Let Them Eat Cake

 Why? For God's sakes, why would another person do it? The CEO of Kellogg's tried and hurt his company. And now Haylee Baylee, a former model with 10 million TikTok followers went to the Met Gala dressed as a floral Marie Antoinette, said "let them eat cake" and became the last straw for a whole lot of pissed off Americans.

It was only a day after Kim Kardashian got solidly booed at the Netflix roast of Tom Brady. Not even a full year after Oprah and the Rock's missteps after the Lahaina fires. People are still furious with Elon Musk for destroying Twitter and our government for threatening to Musk TikTok and don't forget Diddy and Ashton and Mila and Lizzo and omg, JLo (who hasn't learned a thing).

So after the Kellogg's cereal killer said Let Them Eat Cereal and people agreed to eat anything but Kellogg's cereal (a boycott still taking place) what did anyone think was going to happen? In this instance: it's now Welcome to the Blocking Party.

The Met Gala was on Monday and today is Saturday and Kim Kardashian has lost 9 million followers. Taylor Swift, Beyonce, all of them... blocked. Mass blockings by the millions of ordinary Americans (who happen to be figuring out how to make their grocery money last longer when the prices have gone up and the content has gone down). 

People are tired. When millionaires are replaced by billionaires. When the housing market is no longer a place where "regular Americans" can buy a home because Zillow has bought entire neighborhoods and are driving property values out of people's reach.

I can hear my brother's voice in my head saying "so what? What does blocking Ryan Gosling on social media do?"

It blocks their access to you. You, yes you, are what they need. They need to get in front of you to sell. They sell themselves. They sell their projects and their products. Selena Gomez can't sell Rare Beauty cosmetics if her customers have blocked access. How do you know about Ryan Gosling's new movie? How do you know that Lady Gaga is selling mascara? You know because they have open channels to tell you.

And the thing is: nobody is saying that blocking Ryan Gosling means you can't go see his new movie. Go see it. Enjoy it. Enjoy the art. Admire the artist's skill. But break this shit down. Taylor Swift writes songs I like. I buy her album. But she doesn't deserve nor has she earned a larger place in my life besides that.

As a society this is something we need to do anyway. We need to stop elevating people who haven't earned it. That whole Kardashian clan needs to go. Someone making a movie shouldn't hold higher esteem in this world than your child's teacher. Taylor Swift can date an entire football team if she wants to and we need to not care.

Celebrity culture is ridiculous. And honestly while our world is burning, we need to step up and start demanding that we are the ones with power and price. If you have $27 million in the bank, you can afford to help Palestinians who are being bombed out of their homes, who have no food, whose families are on the edge of extinction.

When Lizzo is called out for being at the $75,000 a ticket Met Gala and she responds by telling people to give money to a Go Fund Me, no baby. You pay off that Go Fund Me. Pay a few of them off. Stop asking other people to carry your load.

Geez, I could go on so much here. I have been a follower of so many celebrities so much of my life. I need to start unpacking some of that myself. 

However, I unfollowed all the celebs I used to follow (but not my K-Pop boys. I know I should buy I just can't yet.) I was sad saying goodbye to Jack Black. But it's simply time to walk away. 

Let them eat cake.