A few days ago, an unfortunate event occurred, of extreme importance for our country: a former showgirl said something stupid on the Internet. We all say stupid things on the Internet, also because we have developed the detestable habit of expressing ourselves about anything; only that when I say the stupid thing, or my neighbor says it, nobody cares, and rightly so, it ends up among the hundreds of other stupid things said every day online.

When a “VIP” says something stupid, the national newspapers report it and talk about it for two days. I won’t go into the merits of the matter here, precisely because I, fortunately, am not a professional VIP: the scientific community has already explained the truth about the boxer who was the object of criticism (or rather, insults), and that should be more than enough for us. What I am interested in is moving a little away from the freshly painted finger from the beautician and getting as close as possible to the moon, which in this case could have the face of any VIP without specific skills who is questioned on important issues.

The problem of celebrity influence is not new

It’s certainly not news: those of us born in the 80s grew up watching TV programs featuring the mythological animal showgirl, which I don’t think anyone has yet understood what function it had, other than to allow older men to check the functioning of a certain organ of theirs. We’ve always watched interviews and debates between people who didn’t know how they got there, and what they had to say. In short, we’re used to the fact that if a person is famous, their opinion counts: it doesn’t matter whether they became famous by dancing, cooking, studying or acting like a succulent on stage.

It is precisely this habit that needs to be questioned and – it would be nice – overturned. The fact that a person has achieved popularity, whatever the cause, does not automatically make what they have to say important. It may be interesting for those who follow them, but it is not clear why newspapers consider it to be of public interest. It is already worrying enough that millions of people follow the private lives of influencers or similar figures who do not offer any service but simply show their days made up of selfies by the pool, yoga in the private forest and dives from the yacht; that then the statements of such people are taken into consideration as if they had some relevance, and become the subject of discussion, is ridiculous.

It is also ridiculous to be indignant because the famous person in question says nonsense, as if we were disappointed by them, as if we had placed our trust in them, in their ability to analyze the world. But why on earth? Why should we expect an intelligent, profound and, above all, informed comment from them? If anything, we should take a step back and ask ourselves why the hell we have listened to this person until now, giving importance to their words.

The role models are off

But of course it is normal for this to happen, because our role models are completely out of sync. What we are looking for is not competence, or the ability to explain things to us that we do not know; but coolness, in some way, or weirdness, in short something remarkable that enchants us and distracts us. The famous person is our role model, not the person who knows what he or she is talking about (who could very well be famous too, but his or her fame will likely be tied to his or her competence in that particular field, not to the size of her bra).

So the showgirl makes a statement and we can’t just leave it there, in the pile of thousands of useless or error-filled statements: no, we have to relaunch it, and then relaunch the controversies that follow the statement, and then her subsequent response. Many argue that this is necessary: ​​a person followed by many inevitably has an influence on them, so it’s right that the inaccuracies she says are rectified. But the problem is upstream: nobody should care about what that person says, or at most it should be taken for the opinion of just anyone, which is what she is. And it’s useless to think of patching up the roof if in the meantime the foundations are crumbling.