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<blockquote data-quote="Frank Underwood" data-source="post: 444466" data-attributes="member: 35">Another thing I&#039;ve noticed recently is that a growing number of celebrities are being called cowards for not wading into politics.&nbsp; To me, this represents the problem with the other side of the coin.&nbsp; While I do think it was cowardly of Sheeran to drop Macklemore, I also think many celebrities can become too self-important when it comes to political issues.&nbsp; The distinction is pretty simple for me; if a celebrity wants to express sympathy for the suffering of an oppressed population, I believe that is perfectly acceptable and commendable.&nbsp; Macklemore even turned it up a notch by literally putting his money where his mouth is by donating the proceeds of his upcoming tour to help the Palestinians.That said, self-important celebrities are absolutely insufferable to me.&nbsp; I&#039;m talking about the ones who think it&#039;s their duty to influence the public on how to think and how to vote.&nbsp; They think they know better than everyone else, and if a celebrity doesn&#039;t want to discuss politics because they don&#039;t want to upset half of their audience, they&#039;re called cowards.&nbsp; That&#039;s the position Tom Selleck and Michael Jordan recently found themselves in, as &quot;She-Hulk&quot; actress Tatiana Maslany called them &quot;cowards.&quot;&nbsp; I can see why Selleck is gun-shy (pardon the pun) after a discussion he had with Rosie O&#039;Donnell about firearms got heated in the 90s.&nbsp; Maslany went on to say &quot;All entertainment is political because it has a viewpoint and it has a perspective. It has visual representation of the world we live in or the kinds of things that are funny or acceptable or the ways that people relate to each other. It&#039;s all about inter-person, like there&#039;s no disconnect in my mind and to me, those are two very rich men who stand to lose a lot if they stand up for something.&quot;While there&#039;s some truth in what she&#039;s saying here, that&#039;s still a far cry from weighing in on specific policies and political figures.&nbsp; She&#039;s also talking about entertainment, which is separate from celebrities expressing their own personal viewpoint (although in Selleck&#039;s case, I&#039;m sure his role in &quot;Blue Bloods&quot; and his involvement in the NRA give us a partial view into his political leanings.)&nbsp; As for the whole Sheeran/Macklemore debacle, I think that is a manufactured controversy.&nbsp; IMO, some people are making a false equivalence between saying &quot;free Palestine&quot; and going on a self-important, political rant.&nbsp; To me, the two things are not the same.&nbsp; If someone expressed sympathy for the victims of 9/11, would that be the same as going into the political ramifications of the event itself?&nbsp; Of course not.&nbsp; That said, I don&#039;t believe people should be guilted into making a statement.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Frank Underwood, post: 444466, member: 35"] Another thing I've noticed recently is that a growing number of celebrities are being called cowards for not wading into politics. To me, this represents the problem with the other side of the coin. While I do think it was cowardly of Sheeran to drop Macklemore, I also think many celebrities can become too self-important when it comes to political issues. The distinction is pretty simple for me; if a celebrity wants to express sympathy for the suffering of an oppressed population, I believe that is perfectly acceptable and commendable. Macklemore even turned it up a notch by literally putting his money where his mouth is by donating the proceeds of his upcoming tour to help the Palestinians. That said, self-important celebrities are absolutely insufferable to me. I'm talking about the ones who think it's their duty to influence the public on how to think and how to vote. They think they know better than everyone else, and if a celebrity doesn't want to discuss politics because they don't want to upset half of their audience, they're called cowards. That's the position Tom Selleck and Michael Jordan recently found themselves in, as "She-Hulk" actress Tatiana Maslany called them "cowards." I can see why Selleck is gun-shy (pardon the pun) after a discussion he had with Rosie O'Donnell about firearms got heated in the 90s. Maslany went on to say "All entertainment is political because it has a viewpoint and it has a perspective. It has visual representation of the world we live in or the kinds of things that are funny or acceptable or the ways that people relate to each other. It's all about inter-person, like there's no disconnect in my mind and to me, those are two very rich men who stand to lose a lot if they stand up for something." While there's some truth in what she's saying here, that's still a far cry from weighing in on specific policies and political figures. She's also talking about entertainment, which is separate from celebrities expressing their own personal viewpoint (although in Selleck's case, I'm sure his role in "Blue Bloods" and his involvement in the NRA give us a partial view into his political leanings.) As for the whole Sheeran/Macklemore debacle, I think that is a manufactured controversy. IMO, some people are making a false equivalence between saying "free Palestine" and going on a self-important, political rant. To me, the two things are not the same. If someone expressed sympathy for the victims of 9/11, would that be the same as going into the political ramifications of the event itself? Of course not. That said, I don't believe people should be guilted into making a statement. [/QUOTE]

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