worth their time. The only thing that could ever stop the rise of a celebrity is the people that give them that power. Before this statement is analyzed, there is an essential question that must be answered.

Riches To Rags

What is a celebrity? One answer is that a celebrity is someone that matters to a lot of people. With this “social currency,” they amass enough “social capital” to become what is known as a celebrity. They then transform that social capital into other kinds of capital. Now that the meaning of the word “celebrity” has been defined, the reason why they apologize so much is obvious. They are simply trying to preserve their social capital. For a celebrity, more social capital means that they have more and more opportunities to make money. So, by preserving their social capital they can then preserve their future.

In conclusion, celebrities are rich people and they are extremely manipulative. They used the goodwill they created to make millions. So when they apologize for being a bigot or a sexist, know that this is a calculated effort to preserve that goodwill they created. They are afraid of what the people that got them there will do to them once they figure out how they feel about critical issues. Celebrities are not to be trusted, and their apology means nothing.

Written by Kenneth Mazerat

Sources

EuroNews: The good, the bad, and the overdue: The celebrity apologies of 2021 by Tim Gallagher

Standard.CO.Uk: When sorry seems to be the hardest word: the art of the celebrity apology by Joe Stone

BuzzFeed: 14 Times Celebs Got Called Out And Actually Made The Apology, Or Change, People Wanted by Kasim Kabbara

Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Erik Drost’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License

First Inset Image Courtesy of  Gage Skidmore’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License