Celebrity Influence

I've been thinking about how we tend to celebrate or demonize celebrities. It appears that we tend to celebrate the celebrities that agree with us and demonize the ones that don't. 
The real question should be -- Why do we give them any credibility at all on subjects that they know very little about?

Taylor Swift should be a go-to person if you are talking about success in music or entertainment. 
When it comes to politics, you might as well listen to Kid Rock or Ted Nugent.
If you want to know about acting or showbiz - sure, Tom Hanks or Meryl Streep would be great sources of info. But why would you consider their opinion for addressing climate change?
Haliey Welch (hawk tuah girl) might know something about capitalizing on random fame from YouTube videos, but I don't think she's well qualified to address the national economy.

I suppose it is good that many celebrities use the platforms they have to sway public opinions to match their own. Maybe I would do the same. But it seems that social media and streaming platforms like TikTok and YouTube have become equal to news sources for information when they are nothing more than opinion peddlers. 

I like that there are professional athletes that create charitable foundations that give back to the communities that support them. I think that is important and shows their character over those that don't give back in some way. But does giving millions of available dollars to homeless people vs buying a luxury lot make one more or less of an expert on whether or not we should wear masks during a pandemic?

I'm not big on idolizing those that do well in their chosen field.
Like you, I've known people that have had many different jobs -- firefighters, police officers, healthcare professionals, military service, auto mechanics, janitors, fastfood workers, etc. All of those are important jobs. In truth, I rarely thank a veteran or first responder for their service. It's their job and I hope they do it well.
There are many professions that I believe are undervalued which means they are under-appreciated and underpaid. Teachers are probably at the top of my list.

It would seem that the thing we value the most is entertainment. Our professional athletes, actors, musical entertainers, etc., are the ones we greatly value. We devote much of our lives to watching and following them and give them much of our money, as well.

Where do you spend your entertainment time and money?
I've started spending way less time on sports in the past few years. I think it's mostly due to spending less on television packages that include local broadcasts for Cardinal baseball and Blues hockey, but it may also be that those things have become less important to me.
I do enjoy watching MMA fighting and generally spend Saturday afternoon/evenings watching the fights. I have favorite fighters, but none that I would put on a pedestal to give credence to outside of fighting. 
I do wonder why celebrities (or even businesses) would take a chance on putting off half of their fans or customers by making political statements, but to each their own. 

I know I'm cheap. I don't pay for streaming music. I'll listen to Pandora with the ads. I don't pay the additional cost to watch Amazon Prime ad free. I don't have a cable or satellite subscription that includes ESPN or some subscription only news sources.
I do have online subscriptions to The Washington Post and the NY Times. I follow several news sources on X, but don't have the premium ad free version of X.
I'm okay with not listening to anything other than the outdoor sounds around the deck or the gentle wind chimes that hang where the hummingbird feeder once did.

I generally view most other than news sources as having suspect credibility, and am even careful about trusting some journalists and dedicated news sources.

How much news do you believe when it comes from people on streaming services or social media?
What news sources do you trust?
What friends do you trust to check their sources before sharing info on their pages or platforms?
How much misinformation do you have to sort through to find any truth?

John