Have you noticed a dropoff in social media traffic for some celebrities lately? Me neither, but then again I don't really pay much attention to celebrities unless they are weighing in on politics. But that's what some social media users are hoping to see happen, particularly among the pro-Hamas leftists. They have launched what is being called a "celebrity blockout" (#celebrityblockout) of film and television stars who they believe are avoiding talking about the war in Gaza. And God help those who actually support Israel. They are now persona non grata with this crowd. Anyone falling into this category has a "block" placed on their account so the users will no longer be shown any content that they post. (Associated Press)
Some social media users are calling out celebrities for what they say is inaction in the face of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza — and they’ve taken to a “blockout” to pressure the stars to take a stand.
For the blockout, users put a block on seeing any and all content from the accounts of certain celebrities on social media platforms including X, TikTok and Instagram. Some have posted about the celebrities they’ve blocked, using a hashtag such as #blockout, #blockout2024, or #celebrityblockout, while others have shared posts from users lambasting attendees of high-glamour events like the Met Gala and contrasting it with the situation in Gaza.
Blockout participants say it’s a protest because the celebrities either haven’t spoken up or haven’t said enough against Israel’s actions in Gaza during its war with Hamas.
So how widely is this "trend" spreading? That's hard to say. I went and searched on Twitter looking for the hashtag I included above, but I only found a couple of dozen hits over the past five days. I did come across the following woman who was filming herself blocking a number of celebrities with the names of the targets being displayed as subtitles. She's not speaking English, but you can get the general gist of it.
Me rn #CelebrityBlockout #blockout2024 #FreePalestine #UnitedNations pic.twitter.com/8TGiA0HpWt
— DarkSeraphim-Alalel (@OmegaMan_JCC) May 11, 2024
While it doesn't seem like this effort will have much of an impact on the lives of the rich and famous, it probably makes the participants feel better about themselves, or at least a bit less lonely. They are, after all, in a vanishingly small minority in the United States. But I do find myself wondering if a lot of these celebrities are finally smartening up a bit and that's why they aren't joining in with the pro-Hamas crowd. Perhaps many of them have been learning some lessons about going woke and going broke after seeing what happened to Bud Light. Supporting a terrorist organization may not be a perfect fit for the "woke" label, but the end effect would be the same.
Celebrities need to protect their brand, just like a beer company or anyone else. If people start staying away from their movies or tuning out from their television shows in droves, it hits the bottom line of the studio or production company. The same goes for television networks. Some of them have been very slow to learn this, but it could finally be sinking in.
Of course, the idea of a "blackout" doesn't create much of an impact if there is almost nobody participating. And yet, this latest episode reminds us once again of another persistent question. Let's say you could convince all of these musicians and actors to weigh in on the situation in Gaza. How many of them are actual foreign policy experts? How many of them have ever served in the military and fought in a war? In short, what makes them any more qualified to address these questions than the average person on the street and why would we listen to them whether we agreed with them or not?
The people attempting to launch this campaign are no different than the spoiled brats littering our college campuses. They are making noise and clamoring for attention. It's fine to be concerned about the number of people dying in Gaza. That's a natural human instinct. But you need to be equally concerned about the number of Jews that died on October 7 and in all the other attacks against them dating back through all of recorded history. This isn't a one-sided equation.
