Don't let the opinions of famous people shape your worldviews

I’m not sure there are people who know what they are talking about when talking about politics. Even the experts, the ones who were so sure of a Clinton victory that they would have given you the deed to their houses if she lost, seem to be grasping in the dark at times.

Yet for some reason, politics is the one arena of discourse every person in America is confident in discussing, which is why nobody really knows what he or she's talking about. People spend most of their time trying to swim in the inches of knowledge they have rather than trying to acquire depth and width to turn the inches into feet.

I say all of that for this reason: I think we need to approach politics with more piety. In that regard, I agree with Lauren Ingraham, the Fox News journalist who, 11 days ago, called out three-time NBA champion and three-time NBA MVP Lebron James for being public with his political opinions.

James gave an interview where he was critical of the apparent apathy President Trump has for the American people. Ingraham rebuked James for running his mouth and for thinking he is entitled to share his opinions just because of his social status. “Shut up, and dribble,” Ingraham said, which I interpret to mean: Be humble. Don’t forget that you are just a basketball player, not a Renaissance man.

James, of course, fought back, saying in a later interview, “We will definitely not shut up and dribble ... I mean too much to society, too much to the youth, too much to so many kids who feel like they don’t have a way out.”

Ingraham, though she was cruel and overly personal in her critiques, has a point. Celebrities have an elevated status in our culture; their being a celebrity somehow justifies to us that their opinions on things are better than our plumber’s or our friend’s, which does not make much sense when you think about it.

Companies picked up on this long ago; this is why they created the phenomenon of the celebrity endorsement, whereby a famous person publicly shares their stamp of approval for a certain product. But why does a bar of soap become a must-have when Jennifer Aniston says she uses it? Likewise, why do we ascribe special value to the opinions of famous people?

People should not let the opinions of famous people shape their worldviews any more than their classmates. James was critical of Trump and his relationship with the public; I think his critique is mostly fair, but that is not the point. The point is that the truth of a statement is not determined by the mouth it came from. Everything James says and believes should not be blindly assumed by everyone else. He’s no different than the rest of us.

And yet, James is different than us. He’s Lebron James. Like it or not, that name has a symbolic and economic significance that my name and yours does not. The world would mourn if James died; not so with you and I. His opinions carry heavier burdens than ours, for the simple reason that people care more about him as a person than they do about us.

James, and other celebrities, should be able to express beliefs; they have audiences that feed off of their existence, which they would be crazy not to take advantage of. But a belief or argument or anything really should not mean more just because a famous person said it. Our country ends when people cite celebrities as plausible justifications for their beliefs or arguments.

Let’s not forget: None of us knows what we are talking about anyway.

Scott Stinson is a UF English junior. His column focuses on popular culture.