Popular Opinion

The questions was raised in class today (shortly after watching the Chuck Norris ad) as to whether or not public opinion turns against a celebrity figure when they state their political affiliation or reveal their stances on  sensitive issues and, if not, why?

In my opinion people do not turn against celebrities in this situation because, in reality, their opinions don't matter very much to us. Unless a celebrity says something particularly offensive or inflammatory, their opinions are usually met with pleased surprise or dismissed as just another dissenting view to one's own opinions.  Few, if any, people change their entire stance on an issue simply because a celebrity endorses one view over another. Similarly it is rare to stop supporting an entertainer’s work because of their worldview. For example, I think that Tom Cruise is a crazy, crazy man. Does this stop me from buying into his character in the Mission Impossible movies? No it does not. The reality is that we know celebrities for their work (in this case I am ignoring the “reality” stars because they are judged solely by their words and actions) and that is largely how we judge them

Where the problem arises I feel, again besides an overly controversial action, is in hypocrisy. When an entertainer creates a career around a certain point of view and then goes against that point of view at any time, that is when people begin to turn against them. We do not think less of Chuck Norris for expressing his republicanism (or at least I don’t) because Chuck Norris didn’t gain fame making movies about fighting for universal healthcare or blowing up elephants. We do, however, criticize Green day for becoming overly mainstream when they sold records based on rebelling against such corporate structures. I feel this also relates to the themes of authenticity we have come across. Opinions are not discouraged, hypocrisy is.