This is edition 2026/001 of the Ten@10 newsletter.
Hi all,
Happy New Year.
This is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.
Enjoy!
The more celebrity supporters a cause attracts, the more likely it is to be terrible
The Telegraph
- 🎭 Celebrity Activism Backfires – Politicians and famous supporters like Judi Dench and Emma Thompson now face embarrassment after Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s troubling social media posts surfaced.
- ⚖️ Moral Contradiction – While supporting jailed democrats is admirable, El-Fattah’s extremist statements, including calls for violence against supporters of Israel, make him an unworthy human rights icon.
- 🌟 NGOs Exploit Stardom – Activist groups deliberately court celebrities to amplify campaigns, knowing their fame guarantees media coverage and political attention.
- 🧠 Fame ≠ Insight – The belief that actors or musicians possess superior moral or political understanding is mocked as “primitive” and undeserved reverence for fame.
- 📚 The Chomsky Fallacy – The article compares celebrity political commentary to assuming Noam Chomsky’s linguistic expertise qualifies him in foreign policy—an absurd transfer of authority.
- 💬 Media and Lawmaker Deference – Politicians and journalists too readily indulge celebrity opinions, granting undue influence to those with little expertise in the issues they discuss.
- 💊 Case in Point: Assisted Suicide – The UK government’s consideration of assisted dying legislation is partly attributed to Prime Minister Starmer’s promise to TV personality Dame Esther Rantzen, raising concerns about celebrity sway over serious laws.
- 💔 Sympathy vs. Influence – Rantzen deserves compassion but not the power to shape legislation; her influence reflects ideological alignment with the progressive establishment, not expertise.
- 🏳️🌈 Selective Legitimacy – Celebrity opinions are celebrated only when they align with progressive narratives; emotional pro-trans statements are praised as “brave,” while JK Rowling’s reasoned essays on women’s rights are condemned as “divisive.”
- 🔁 Double Standard Illustrated – The author notes that no politician would offer the same platform to Christopher Biggins for his pro–death penalty views, proving celebrity power is conditional on ideology.
- 🗣️ Opinion, Not Authority – Celebrities can hold opinions but don’t deserve automatic deference or policy influence simply because they’re famous.
- 🎬 Team America Wisdom – The satirical quote that actors “read the newspapers and then say what we read on television like it’s our own opinion” aptly captures the shallow nature of celebrity political commentary.
- 🚩 Final Rule of Thumb – The more celebrities back a cause, the more likely it is to be a misguided or poorly thought-out idea.
