If I See One More Celebrity Post That “The Second-Best Time to Speak is Now” Meme, I Might Scream

 
 

By stacy lee kong

Image: Shutterstock

 
 

A note on language: As I’ve mentioned in every newsletter I’ve written about Gaza since Oct. 7, it’s super important that we take care with our language when discussing Israel and Palestine, because the way we talk about this situation has real consequences for real people. So to be clear, when I critique the Israeli government and military, I am not critiquing all Israelis, much less all Jewish people. I also think it’s important to push back on attempts to characterize critique of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as antisemitic. Furthermore, it is disingenuous and actually dangerous to conflate Zionism with Judaism, as this list of prominent Jewish writers has argued. Lastly, when I use the words colonization, genocide, apartheid, occupation and ethnic cleansing to describe Israel’s actions, that’s based on the analysis of organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, the International Federation for Human Rights, the United Nations, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Jewish Voice for Peace as well as academics who study genocide and South Africa’s application to the International Court of Justice to bring genocide charges against Israel. It is also based on the language Israeli officials and public figures have used themselves, 500+ instances of which have already been collected by Law for Palestine. 

Content warning: This newsletter contains references to, and descriptions of, violence and death.

Immediately following Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, actor Sarah Paulson began posting to her Instagram feed and Stories in support of Israel, as a lot of celebrities did. On October 8, she shared a post to her Story from StandWithUs, a self-described “international nonprofit Israel education organization” (a.k.a. a Zionist advocacy group) that highlighted how many rockets were fired from Gaza (3,000+), and how many Israelis had been murdered (250+), injured (1,500+) and taken hostage (10+). The same day, she shared another post from Iranian-American attorney Mandana Dayani, former president of Archewell and self-described human rights activist, characterizing the attack as an “unprovoked and coordinated assault on civilians.” “This is not about a fight for human rights or freedom,” Dayani went on to say. “This is about a group that openly wants to wipe Israel off the face of the map. That openly wants Jews dead.” (Note: Calling this attack ‘unprovoked’ is factually incorrect. Also, while Hamas’ 1988 charter did not distinguish between the state of Israel and Jewish people, the group updated that document in 2017 and the new version “attempted to distinguish between Jews or Judaism and modern Zionism. Hamas said that its fight was against the ‘racist, aggressive, colonial and expansionist’ Zionist project, Israel, but not against Judaism or Jews. The updated platform also lacked some of the anti-Semitic [sic] language of the 1988 charter.”)

On October 9, Paulson shared a post by journalist and former CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin, this time to her feed. It largely ignored Palestinian suffering, instead arguing that “excusing these horrors [of the Oct. 7 attack] as justified resistance is dehumanizing to Israelis and chilling to your Jewish friends.” The same day, she shared a post from author Ben Sheehan advocating for neutrality (his carousel started by saying, “If you have less empathy towards victims because of how you feel about their government, propaganda is working on you”), as well as a TikTok by singer/songwriter Malynda Hale calling for the same thing. It took until October 13 before she mentioned Palestinians—though really, she just reshared something Kerry Washington originally published that listed the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund on a list of several charities to support. The next (and last) mention of Palestinians on her feed was October 21, when she shared a poorly cropped image explaining that “all children affected by the violence in Israel and Gaza must be supported to find safety.” To be fair, I don’t remember everything that she was posting on Stories over the past seven months, but the screenshots I’ve found all point to the same message: a call for contextless neutrality that positioned Israeli and Palestinian suffering as equal.

So, it was interesting to see her post something different this week—a Story featuring a quote that has been circulating on social media for a while now. You know the one: “You are allowed to say, at any point, I can't support this. Even if you did. Even if you were unsure. You can at any point say ‘this has gone too far.’ And while the best time to say that was earlier, the second best time is now.”

