By a very slim margin, a majority of voters said that they were in favor of celebrities voicing their political opinions. For the record, I feel the same way. To me, celebrities are no better or worse than the rest of us and have as much right to voice their opinions as we do.
In the comments section, there were a couple of points that were brought up repeatedly by voters:
1. Celebrities who feel that their status gives their opinions more weight.
2. The danger in people listening to the political opinions of celebrities without educating themselves on the issue(s).
As I mentioned when I replied to the comments of voters, it all comes down to people learning to think for themselves.
Here are the final poll results:
Question: Are you in favor of celebrities voicing their political beliefs?
Yes- 41%
No- 39%
No opinion- 18%
Below is a clip from an episode of the late, great political talk show "Politically Incorrect". The clip features host Bill Maher and his guests (author Christina Hoff Summers, actress Sandra Bernhard, filmmaker Michael Moore, and actress Yancy Butler) discussing feminism and how it's evolved.
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4 comments:
Interesting clip and interesting topic.
I agree that celebrities should voice their opinions. I also agree heavily with your 1&2 points. For instance, (just one example) I always take what Micheal More says with a grain of salt because he's just been caught too many time with information that isn't quite factual. Don't know if this is purposeful misinformation of just slip ups because he is not an expert on all of the topics he covers. Whichever it is...doesn't really matter to me..I just know that every time he talks I have to be careful not to assume he knows all of the facts.
What bothers me with things like the clip you found is the round table discussion format-it's great,but it is normally associated with experts or scholars of some sort. I just worry...like your #2...basically that the round table format gives their ideas more weight, so people watching maybe think they know more than they really do.
I guess what I'm saying is that people should know to go to more than one source for their information.
I've never understood why people get so upset when celebrities express their political opinion. Or their views on other topics. Do they have to give up their 1st amendment rights just because they're celebrities? I don't think so!
Normally people who get mad about this just don't want people with opposite opinions of them speaking out. I know lots of people who say celebrities shouldn't be allowed to express their opinions publicly who ran and voted for Ahnold in California.
I loved Politically Incorrect! Never got much information or insight out of it, but I always thought it was a riot.
I'm not sure anyone in this clip knows what they are talking about LOL
Jessica: Although I generally like Michael Moore, I can recognize that his work can be suspect when it comes to accuracy. I think it may be a matter of him manipulating the facts for his own purposes.
Although I don't think that's the case, there could be something to what you said about the roundtable format giving more weight to the opinion of a panelist.
I have found that some of the so-called experts and scholars know even less than one would think. I guess you could say that they are educated fools.
Jay: I feel the same way in regards to some who don't want to hear opinions that differ from theirs. When I used to work in the Customer Care Dept, we would get complaints from customers based on the titles we carried in our stores, the events that were scheduled in our stores, etc. Just because they don't want to buy a certain book/attend an event, why should those who would like to be deprived?
The Rock Chick: "Politically Incorrect" was a show that I watched practically every weeknight. If I wasn't home, I taped it.
In light of what's happened to this country over the past few years, just think of how lively the shows would have been had ABC not yanked "Politically Incorrect" off the air.
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