This is a very broad question. But broadly, I think if you’re an artist, you probably got where you are by sharing your point of view with your audience in an authentic way. If you’re going to let fear of disapproval stop you from doing that, you might as well quit anyway.
The moral turmoil of using your celebrity to speak out for something you believe in, or keeping your multi-million dollar career afloat.
Why not keep your mouth shut, and just give money anonymously?
Speaking out in public also helps, doesn’t cost much, and it’s (almost) free publicity as long as you don’t fuck up. Being famous also doesn’t mean that you’re automatically rich, especially musicians often have shitty contracts and many burn their wealth in dumb ways (high risk investments, parties, addictions etc.) or just spend lots of money on projects that flop.
Can’t really blame someone for trying to do (what they believe is) the right thing. A lot of good causes have come from people using their platform to raise awareness.
The people who suffer the consequences, probably weren’t talking about good causes, but they must have believed that they were. And more people openly share terrible opinions when they think that a lot of others feel the same way.
Sounds like this is about the Macklemore situation. I haven’t really seen him be necessarily surprised by what’s transpired, but he’s well within his rights to be critical of the actions taken.
People with platforms can have strong opinions on matters just like everyone else. They have a platform that many of them earned (obviously not all) so it’s theirs to do with it what they want. There’s zero chance that Macklemore didn’t know this was a possibility. He believes in standing up for Palestine and calling out a genocide, so he put his neck on the line to support those beliefs. In this case, he gained a new fan from me today. People that are willing to do that earn some respect from me. On the other hand, someone like Ronnie Radke who also is very outspoken, I’ve removed from my music rotation because I think he’s a shit person. Similar to Kid Rock, but other than a couple of his classic songs I enjoyed as a youth, I didn’t listen to him anyway. In both examples, I’ll smear the shit out of their name to anyone that will listen.
Actions have consequences, and rarely are any of these people truly surprised when they reach the ‘find out’ phase, but they may act like it to try and save face.
Being a celebrity does not automatically bring the necessary smarts with it.