It’s a sentiment I’ve seen a lot this week in particular, following Israel’s May 26 airstrikes on Tal Al-Sultan refugee camp in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. And to be totally honest, it makes me angry. Like a lot of people who have been trying to carefully, honestly and compassionately cover this genocide since Oct. 7 (and well before that), I have seen so many dead bodies. So many dead babies. I had never even seen a dead baby before last October, and now I’ve lost count of how many tiny bodies have appeared on my Instagram feed and TikTok FYP. I still think about the father carrying the remains of his children in bloody plastic bags all the time. So, it was hard not to think (admittedly sarcastically), ‘Why now? What about the 36,743rd Palestinian death changed things for you?’

I’m pretty sure that’s a normal reaction. I just don’t know if it’s a useful one. So, in this week’s newsletter, I want to think about what is causing these celebrities and public figures to backtrack on their previously vociferous support of Israel (or in some cases, careful silence), what it means that so many more people now feel comfortable expressing support for Palestinians—and whether any of that even matters.

Have you also noticed all the celebrities suddenly expressing support for Palestine?

Because it’s not just Paulson, of course. This week alone, David Beckham, Katy Perry, Aaron Paul and Ricky Martin posted about the conflict on social media for the first time, according to Instagram account @celebrities4palestine. Rock band, and fellow first-time posters, Paramore published an Instagram Story saying “we simply cannot support a genocide” alongside information about Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders. And celebrities who had previously liked pro-Palestine social media posts or signed open letters calling for a ceasefire suddenly felt inspired to go further. For example, Ariana Grande posted a donation link for the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund.

This might be the most dystopian sentence I’ve ever typed, but: at least some credit for that can be attributed to the virality of the May 26 Tent Massacre. The videos that began circulating of the carnage caused by those Israeli airstrikes were particularly horrific—bodies charred beyond recognition, and something I have tried my best not to actually see: a father holding his beheaded baby up to the camera, putting his grief on display with the obvious goal of making Westerners care. Though I think we know that baby could not have been the first to be maimed in this way, this particular video cut through the noise of social media, which allowed this massacre to move into mainstream discourse even more than previous attacks. I also think there’s something to the juxtaposition of this baby with the now-debunked 40 beheaded Israeli babies; though there was no photographic or video evidence that dozens of Israeli children has been murdered and/or maimed on Oct. 7, and in fact, Israeli records show one baby was killed that day, media, politicians, public figures and regular degular social media Zionists have used this viral phrasing ad nauseum to justify Israel bombing Gaza, cutting off aid, turning off water and electricity, destroying telecommunications infrastructure and otherwise committing war crimes against Palestinian civilians. There is a horrifying but compelling symmetry there, so perhaps it’s not surprising that so many people felt moved to speak.  

Of course, there are other factors at play, too. Public opinion is in a very different place than it was in October, November and even December of last year. Almost eight months into this escalation of the genocide, it has become increasingly difficult to ignore the disparity between the well-funded, well-armed Israeli military and the unarmed civilians who are the most brutalized by IDF attacks. Israeli politicians’ continued use of genocidal language subverts any argument that the IDF’s actions are about self-defence, as does IDF soldiers’ disturbing use of social media. And sustained, peaceful protest has also done a lot to shift the conversation. Every march, every tiny crowd on a highway overpass, every university encampment is an opportunity for a new person to learn about Palestine, the Nakba and Israel’s subsequent decades-long occupation—not to mention just how many Western institutions are in this conflict. I mean, I didn’t fully understand the scope of post-secondary investment in the military-industrial complex until university students began demanding their schools divest. And PS, even Planned Parenthood is part of this problem. According to a Prism investigation that was published this week, the reproductive justice org has a contract with Raytheon, manufacturer of “missiles, bombs, components for fighter jets, and other weapon systems used by the Israeli military against Palestinian civilians.” Which… wtf?!

And then there are the more selfish motivations, which I think are particularly relevant when we’re talking about celebs. That is, shame and money. On the former: Earlier this week, singer Kehlani went viral for their most recent posts on Palestine. They’ve been an outspoken pro-Palestine voice for months, attending protests, posting on social media and generally calling for justice and liberation. But on Monday, they kind of went off on Instagram, posting a series of videos calling out their celebrity peers for their collective silence. They said they’d lost “any ounce of fucking respect” for other stars who were choosing not to speak out, despite sending private messages thanking Kehlani for doing exactly that. And they were especially angry at the “highly fucking platformed [celebrities] who have already beat the fucking game.” “You can’t stop for a second and recognize that… nothing we do has a fucking purpose without people and you can’t turn the fuck around and reach back for people?” they said. “You can’t speak? Disgusting!”

