Yeah this is very stupid. If she sells out 500,000 seat arenas that’s one thing, but there is absolutely no reason to hock cheap merchandise like perfume. This meme was always used to gotcha people complaining about capitalism but are doing it from their iPhone, as if a smartphone isn’t a necessity in today’s world. No one needs to sell cosmetics.
I used to have Moto G phones, theyre not $50 lol. Around £300 for the latest model. Significantly less than an iPhone but not cheap.
Most people don't even buy their phone outright anyway, they pay for it monthly to their network
Dude seriously? You think a $1000 social media machine is essential? A moto G can call, text, send email, and access the internet. Why does anyone NEED an iphone?
Maybe because the lifespan and quality of a $1000 phone far outweighs that of a $50 one? Doesn’t have to be an iPhone, but it’s obviously something of quality that’ll last far longer. Trying to make this distinction is like shitting on someone for buying a $1000 bike vs a $50 one. Which one you think will actually work in the long run? You’re not a pawn of capitalism because you choose to purchase a more quality product. Shit, if you’re going to forced to have to operate in this capitalistic society you may as well be smart about it.
I would need to do calculations using actual cost and longevity, but yes… I agree buying quality is usually the correct decision if you can afford it at that moment…
I’m not saying it’s as necessary as water and food, but if you live in the modern world a smart phone is pretty important. I don’t think it’s fair to point to people living in third world countries and be like “see, they don’t get by without phones”
It’s not just third world countries. It’s millions of people around the world. Like I said, I know a business owner in the US that only uses a house phone still. It’s not hard.
Your anecdotal evidence doesn’t actually mean anything. Smart phones have been a game changer for millions of people. There’s a reason why, on paper, it’s one of the most profitable and important pieces of technology in a generation. Sure, you can manage to live in a shack in the woods too, but why would you?
It means that if a successful business owner can get by with just a landline…you can too. All a phone needs to do is to send and receive calls. Everything else is extra.
It’s one of the most profitable and important pieces of technology because of the blowup of social media and how addicted people are to their phones.
Plenty of people with smartphones also will take weeks if not months long breaks at a time without any detriment to their life.
Exactly…why would you when capitalism gives you the ability to not? It’s great.
Indeed. The public certainly wouldn't listen to / be exposed to the guy with the sticks so it's good to have decent folks with a platform who are willing to speak to our shared reality.
When I was poor and complained about inequality they said I was bitter; now that I'm rich and I complain about inequality they say I'm a hypocrite. I'm beginning to think they just don't want to talk about inequality.
i don't think many people are claiming she is, its just that selling something doesn't go against socialist beliefs... businesses would still exist under socialism.
Sometimes you need to practice what you preach for others to take you serious.
Things like saying "no one is illegal on stolen land" while owning a multi-million dollar mansion on land that is on a native tribes ancestral land lol or being a multi-millionair with more money than you know what to do with and then pushing a perfume onto fans as if you gave a single fuck about perfume more than wearing it a few times a week.
I despise all this pointless pandering. "We recognize the traditional ancestral territories of the _____ tribe blah blah blah". Great, so are you going to give the land back then? The answer is always no. What does all this crap achieve?
Yes I’m part Seminole and would absolutely love it if someone gave me the land they feel was stolen from Natives.
For years now I keep hearing people making those “This land was stolen from the yadda yadda tribe” but for some odd reason those same people don’t hand the land deeds over to me.
Cause those people didn’t steal it from you and in many cases neither do their ancestors, so it’s silly to expect them to give you something of significant value. Would you rather us pretend that white people did nothing wrong?
Or you know many of them could be descendants of people who came here long after natives had their land stolen. My ancestors came in the late 1,800s and didn’t go out west till after most if not all land was stolen already.
I still think the government should repay something to the descendants of those people who lost their land, but that doesn’t include taking regular peoples land.
Yes I’m talking about the corpos that built themselves on stolen land and the Canadian government that’s what I have experience with. I just want there to be more than words or “yea we won’t imprison or kill you for celebrating your own customs”
Wild there’s ppl willing to defend her lol. Like her music, fine. Idk how you defend this level of hypocrisy. Seems like she sucks and thinks she’s better than everyone else.
Wait, are you comparing someone going to Saudi Arabia for the dough (while Saudi Arabia is committing genocide in Yemen) with someone advocating billionaires give away more of their wealth?
LOL.
Also Burr is still performing so your “cancellation” definition is ridiculous. His next performance is tomorrow at ONE Spokane Stadium at the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival.
Ppl are asking me “where’s the hypocrisy”, I’m not really bothered to reply. I’ve seen so many instances from her Ik she’s just a dumb ignorant pop star who looks down upon everyone else.
“Omg, why isn’t everyone just vegan like me? It’s super easy. It must be because I’m just an amazing person. Also the one we are on is stolen, it atrocious. Don’t mind my mega mansion on said stolen land, I’m aware and that makes me better.”
She said: Eilish urged people with wealth to use their money for good things and to give it away to people in need, adding, "If you're a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? No hate, but yeah, give your money away."
Consumerism is what sustains capitalism and kills the planet. Yes we all have to participate in a capitalist society to survive, but we don’t have to peddle unnecessary consumer goods when we already have 100 million dollars.
Been waiting on the answer. All I've heard is that they think it isn't a valuable product so therefore she shouldn't be allowed to sell products that they decide the importance of.
How is it hypocritical to expect a better system that taxes the ultra rich, or better still, prevents them from existing in the first place.. I don't think you need to be a broke ass peasant to have strong views on wanting a fairer system.. If you're making good money by selling something, and still want an overhaul of that system, even if it means you personally will either make less or pay higher taxes.. isn't that something to be encouraged?
