For years, celebrities have been using their status as a platform to springboard their political and social views.
Society holds celebrities on a pedestal, to the point where if they’re doing or saying something, it has to be the cool or right thing for everybody to do. Celebrities know they’re seen in this manner, so they use it to the advantage of the groups they support, and to the disadvantage of those they don’t.
This all sounds great, and one’s ability to express their opinions on something their passionate about should always be valued, but a big red flag is raised when I think about people my age who have a hard time coming up with their own ideas and opinions.
Nowadays, I find people looking to celebrities and their peers for help creating their opinions rather than thinking things through themselves. Even in my own friend group I’ve seen a trend of people strictly basing their opinions and political knowledge off what they’ve seen on Twitter.
Since celebrities attract a large crowd, their views on topics are sometimes all the unoriginal thinkers have access to, and therefore seen as the be-all-end-all.
Because of the pedestal society puts celebrities on, they have an ever-important role in shaping people’s opinions when it comes to the hot topics of today’s world. My honest advice to millenials on Twitter; please use it as a means of entertainment, not something you base all of your opinions off of.
I spend a good amount of my day on Twitter (that may explain my GPA from last semester) and I see an ever growing sense of hatred towards our president coming from celebrities. While some celebrities choose not to voice their opinions, many are outspoken on the topic of Donald Trump. People like comedian Nick Offerman and rapper YG have taken to Twitter to show their disapproval of our newly inaugurated president.
This past Saturday, Nick Offerman Tweeted at Donald Trump telling him “shove it up your ass.”
A few days before the inauguration, YG tweeted that he’d perform his song “F*** Donald Trump” at the ceremony for $4,000,000.
Now, it’s clear to see why people dislike Trump, and I myself am a huge YG fan and can bump to “FDT” even though I did in fact vote for him. What I don’t see however is how almost 81,000 people could retweet Nick Offerman’s tweet.
It’s safe to say a retweet is a gesture showing you like the tweet or agree with it. Under that logic, we now have 81,000 people that want Donald Trump to shove something up his backside.
Now I know Nick Offerman is a comedian and it was a satirical tweet, and what I’m saying is a stretch, but celebrities’ opinions resonate. Like I said, I see trends amongst millennials that lead me to think some of these people can’t form an original thought or opinion. Of those 81,000 retweets, I’m sure a few of those Twitter users fall in that category.
Now the folks who can’t make their own opinions are suddenly anti-Trump simply because they were fans of Parks and Recreation. It may be a tough concept to grasp, but asking Donald Trump to commit sodomy on himself will not change any of his policies. If they want real change, they need to be real, original thinkers. That’s the only way to survive in todays world anyways.
Christian Gravius is a staff writer for the Bona Venture. His email is gaviucc15@bonaventure.edu