Fascinatingly, not long after Kehlani posted, Beckham, Perry, Paul, Grande and Paramore suddenly felt inspired to speak publicly, some for the first time ever. It feels very clear that embarrassment was at least part of the reason for this wave of new statements, right? But, I’d bet my relatively small amount of dollars that money played the biggest role. Celebrities are businesses, which means their fan bases can more accurately be described as their customers. And customers, especially millennials and Gen Z, increasingly say they want to support companies that align with their values. Is this true of all younger shoppers? It is not, otherwise Shein would not be as popular as it is with this demo. But it’s a clearly established value, especially when it comes to Gen Z’s consumer behaviour, and companies are taking it into consideration when developing and implementing their business strategies—includingceleb businesses. In fact, we’ve recently seen an example of exactly this type of cause and effect: the recent Blockout 2024 campaign. Sure, it was pretty disorganized and its impact may have been exaggerated, but that doesn’t mean there was no impact. The strategy of blocking celebrities on social media to affect their advertising revenue was novel, and one they didn’t have a contingency plan for. So, of course they paid attention. Lizzo, for example, posted publicly about Palestine for the first time on May 9, just days after Blockout participants began unfollowing her social media accounts.

Celebrity behaviour is a great litmus test for wider public opinion

To be fair, I don’t know that the celebrities who suddenly decided to comment matter on their own. If we put aside the parasocial desire for the public figures we admire to prove their ‘goodness’ to us by signalling (or expressing) values that align with ours, stars are mostly just tools that can direct attention and money toward worthwhile causes. Which is fine, because as tools, they are extremely useful. A 2012 study published in the Journal of Advertising Research found that, when companies work with celebrities on endorsement deals, “there is a positive payoff to a firm's decision to sign an endorser… Endorsements are associated with increasing sales in an absolute sense and relative to competing brands. Furthermore, sales and stock returns jump noticeably with each major achievement by the athlete.” And this phenomenon is applicable to social justice campaigns, too. In September 2023, Taylor Swift posted on Instagram Stories to encourage her then-272 million followers to vote, saying, “I've been so lucky to see so many of you guys at my U.S. shows recently. I've heard you raise your voices, and I know how powerful they are. Make sure you're ready to use them in our elections this year!” The Story included a link to Vote.org, which saw an immediate and significant jump in voter registrations, according to NPR. “The 35,252 new registrations on National Voter Registration Day were the most since 2020, the organization said, and a 23% jump over last year. The number of 18-year-olds registered was more than double 2022.” (You might also recall that she posted a similar message ahead of the November midterm elections back in 2018, which sparked an even bigger jump in registrations: 65,000 18-to-29-year-olds registered on Vote.org in the 24 hours after her post, in which she also endorsed two Democratic candidates in Tennessee.) Similarly, this week, when Grande shared a fundraiser for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund on her Story, there was reportedly a £40,000 spike in donations, per the Independent.

It's also interesting to consider how celebrity behaviour can offer insight into public opinion. If they’re crafting their messaging—whether in interviews or on their own social media feeds—to meet their fans’ expectations around values and political involvement, it stands to reason that they can therefore function as a fairly accurate barometer of those fans’ values, right? So, clearly there’s a critical mass of people who now support Palestinian liberation, even if they maybe didn’t before Oct. 7. And yes, there is data that supports this assessment. Back in November, an Angus Reid poll found “four-in-five [respondents] (78%) say Israel has the right to exist and to defend itself, but Canadians are also more likely to say that the Israeli response has been too heavy handed (45%) than not (36%). More than two-in-five (43%) say Israeli policy towards Gaza is a form of apartheid, outpacing those who disagree (27%) by a significant margin… [And] most say a vote in support of pausing hostilities would have been appropriate, with two-thirds supporting either a temporary (35%) or a full (30%) ceasing of hostilities.” But by February, a follow-up Angus Reid poll found 50% of Canadians now believed Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attack was “too heavy-handed,” a five-point increase from three months earlier. More Canadians (41%) now believe Israel is committing genocide than not (32%). And “half (49%) of Canadians now want a full and lasting cessation of the conflict.” (This despite mainstream media’s demonstrable bias toward Israel, btw.)

