It’s old news, but the July 31 issue of the Sankei Shimbun featured a contribution by Aoyama Gakuin University professor Yoshitaka Fukui. The contents of the article have stuck in my mind. According to the article, in recent years, American celebrities have begun to show off their “extravagant beliefs” to the common people, instead of ostentatious consumption.
In the past, celebrities liked luxury cars and brand-name products to maintain hierarchy, but perhaps it has become difficult for nouveau riche tastes to maintain hierarchy, and in recent years they have become eager to express their “extravagant beliefs.”
“Extravagant beliefs” are liberal values ​​that question and contempt for traditional values. Examples include LGBTQ, optional separate surnames for married couples, and unlimited immigration. By flaunting these beliefs, they probably want to claim that they have a moral superiority that is different from the common people.
Up to this point, it would be laughable as a celebrity comedy, but what is not funny is that it is none other than the common people who bear the costs and challenges that arise as a result of forcing these beliefs on people.
As is well known, American celebrities live in luxurious, isolated communities that are just their own, and most of them live in a world that has nothing to do with LGBTQ people or immigrants. It is even said that many of them still follow the good old lifestyle of the 1950s.
It is not the celebrities who put forward new values ​​born from extravagant beliefs who are putting them into practice, but ordinary people who go about their daily lives unrelated to such beliefs. And when ordinary people express objections, the celebrities seize the opportunity to denounce them as “racists” or “xenophobes,” and feel smug about it.
Isn’t it actually Trump who is saying no to this irresponsible and unbalanced structure? If that is the case, it is difficult to understand why Trump, who is wary of the world, is so popular in his home country of the United States. The leaders of various countries who are wary of him are, so to speak, celebrities. (Kitajima Kei)

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