(Of course, the number in the title above is just an estimate. It might be more.)
The first ethics problem with celebrities mouthing off in public about matters they know nothing about is that they have an undeservedly out-sized metaphorical megaphone. The second problem is that foolish adults and immature kids think that someone being rich and famous means that that they possess special skills and powers of perception beyond whatever expertise it was that made them that way. It’s the “they must be smarter than I am, because they’re richer/more famous/more successful than I am” fallacy. The third problem is that so many celebrities in this category believe their own hype, and really do think their opinion is more valid than the average guy on a bar stool.
The fourth ethics problem is that the news media reports what these Dunning-Kruger Syndrome victims say, which is the journalistic equivalent of spraying deadly viruses via aerosol cans in a crowded stadium.
Today’s example of this ugly, persistent, and probably unpreventable phenomenon is the WNBA Washington Mystics Natasha Cloud, who is generously called a “star” in most reports. (She’s averaged 7.5 points a game.) I question whether any WNBA player qualifies as a star, but that’s just me.) She’s been shooting off her mouth since May, when she told the Philadelphia Inquirer :
“You talk about the mass shootings that continually happen and we do not do a fucking thing. Black and brown people continuously being killed by police, the people who are supposed to protect us. We still don’t have equity. Systemic racism still thrives. We are mass-incarcerated. We have taken so many steps back. We can go down the line. We want to talk about America being this great country, no the fuck we’re not! And until we come to grips with that reality, of course, yes, we have certain freedoms and rights that other countries don’t have, but the reality of this country is that not everyone gets them. You have to be white, and specifically male, because even white women don’t get the same equity that their white male counterparts do. So that in itself is really frustrating for how many steps we’ve taken backwards since Trump’s administration.”
I presume that I don’t have to specify the myriad ways this rant is counterfactual, self-contradictory and, on top of everything else, Trump-Deranged. (I presume she means “since the start of Trump’s administration,” since what she said is inadvertently accurate.)
Then, yesterday, this keen social scientist and legal analyst erupted again, this time on Twitter, writing after the three SCOTUS decisions came down:
“Our country is literally in shambles in a lot of areas and we continue on attacking black and LGBTQ+ lives. This country is a fucking joke… Our country is trash in so many ways and instead of using our resources to make it better we continue to oppress marginalized groups that we have targeted since the beginning of times…. Imagine having all the power and resources to be great. I’m talking about everybody eats. Then imagine wasting it on hateful ideologies. Imagine weaponizing religion. That is America. We are a hateful disappointment. That’s the truth. We have the potential to be great. …I feel like im gonna see a civil war in my lifetime…Black/brown communities& LGBTQ+ man we are too powerful to still be attacking issues separate. There is power in numbers. We need to continue to lead with love and light. The inhumane savagery way is a very American/European ideology. We’re above that. But we do need to fight.
Then she mused about where she could flee: “I’m feeling somewhere with human rights, healthcare, and no mass shootings.” Unfortunately, that would also be a place where no one gets paid large amounts to play an inferior style of basketball that few people watch. Also unfortunately, almost all of the replies on social media to Cloud’s ill-informed nonsense were almost as dumb as her analysis. And they just encouraged her.
How many young, unformed, equally uninformed young fans are warped by celebrities issuing such junk?
iii
Ethics Alarms 
She’s not an outlier in any respect. She could be a tenured faculty member at most any college or university in the country. She’s sufficiently articulate and has mastered all of the ins and outs of intersectionality. If some place wants a female Ibram X. Kendi to head up a ten-million-dollar anti-racism institute, she’s your woman. And she could help coach the women’s basketball team in her spare time.
Lifted from the Quora:
So another study was done where a makeup artist put a scar on women’s faces prior to job interviews to test discrimination. They showed the ugly scar in the mirror. YUCK! But just before they went into the interview, the makeup artist “touched up” the scar. (But ACTUALLY they removed it) Women went to the interviews thinking they were scarred. All of them came out and described the microaggressions and discriminatory treatment they received due to the scar. Then the makeup artist showed them the truth. There was no scar. The discrimination was all in their head.
When you are PRIMED to be a professional victim, every human interaction becomes a microaggression.
As a black female, she could also qualify as a Biden pick for a supreme court justice. While I acknowledge she does not have a law degree, based on the dissenting opinions in recent cases any knowledge of law seemed unnecessary. As was any pledge to uphold the Constitution.
Cloud’s anger management classes are obviously not helping. Perhaps doing some time in a Russian prison would help reorganize her thoughts.
Cloud’s frame of reference is the result of living within an ideological bubble, only being exposed to one perspective, and that is always dangerous because it naturally breeds ignorance/prejudice.
I recommend she take a long road trip through middle America, visit some family farms, poor white communities, and see for herself if the average white person is as hateful and prejudice as she has been taught.
Ya know, I was thinking about buying WNBA tickets for a game or two this season. Suddenly, I am less than thrilled to do so. I wonder why….
Because the basketball on offer in the WNBA is, at best, equivalent to fairly good high school basketball? Although I doubt most fairly good high school basketball is played completely below the rim these days. I’d analogize WNBA basketball to pre-integration basketball in the ’60s. Who’s buying WNBA basketball other than lesbians?
Bill Burr and Natasha Cloud shared a beer and some conversation at a local tavern. Later on that night Burr expressed his feelings about feminism and the WNBA:
You lost me at “WNBA”… “WNBA” and “celebrities” don’t belong in one sentence. I literally cannot think of a single player other than the one that was held in Russia, and I cannot even remember her name.
Let’s just say that people who think of WNBA players as celebrities or would be influenced by them are already so deep in Dems’ camp that there’ll be zero effect (politically)
Indoctrinated and galactically stupid is no way to go through life.
This line said it all for me:
“ We have taken so many steps back. ”
No one, NO ONE with any sense of history would utter something so stupid.
Yet, this comes out of the mouth of a black woman who is a professional athlete. I am not sure they even had one of those when I was born. Maybe in tennis.
If we are talking about so many steps back, what is she thinking? Back to 2015? 2007? 1994 (when the WNBA didn’t exist)?
-Jut
“And they just encouraged her.”
I’m encouraging her as well. Encouraging her to leave the country, that is.