This has bothered me for sometime and I guess the Hamilton/Mike Pence thing has me thinking about it. I am so tired of actors, musicians, fiction writers, etc mouthing off about their political views and how that’s supposed to influence the public. Just stop, please. I know why you do it because so many people follow you. The thing is, people follow you for your action movies or whatever your genre may be. On the other hand, I don’t need my politicians rapping on tv or singing pop songs, etc. Stick to what you know. Any other dopers tired of this?
Who made you the expert on what celebrities should be allowed to say? And consider that maybe you shouldn’t be mouthing off about it. Why are you trying to influence other Dopers with your opinions? Just stop, please.
Actually, don’t stop. You have the right of free speech.
mmm
Agreed! A Hamilton show is no place for fighting with the Vice President of the United States!
Are you a Constitutional lawyer now? What makes you an expert on Patx2’s rights? Stick to what you know!
Every place is an appropriate place to diss Pence. He still believes in conversion therapy. We should try it on him: try to convert him to a human.
What makes you an expert on converting Pence to Human?
Leave politics to the professionals?
So, essentially, OP favors pumping more mud into the swamp?
I agree. The idea that somebody who’s just famous for being a television personality, for example, is qualified to function in the world of politics is ridiculous.
This is not a first amendment issue.
There are entertainers who are idiots, like Sean Penn. There are entertainers who delude themselves into thinking that because they played a role, they are an expert on something, like Kevin Spacey.
There are entertainers who are ten times smarter than most politicians, like Stephen Colbert. And there are entertainers who have actually become experts on things, like Bono.
If you’re bothered by the second group, I think the problem is with you. Those types improve our national discourse. And I tend to think that Lin-Manuel Miranda probably knows what he’s talking about when it comes to diversity in America.
Brilliant!
OP, insofar as celebrities/entertainers, et al are also private citizens living in a democratic society, isn’t it entirely their prerogative to have and express political opinions? The problem you seem to have is that others listen to them. Is this problem because you are forced to be one of the listeners, or because you are jealous that someone else attracts more listeners than you?
With media personality Donald Trump having been elected to office largely on the strength of his bloviating opinions this is the position you stake out with respect to other media personalities critiquing him? There is not enough iron ore in the existing deposits on the face of the Earth to satisfy the irony in that stance.
Many people are more passionate about politics, in either direction, than I am, but I think they are mistaken to believe the trend I perceive toward politicizing everything is good for society.
And to me that’s the key issue. I have a problem with expressions of politics to captive audiences at entertainment and sports events where that’s not what people came to see, in fact in today’s world increasingly might have come to get away from politics.
Otherwise if actors or athletes express political views in tweets, blog posts, interviews etc. that is to say outside the venues in which they perform, it’s harder to directly criticize. It will naturally make some fans happy and alienate others, and most of the expressions, IME, will be poorly informed and unoriginal. But not all will be.
Needless to say it’s not about anyone’s Constitutional rights. An adjunct to Godwin’s Law says someone in any internet discussion will immediately invoke the 1st Amendment in debates about political expression that have nothing to do with it.
What makes you a constitutional scholar?
And if we’re going to be pedantic, free speech and natural rights are not just narrow US constitutional issues.
I wasn’t even thinking specifically about Trump. I was just making a blanket statement about how people in some professions have a habit of coming across as though they are experts in other fields. I mean, if I take my car to my mechanic , I don’t expect him to lecture me about his political views. I also agree with the poster who wrote some actors are more qualified to speak out than others.
Having seen how accurate the experts prognostications and opinions were about the 2016 election I would be more than willing to listen attentively to my car mechanic’s opinions about the political landscape.
Surely it should be up to the listener to weigh somebody’s expertise. If somebody chooses to give weight to Jenny McCarthy’s opinions on vaccines, when they are in opposition to the entire expert scientific community, then there is little to be done.
Perhaps your beef is more with people using their celebrity in an unrelated field to give them a platform to promote their political opinions? But, then, why should Trump be allowed to use the fact that he has a lot of money to publicize his political opinions? A high-profile platform derived from wealth is ok, but a platform derived from celebrity is not?
I assure you, I’m not jealous that some celebrity is getting on a soapbox and getting more attention than me. I am, however very amused that you read that into my post 
. In fact I’m floored by some of the responses. I never said these people don’t have a right to express their opinions, I just said I for one am tired of it, they should stick to what they know. And, before anyone starts screaming what does Trump know? He won didn’t he?
It’s good to hear that your concern about Pence being pwned derived from your principled concern about the general level of political debate in this country, and was entirely unrelated to your partisan views.