Hello new Lemmy friends!
Word on the street tells us our community is regularly making it the all page. While this is very cool news to hear, we can see how the sudden emergence of our posts in your feed might feel jarring and probably raises some questions. And also how, without knowing the backstory, our community might appear less than virtuous, so here’s a very brief introduction which hopefully will clear a few things up.
The woman we’re discussing is a body positive influencer and media personality who has gained fame and wealth by lying, manipulating, exploiting her children for content, plagiarizing BIPOC creators and blaming her BIPOC content editor for it (thereby ruining her career), among other things. Her fraudulent behavior is no different (I’d argue worse) from the likes of Jay Shetty (google him if you don’t know who he is or what he did). She’s the latest in a long line of grifting influencers who are abusing their power, taking advantage of their position and exploiting their followers. The difference is that she’s Canadian. Our laws around social media and advertising aren’t as clear (and where they are she’s disobeyed them), add to that, our mainstream media has protected her from those who’ve tried to expose her grift and silenced/intimidated anyone who’s tried to speak out.
Our Reddit sub was taken down due to reports of copyright infringement, which is unfounded and categorically untrue as no one ever tried to steal her work and pass it off as their own. The mods have made an appeal. While at first glance it may seem like we’re just “shitting on her” the sub has been more devoted to investigation and posting proof of her lies than just bitching for the sake of bitching. The reality is that she’s hurt, manipulated and let down a lot of people. She stole intellectual property and employment, caused mental distress and has repeatedly told lies to boost engagement and profit off her audience, so people are understandably upset that their voices are being silenced.
We’re grateful to have been welcomed so kindly by so many of you, and to those sticking around to watch the drama unfold, we’re glad to have you!
Oh, and let’s not forget Apple, which pushes people to buy new products every year with zero thought to people experiencing genocide in Congo. Not that birdie’s a good spokesperson for Apple as she filters her photos to oblivion and claims “that’s how our phones received it”. 👀
Yes! This.is.what.I’m.here.for. 👍 Keep calling out influencers for careless overconsumption of tech products that depend on slave labour, fast fashion which is also slave labour, being complicit in genocide, gentrifying areas with people struggling to sell properties, taking spotlights from minorities, and not respecting ppl under eighteen’s right to privacy online. Ultimately, and eventually, if people do this (calling out influencers and celebrities) , more every day people will also refuse to be a part of this type of lifestyle. Stop fast fashion, buy LOCAL (if you’re rich especially), don’t get a new phone every frigging year, stop travelling all the time, and speak up regularly about atrocities. If she knows that she’s getting millions of views, even if let’s say a third of them aren’t active accounts, then she does have the power to at least get a couple thousand to pay attention to some pretty important issues. And we could call it performative or late or whatever when these influencers eventually do say something, but ultimately they might make some changes happen with their popularity. Because let’s face it it’s a popularity contest, and whether she thinks so or not she does have a “traditionally, beautiful face” and charm which can definitely convince people to also step up.
Love your comments as well! Influencers are so out of touch and need to get on board or be left behind. The world is changing and this kind of behaviour is becoming less and less acceptable. The irony is I started following Sarah years ago because I thought she cared about sustainability and leaving a good impact. Not so much. Now I question if she ever was or if she only said that because it was popular (I think the latter).