Why do famous people think it’s OK to benefit from cheap energy produced by oil and gas but then tell people in other countries that pipelines and big trucks are bad? Why do famous people speak up for the environment through tweets sent from their private jets or their 10,000 square-foot homes on secluded estates?
We saw this again last week when a group of Hollywood stars including Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey Jr. (Hulk, Black Widow and Iron Man of the Avengers, respectively), as well as Leonardo DiCaprio, Jane Fonda, Edward Norton and Ben Stiller signed a “No To Dirty Banks” petition, specifically targeting the banks looking after the financing for major pipeline projects like Coastal GasLink.
Rich and famous people are free to support any and all political and social causes they like but shouldn’t they at least recognize their “do as I say but not as I do" preaching?” Shouldn’t they at least recognize they get to be choosy about banks because they don’t need mortgages and car loans like the rest of us mere mortals? Shouldn’t they at least recognize the financing for the hugely successful films they were paid tens of millions of dollars to perform in was handled by “dirty” banks?
This just leads to so many more questions for rich and famous people.
Why do celebrities do product endorsements? Are the millions they earn in the sports and entertainment business not enough to maintain their lifestyles?
Why are Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes, two of the highest paid players in the National Football League, spokesmen for an insurance company when the only people who don’t actually need to buy insurance of any kind are the ultra-wealthy like themselves?
Why are Brad Pitt and George Clooney selling coffee? Why are Tom Brady and Matt Damon hawking cryptocurrency? Ryan Reynolds seems very nice, even when he’s playing Deadpool, but why is he in the phone business? Why do famous people think they’re doing their fans a favour trying to sell them something they probably don’t need?
Why don’t celebrities donate directly to already existing and well-established charities, instead of setting up their own foundations? Is their generosity because they believe in helping other people with their wealth or are they doing it because their accountant said running their money through a personal foundation is a good way to avoid paying more taxes while also funnelling money to friends and family who “work” for the foundation?
Why is Neil Young encouraging Spotify employees to quit because he disagrees with Joe Rogan? Young is free to pull his music off the streaming music service but is he also agreeing to pay to feed and house these unemployed workers?
This is a good place to circle back to the signatories of the “No To Dirty Banks” petition. Are they willing to pay to feed and house the thousands of employees (and their families) dependent upon the construction, operation and maintenance of Coastal GasLink? And why should we listen to these celebrities when multiple First Nations along the pipeline route not only agree for the pipeline to pass through their traditional territory but have signed on as financial beneficiaries?
Just asking.
