Recently, a famous YouTuber and family physician Dr. Mike was called out for having been on a yacht party during the global pandemic.
Dr. Mike had a very strong reputation for being the voice of reason and the light that was guiding everyone to safety. Recently, however, tides have changed.
During the pandemic, Dr. Mike continuously asked people to adhere to public health orders. He went on numour TV shows, posted many YouTube videos and even interviewed doctors in order to raise awareness about the seriousness of this issue. However, photographs of him partying on a yacht surfaced showing his blatant disregard to the very ordered he begged people to follow.
In the photo, he appears to be in a yacht with a number of his friends with no social distancing nor any face masks.
Soon the internet did what the internet does and they demanded an explanation and an apology from Dr. Mike. Although he did post a video explaining his situation on his second, less popular, channel many people did not seem to buy his excuses.
This made me reflect on all the other YouTuber (or a celebrity) apologies that often get tossed around as soon as one of them makes a mistake.
During the pandemic, we saw the likes of James Charles, Tana Mongeau, Kendal Jenner and many more celebrities issuing apologies about their blatant disrespect of public health orders they decide to attend or host parties.
I often wonder how come people quickly apologize and come to terms with their mistakes only after being publicly shamed and came to the conclusion that those apologies must not be sincere.
Who in their right mind would think that going to a party during a pandemic that is putting people out of jobs, causing others to lose their lives, and essentially destroying economies around the world to be a good idea.
They must not have cared in the first place.
So looking into these apologies, here are some ways I noticed these celebrities tend to manipulate their audience into forgiving them
They use the right words
Recently, I learnt that many psychopaths who are in jail go into rehabilitation programs and come out worst than they went in because they learnt to use the right words.
Now, I’m not saying these celebrities are psychopaths.
However, it is an interesting phenomenon. A great example I can think of is Tana Mongeau. In her recent apology, she uses some very powerful words to indicate that she’s sorry and that she is self aware of her actions. She says that she takes “full accountability” for her video being late. She also refers to her “white privilage” and acknowledges how she has been a big part of cancel culture for a big part of her career.
Now, this is not Tana Mongeau. This is a carefully orchestrated show that she put together to gain sympathy. She says all the right words and refers to all the right concepts, but at the end of the day she doesn’t actually know what they mean. Or maybe she does, and doesn’t care.
It doesn’t sound like them
In many of the apologies that are issued nowadays, people often just write something in their notes app, screenshot it, and post it on their Twitter accounts.
What I often realize in these apologies is that it almost never sounds like the person.It always sounds more professional. More serious. More grown up. And I think that is a part of the trick.
They try to make you feel that they are taking the topic at hand very very seriously. They try to make it seem as if they spent hours contemplating what they did, and you know what maybe they did, but we can’t tell for sure.
There is always something off to me about those notes app apologies.
It is such a drastic change in so little time
In child development psychology, they always tell us that when you are punishing a child, you must explain to them what they did wrong for them to understand how to correct it in the future.
People often want to be right, and changing their opinions can often be fairly difficult. Now, multiply the pride of a normal everyday person by ten folds and you have the pride and ego of a celebrity.
It always strikes me as very strange when a celebrity apologies within 24 hours of making a mistake. The change is so so drastic. They magically realize exactly what it is they did wrong and how they hurt people and know exactly what to say and how to say it in order to show how truly sorry they are.
I just don’t buy it. I don’t know how someone could flip a switch so quickly and realize exactly what it is that they did wrong within such a short period of time.
I understand learning from your mistakes, but I think the process of learning and educating yourself about your faults should take more than just 24 hours.
In conclusion, I don’t think these celebrities are truly sorry for what they do in the moment. Even after apologizing, they don’t actually know what they are apologizing for. Take this interview with Olivia Jade where after the college admissions scandal broke out, she said she didn’t really understand why people were so mad at her.
People do change, but again, not within 24 hours. It takes days, weeks, even months to realize the errors of your ways then start to take steps to improve them.