In Defense of Silence: Woke Culture, Celebrities and the War Against Silence
It is always fascinating to see the people of woke culture constantly target and call out celebrities by throwing acquisitions of being selectively woke whenever the celebrities do or do not speak about a political issue or a social cause. It appears that in such people’s eyes, a celebrity’s failure to jump on the bandwagon every time to support the trending social causes is akin to a crime, as if it is their moral duty to use their popularity in support of those social causes. It is not an uncommon sight to see, whenever a celebrity speaks up about something on social media, there is always someone saying, “where were you when xyz happened? why were you silent on xyz topic? how dare you speak about this and not that?”
This appears to be a mix of whataboutery, coupled with ignorance of the fact that a celebrity — like any other ordinary person — can rightfully remain silent on any issues or causes that they are not legally obligated to speak about, and a failure to understand why a celeb might choose to remain silent on some issues while being vocal about others. The idea that people who wield the power of persuasion and wide social reach should support all social causes, shed light on important issues and bring positive change, may be ideal and desirable, but ultimately it is the wielder’s choice to make — whether to remain silent or to use their power to do good.
Celebrities, after all, are ordinary people like us. Some might have no interest in politics. Some might become political much later in their life. Some might not have any knowledge about the current affairs and their implications. Some might be willfully ignorant, and some might be exercising extreme caution of what they choose say, in order to safeguard their public image which their entire careers are usually based around. It is also not very difficult to understand that some causes are easier to support than others because of the low potential risk involved in supporting them. Perhaps, often, the truth is simpler than we think it is: they might not be vocal about something because they simply do not support it. Granted, that there are legitimate cases of hypocrisy in how they cherry-pick causes to support, but why misdirect your energy to call out their hypocrisy while you should be holding those accountable who should be held accountable? Politicians, public representatives, they are the ones who are obligated to speak up and not remain silent on important political and social issues, not celebrities. Sadly, more often than not, their silence goes unnoticed.
This isn’t merely about celebrities. The problem runs much deeper than this, and it can often be seen in this bizarre underlying idea of the woke culture that, every single person must speak up and do something about every issue at hand and those who don’t, are somehow part of the problem. This is a dangerous idea. It is no different than saying that every citizen who is capable of voting, must vote. No, they shouldn’t. Only those who are well-informed, should vote. Voting for the sake of voting and supporting a cause for the sake of supporting, can both equally have devastating consequences. That’s how clowns are elected as leaders and innocent lives are destroyed in the name of justice brought upon by angry mobs.
What we really need the most right now is skepticism, careful thought, and informed opinions backing informed decisions. Mindless support will lead us nowhere but only towards chaos. Let uninformed people take their time to carefully form their opinions. Do not compel those who lack the wisdom and knowledge to support causes which they do not fully understand. Let them remain silent; for their silence will do far more good to humanity than their mindless words and actions ever would.
