celebrity tears aren’t putting out the LA fires
URL empathy in the era of disaster engagement bait
Los Angeles is burning, celebrities are crying, and people all over comment sections online are laughing at the rubble. As the fires continue to etch into other neighborhoods, the list of the rich and famous losing their homes is only mounting.
Many have taken to social media to document and share the ruin and rubble. For example, in one video, Paris Hilton showed her house destroyed. “The heartbreak is truly indescribable,” she wrote in her caption. Meanwhile, Whitney Cummings shared a video of herself crying, preparing to evacuate her house, and mourning the inevitable burning of her podcast studio.
As the Gazan genocide seems to have no end in sight, the trolling of celebrities has become geopolitical. It’s unsurprising this is happening, given that many of the rich and famous have done very little to support Palestine and, in some cases, even contributed to and or advocated for the genocide.
With this, some online users are having trouble holding space for celebrities impacted by the fires, spiking a larger conversation on who gets the privilege of mourning and what public displays of that grieving look like. No matter the devastation, it’s difficult for everyday Americans to empathize with the glossy and often airbrushed elite due to rising frustrations over the plutocratic oligarchy that we live in.
what’s happening online
On Instagram, Mandy Moore received heavy backlash for sharing a GoFundMe to help her brother and sister-in-law who lost their home and everything in it. The virtual pitchforks sharpened as comment critics attacked Moore since she, the wealthy celebrity, should be aiding her family financially. Not the general public and digital Good Samaritans.
As for “D-list” reality TV stars Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, the couple are facing a resurgence as they have been documenting the loss of their home and everything they’ve built. “One of my favorite things about my house burning down [is that] ever since 2010 when The Hills was canceled, everyone on social media and Google—everything I’ve ever read about myself is [that] I’m a broke nobody. It takes all of our possessions and our house burning down, and now my comment section is like you’re a rich celebrity. What a rebrand,” says Pratt.
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In the aftermath, the duo is post-ironically shedding light on some of our misconceptions about celebrity wealth. Montag is even topping the charts with her song “I’ll Do It.” Pratt is also leading an online charge of ire at State Farm and Liberty Mutual, who knowingly canceled a collective 50,000 policies to prevent their own ‘financial ruin.’ There is now an estimated 135 to 150 billion dollars of damage from the fires.
Perhaps Pratt and Montag are offering a glimpse into what disaster-related content will be like in the coming years. During Hurricane Milton, Felicity Martin wrote for Dazed about the dystopian engagement bait of influencers such as the infamous Caroline Calloway refusing to evacuate from her condo and influencers live streaming the natural disaster. At what point does it become engagement bait, or is it the new frontier of citizen journalism?
A similar critique slammed Khloe Kardashian as a hypocrite for calling out LA Mayor, Karen Bass for the lack of prevention foresight over the wildfires. The Kardashian sisters even appeared in a previous photo taken with incarcerated firefighters in 2024, with Kim throwing up a peace sign and urging California Governor Gavin Newsom to raise their wages in her Instagram stories. Meanwhile, the sisters have been known to use wasteful amounts of water (up to 300,000 gallons) during droughts, receiving fines on multiple occasions for squandering resources that are meant for the common good.
On social platforms, this knee-jerk reaction to mock or make light of tragic events in real time continues as class and wealth division widens. And this upset is now building up a precedent. Anytime tragedy occurs, empathy is either extended or retracted to victims depending on who is on the receiving end of catastrophe and whether or the calamity is self-inflicted. The current cultural climate is now ushering out the promises of Obama era liberalism that were once a canon of the 2010s in replacement of edgelord conservatism.
is this the rise of empathy fatigue?
In the summer of 2023, Maria wrote for Dazed about the concept of empathy fatigue in relation to the Titan submersible implosion. At the time, online trolls reveled in schadenfreude as billionaires foolishly paid for their own demise and treated the world as a playground, reenacting an Indiana Jones-type mission of exploration in the depths of the North Atlantic Ocean.
Meanwhile, in the fallout of the shooting of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson, polls indicated that a majority of young Americans sympathized with the shooter, (hot AF) Luigi Mangione over the murder victim. It became a widespread joke to post that condolences and or “thoughts and prayers” for Thompson were denied and “out of network.” These were virtual digs at Thompson’s corpse since he raised profits for the healthcare insurance conglomerate exponentially while denying life saving care at all time high rates.
In the instances of the submersible implosion and the Thompson murder, there was a public outcry over the structural violence and entitlement that allowed for unchecked and unregulated capitalism to flourish in the wake of each tragedy. Especially since these devastating incidents tend to highlight and further malign the already disadvantaged. For example, during the Titan submersible debacle, there was a Greek migrant shipwreck that killed at least 80 refugees that received significantly less media attention and rescue efforts.
Keyboard warriors are unconcerned about the devastation of the fires due to the discernment that everyone who is at a loss in LA is de facto rich. Though, this isn’t necessarily accurate. There’s a fundamental credence that no matter the damage or ruin, the wealthy will be able to easily afford to rebuild and go on to make more movies. But the discourse surrounding celebrities' ability to rebuild leaves out those who are not famous and also watched their homes burn. The conversation is essentially neglecting other economic classes from mainstream coverage within the devastation. The homeless and other marginalized lower income communities are also at a loss. ( People who are unhoused are experiencing dire effects from the damage caused to their lungs from the smoking fires. While shelters are now at capacity, even more than before for an area that is notorious for its staggering levels of homelessness).
Regardless if those in the higher income brackets will be able to rebuild quickly, losing a home you built and nurtured is a form of suffering regardless of a person’s tax returns. Unlike the other tragedies that resulted in “eat the rich” virtual mobs, the people of LA on the whole are not personally responsible for the fires happening.
Instead, recognizing empathy with nuance could encourage more action, aid, and long-term resolution to how the city prepares for these unavoidable fires. “Given how many people have parasocial relationships with celebrities, it can trigger more empathy and move individuals to act on behalf of all of Los Angeles victims,” commented writer Gabrielle Kassel. “Empathy can be a positive, mobilizing force for donations, mutual aid and political change."
a collective recovery movement grows
A mutual aid movement is currently underway, with GoFundMe campaigns circulating and more donation drives emerging. For example, @altadenagirls is a movement empowering teen girl victims of the fire by collecting items that will help them rebuild their identities and lives, from beauty products to wide leg jeans.
Now, celebrities too are starting to support victims and relief efforts. Selena Gomez donated 5 million dollars while Beyoncé has pledged 2.5 million to aid families in the Altadena area, which is a historically Black neighborhood. Taylor Swift has donated 10 million. Meanwhile, Halle Berry is donating her entire wardrobe. And now, awards season is gearing toward supporting wildfire relief and spotlighting first responders.
All things considered, it’s the oppressive systems that allowed these fires to burn uncontained. Instead, we should be critiquing elected officials, including Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass as well as the heads of insurance companies who canceled life saving and house saving policies for their own profit. After all, the fires are being ignited at the hands of climate change and government leaders poorly allocating resources to protect all of its citizens. It is not a suprise or a shock that these fires are happening, but the devastation and influx of celebrity tears is a consequence of bad local planning and practice to keep everyone safe from the smoke.