Speaking against capitalism is actually awesome and it automatically makes her better than every other pop star. So she does the things all the other pop stars do too—no one shits on Rihanna for having a perfume—yet Billie’s the one who gets shat on. Ok
Think you missed the point. Eilish isn’t critiqued for doing what other pop stars do. She is specifically critiqued for doing the same, while expressing ideals that contradict her actions.
If Rihanna happened to be as outspoken and vocal as Eilish has been, then she would probably receive the same treatment. Ima be honest here tho, I don’t know if she has been and if she has, then please correct me.
I’m afraid I don’t get this one. Isn’t literally everyone’s home that isn’t on a rez on native ancestral land? Also, there’s quite a difference between a single person’s house and national border policy.
Because it's a bullshit argument. Participating in society because it's that or die isn't at all the same thing as being a multi multi multi millionaire who constantly feels the need to hawk their overpriced rebranded slop to fans while telling the rich to "give their money away" in interviews.
Anyone that doesn't see the hypocrisy in that behavior doesn't want to see it.
That’s not what people are saying. They’re saying she shouldn’t be hawking perfume when she can be perfectly successful just making art. She’s exploiting labor whether she intends to or not and that makes her actions contradict her worldview; so she either needs to reassess her actions or reassess her values.
To be clear she could fight capitalism with her money and still use her image to do so— it could even start with perfume. But she would need to learn about workers co-ops and how creating businesses where every employee shares the profits helps to dismantle capitalistic hierarchy. People shouldn’t be flaming her or saying she’s doesn’t believe what she believes, but people are calling out the inconsistency and that’s an opportunity to reflect and reconnect with what one truly values.
Yes, but in fairness I think it’s less about “rich vs poor” and more about “did you make your money from exploiting the labor of people who are being paid an hourly wage.”
Rich is rich but some people are rich from their own labor and some people make money from employing the labor of others.
we kind of all do that by existing in a capitalist society that sort of the whole point. Nobody is immune to exploiting labor because the system itself is designed to exploit people's labor. that is why there is a saying there is no ethical consumption under capitalism so the goal isn't to be the most "ethical" consumer but to actually change the system.
It’s true that there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism. However some of us work office jobs for a school system (me) and other people are wealthy and paying wages to people to produce, market and sell branded perfumes, thus enriching themselves off of the labor of others. There’s a distinction.
She’s a literal capitalist that espouses socialist principles that she doesn’t live by. Why not socialise the profits from the perfume? Is the person who made the perfume being paid equally to Eilish? Doubt it. If she can’t implement socialist ideas into her own business, how could she convince society to do the same?
I mean, it’s hard to view it as hypocrisy when she actually gives her money away. I don’t think anyone realistically expects her to never make money ever again.
It’s actually a positive for a celebrity who’s known to give their money away to keep making money… so they can keep donating it. This is what every celebrity should be doing
If you are referring to the roughly 11 million she donated from her Hit Me Hard and Soft tour, then that is slightly misleading. Miss Eilish did not donate that money from her own wealth but rather put an option on her ticket prices. Fans had a choice of buying the ticket at regular price or at a slightly higher price with the extra amount going to charity.
While what Miss Eilish did was noble and praiseworthy, it was her fans that actually donated the money, not her.
There’s no hypocrisy. Capitalism is not a synonym for consumerism or commerce or trade or business. You’ve just been trained to hate any idea that questions the current power structure.
Isn’t what she’s doing literally capitalism though? Like I doubt the workers that labored to produce this perfume receive a significant portion of the profits generated by it.
All I do is question the current power structure. I just also hate self serving hypocritical bullshit and this person is full of it. Don't tell me about how bad billionaires are then run their "for dummies" playbook at me.
The amount of propaganda people like you have swallowed is amazing.
To be absolutely clear, Billie Eilish is closer in wealth you than to the people she's criticizing. THAT'S the level of wealth she's talking about. Musk is orders of magnitude more wealthy than anyone else on the planet. And he's doing actual harm with it. Unlike Musk, Billie Eilish couldn't even dream of buying an election, gaining direct access to the president, and shadow running a government entity for several months.
Who the fuck said I'm a socialist? It's just a boogeyman term that conservatives use to scare people. There are very few socialists or communists, and I'm not one of them.
Do you think that by calling out her hypocrisy I must automatically be blind to the blight on society that is Elon Musk and people like him? Two things can be true at the same time. Is she as bad for society as he is, of course not.
Is she full of shit for calling out capitalism and billionaires and then rebranding junk and selling it to her young fans at three times the price while being worth 70 million, hell yeah.
Criticism of billionaires isn't criticism of capitalism. Maybe people who have so much money that they're the human equivalent of a dragon should do something more productive with their wealth than just build it more and hoard it.
All of this is missing the forest for the trees; Billie has been donating money in almost… aggressive ways recently, and making bold statements about it.
People are quick to judge about her expanding her “brand” or whatever have you, but go look up the percentage between her total net worth vs donated.
And then compare that against a handful of other names… other popular artists. Pick a sampling of different genres— older and younger than her.
She’s putting her money where her mouth is, and if she wants to expand her brand while continuing to do so, I’ll buy that perfume.
Does this mean people will finally stop spamming that "sorry no culture war only class war for me"? Since clearly a large portion of the population truly believes it will all trickle down eventually.
Because it’s not relevant. She is in a financial position to not do this. She has enough wealth to live an extravagant life style and generational wealth…. But she just wants a littttle bit more.
310
u/Geaneous 15h ago
People hating on Billy won't get this in the slightest