This isn’t a perfect equation, obviously, because not every celebrity is actively reflecting their fans’ values—even when those fans organize social media campaigns calling on them to do so. (See: Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, etc.) But it’s still a good indicator of what perspectives are now considered uncontroversial, or at least relatively safe to express. It's clear that some celebs are only speaking out now because they’ve done some kind of risk assessment and don’t think they’ll lose money or opportunities for doing so. And while that balance (between wanting to placate fans and/ or express their own morals, and not wanting to do anything that could have financial repercussions) is gross, it also functions as a signal of where people stand, generally speaking.

… Which brings me to the third question I posed in my introduction: does it matter why the celebrities who are now speaking out decided to do so? And if we’re being honest, I kinda think it doesn’t? We might personally have feelings about the fact that we had to watch 36,000+ people die before some considered the situation ‘bad’ enough to post about on social media. We might be sad over what we now know about personal and professional contacts. (Acknowledging that for some people, the decision to speak out or not to speak out has more to do with privilege, safety and precarity.) And it’s absolutely infuriating to see the same people who participated in the dehumanization of Palestinians, who made justifications for evil and participated in coordinated online attacks, suddenly grow a conscience.

But the fact is, Palestinians are still being bombed on a daily basis. They’re still starving, dying of dehydration and suffering life-altering wounds. They are still being forced to move between so-called safe zones (which aren’t actually safe at all), their displacement occurring over and over and over again—even though there are fewer and fewer places to go because the Gaza Strip is now uninhabitable, according to the UN. There are no burn units and just one maternity hospital still functioning in Palestine. Israel continues to reject aid deliveries that contain anaesthetics, oxygen cylinders, ventilators, water filtration systems, water purification tablets, cancer medicine and, for some reason, dates. Lack of access to antibiotics is not only leading to imminent infection and death, it’s also contributing to long-term antibiotic resistance. Plus, Israel’s bombing constitutes an ecological disaster. It is actually imperative that Western politicians act, and like celebrities, the only way to convince them to do so is to show them that it’s in their best interest. Since we know they don't care, it's not effective to appeal to their morality. Instead, the only way is to threaten their access to power.

And the only way to do that, of course, is for as many people to speak up as possible.

And Did You Hear About…

Rolling Stone’s exposé on Diddy’s long history of (allegedly) violent and abusive behaviour. It’s very well-done—and the result of a lot of hard work. The reporters, Cheyenne Roundtree and Nancy Dillon, worked on this story for six months, contacting 300+ people and interviewing 50. (Related: Lawyer and political commentator Olayemi Olurin’s podcast episode on Diddy and hip-hop’s allegiance to abusers.)

TikTokers The Lipstick Lesbians, beauty product developers who have tons of super interesting insight into specific products, but also how the beauty biz works in general.

The Cut’s reporting on why a cute summer dress costs a solid $300—and whether it’ll even be worth the price.

This Vox piece that argues the era of politicized marketing is on the way out. I’m not sure if I totally agree, but the insights, especially from advertising insiders, are interesting.

Reason #5674839 why I can never leave Twitter/X/whatever: this tweet showing singer Miguel auditioning for an R&B group comprised of the biggest haters I have ever seen in my life. (Okay, and all the Trump jokes.)

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CelebrityStacy Lee KongTaylor Swift, Beyonce, Sarah Paulson, Mandana Dayani, Jessica Yellin, Ben Sheehan, Kerry Washington, David Beckham, Aaron Paul, Katy Perry, Ricky Martin, Ariana Grande, Paramore, Kehlani, Lizzo