It is 2016, you are a famous YouTuber in Los Angeles, what do you buy? You buy a Tesla. In 2025, though, people are selling their Teslas faster than Elon Musk can do anything about it. People buy what they think will help them create a positive image of themselves, and then they sell it when it gets a bad name, because it always does. However, these people never actually do the work to help the environment or social causes. Many like to act and pretend that they care about the causes at hand, but then only put out a statement or buy new things to create a persona.
During the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and marches, thousands of celebrities flocked to the streets…to help? No, they flocked to the streets to take pictures to pose as activists, then headed back to their million-dollar homes. I’m not saying that all celebrities did this; many celebrities, such as Naomi Osaka, Lewis Hamilton, and others, showed their support without faking the care. They showed up, without taking pictures, because if you really care about the cause, there’s no need to post yourself with a fake sign on Instagram. Lewis Hamilton went out and risked his career in Formula 1 to speak out on a topic he truly cared about, the same cannot be said for many other celebrities.
Rich people, mostly rich people in Hollywood, do whatever they can to make their image look good. Now, I am not talking about your local upper-class family, I am talking about billionaires, people with all the money in the world to instigate actual change, but do not use it in that way. In 2021, when tech billionaire Elon Musk challenged the United Nations to propose a plan that could help end starvation, it was stated that only 6 billion dollars could save 42 million people in 43 countries from starvation, according to OXFAM. This would not put even the smallest dent in Musk’s wallet, as he has a net worth of over 373.8 billion USD, according to Forbes, but he still sits on his wealth and does not do anything to help the greater population.
In the early 2000s, the trend, and what “looked good,” was becoming unnaturally skinny and fat-shaming others. Now in the 2020s, it is pretending like you care about the environment and minorities, when you are actively voting and rallying against it.
The Kardashians are the most notable celebrities guilty of this. They change and alter their stance on anything as soon as it starts to make their image look warped. Another star that is guilty of this is Taylor Swift. In 2023, Swift used her private jet nearly 170 times, emitting 1,200 tonnes of CO2—83 times that of the average American, according to Globeair. Swift claims, though, that she offsets her carbon footprint by paying someone else to, supposedly, plant trees and do other greenwashing things to balance the carbon footprint left behind, according to the University of Pennsylvania.
This is not meant to bash celebrities and the famous as a whole, but instead, to bring light onto just how much their fake activism harms our environment. If we start to move away from the direct attention that we give them, then maybe we can arrive at a place where the “famous” will actually start to care about the environment, social causes, and those who made them famous.
“The bigger your carbon footprint, the bigger your moral duty,” activist Greta Thunberg wrote in the Guardian in 2019.
All of Earth and all people need to start caring for there to be any actual change. While the average person may believe that what they do and support won’t actually inspire change, it will. Stop giving the ultra-rich and out-of-touch celebrities a platform to stand on. Once this happens, they will be forced to see that what they do affects everyone.
