This is edition 2026/004 of the Ten@10 newsletter.
Hi all,
This is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.
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Moral sermons of the modern celebrity
Ani O'Brien
- 🎬 Hollywood’s Irony: Films often depict the triumph of ordinary people over corrupt elites, yet the very actors who play these roles belong to—and embody—the elite class they mock on screen.
- 💅 Elite Hypocrisy: Celebrities aestheticise suffering in movies like The Hunger Games but indulge in real-life decadence at awards shows without any sense of irony.
- 🏆 Parasite Paradox: When Parasite won Best Picture, few at the Oscars seemed to recognise themselves in the film’s critique of wealthy liberals whose “kindness” vanishes when personally inconvenienced.
- 📺 Blind to Reflection: Despite shows like Succession, The White Lotus, and Squid Game satirising elites, few celebrities seem capable of self-recognition.
- 🎤 Moral Sermons: Celebrity speeches are drenched in self-righteousness, delivered from red carpets and stages far removed from ordinary life.
- 📣 Undue Influence: Their moral posturing is amplified globally by media and algorithms, treated as profound despite lacking humility or personal sacrifice.
- 💸 Class Politics: Celebrity activism reflects a privileged politics of insulation—opinions without consequences, absolutes without accountability.
- 🧍♂️ Mark Ruffalo Example: The actor preaches anti-capitalist and climate messages while earning millions, wearing designer suits, and attending lavish events—his activism costs him nothing.
- 🎁 Golden Globe Excess: Stars receive “gift bags” worth up to US$1 million containing luxury travel and designer goods, even as they moralise about overconsumption and inequality.
- 🌍 Virtue and Vanity: Celebrities denounce carbon footprints while jetting around the globe, consuming extravagantly, and living in gated communities insulated from the consequences of their advocacy.
- 👩⚖️ Selective Morality: Hollywood’s progressivism punishes dissent—figures like JK Rowling are ostracised for wrongthink while empty virtue-signalling remains fashionable.
- 🌱 Jacinda Ardern’s Branding: Ardern’s global persona mirrors celebrity moralism—“kindness” as marketing, virtue signalling without substantive outcomes or accountability.
- 🛫 Climate Contradictions: Ardern’s climate advocacy coexists with heavy travel, policy failures that harmed workers, and reliance on imported coal—sacrifice demanded only of others.
- 🥂 COP Hypocrisy: Climate conferences like COP are luxury junkets for elites who preach sacrifice while dining and networking in indulgent surroundings.
- 🎤 Global Grifters: Figures like Ardern, DiCaprio, Emma Watson, and Greta Thunberg profit from moral posturing while ordinary people bear the costs of their policies.
- 💰 Fashionable Causes: Modern celebrity activism—on climate, inequality, or capitalism—is often a performance of status, not conviction.
- 🧴 Billie Eilish Irony: While decrying capitalism, she profits by selling a vast range of branded merchandise, illustrating the hollowness of her anti-capitalist stance.
- 😇 Toxic Empathy: Celebrity activism is narcissism disguised as compassion—a need to feel “good” while being entirely detached from real-world consequences.
- 🏰 Moral Exemption: The wealthy elite are treated as moral authorities even though their status shields them from the effects of their own prescriptions.
- 🕵️ Media Complicity: Journalists and institutions elevate these figures as moral leaders instead of holding them accountable for hypocrisy.
- ⚖️ True Moral Authority: Real moral credibility requires shared sacrifice, tangible accountability, and willingness to bear the costs of one’s convictions.
- 😂 Ricky Gervais’ Truth Bomb: His 2020 Golden Globes monologue perfectly skewered celebrity hypocrisy, reminding them they “know nothing about the real world” and should “accept your little award and f*** off.”
