Celebrities Can't Save Us

If you’re algorithmically attuned to seeing Palestine content, the average scroll through your Instagram or TikTok feed usually progresses something like this: dead kids; dead kids; an ad for dish detergent; dead kids; makeup tutorial; the latest dance trend; dead kids; the president asking you for money for his campaign; celebrity fashion; dead kids.

So yeah, people in the movement generally aren’t doing okay! Most of us aren’t doing well financially ourselves, and are scrambling to find something, anything we can do about the ongoing genocide in Gaza as people in power continue to do nothing. In fact, about a month ago, a new social media “movement” started in response to the stark contrast between the images of violence coming out of Gaza and various celebrities and influencers at the Met Gala. The goals of the movement are to get people to block celebrities on social media as a form of punishment for not speaking out against social injustice. The two major originators of this trend were @ladyfromtheoutside, who coined the term “digitine” (digital guillotine) and @blockout2024, who has consistently made videos selecting celebrities to block on social media.

As someone who often writes about the relationship between social media and social movements, specifically the effectiveness of posting about important issues, there are several things I have to say about this trend.

Distractions

My stance on celebrities is known: I value art first and foremost, and I might value what an artist has to say about the art after the fact, but my interest in artists ends far before I’m learning what they eat for breakfast, who they’re dating, or what the inside of their house looks like. In fact, the more I see what a famous person’s home looks like, the more detached I feel from them and the more negatively I view their art. So, I just choose not to engage with their personal lives. I also never allow myself to be disappointed when a celebrity says something politically abhorrent, while appreciating the positive impact when they say something that furthers my social causes, a balance that’s typically pretty challenging to maintain.

The leftist thing to say is that celebrity culture is inherently a distraction from real-world political causes. Sometimes, as essayist Herby R points out in his video on the Blockout, momentary distraction is important to stay sane: I wouldn’t want to live in a world without escapist fantasy, lord knows we need that from time to time. But as Malcolm X reminds us, we probably shouldn’t look to celebrities to be our leaders in times of crisis; those who are the most famous are usually those who are most aligned with the interests of the state (otherwise how would they have become that famous?)