Published August 27, 2024 1:29 PM EDT | Updated August 27, 2024 1:29 PM EDT
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Rolling Stone has plenty of time.
The once iconic music and pop culture magazine has come under fire on social media following a new article about who WWE superstar and actor John Cena follows on Twitter. The magazine reported that Cena's follower list includes white supremacists and other controversial figures.
Now, if Cena was following and interacting with people who incite hatred and division, that would certainly be a big problem. We can all agree on that. The problem is that John Cena follows over 850,000 people. He doesn't drink with these people, and he doesn't even know they exist.
Rolling Stone loses balance while trying to attack John Cena
Literally, if you go to John Cena's Twitter account, you'll see that the wrestler currently follows 857,000 people and has 14.4 million followers.
Damn you, Rolling Stone, your article is more far-fetched than Andre the Giant trying to get into wrestling gear.
The premise of the Rolling Stone article written by Miles Currie centers around the fact that if Cena truly cared about the brand he has become known for globally, “Rise Above Hate,” he would not follow some of the accounts he follows. Keep in mind that John Cena holds the Guinness World Record for granting the most wishes through the Make-A-Wish Foundation and is known worldwide as one of the kindest and most charitable athletes.
Never mind the fact that maybe Cena himself doesn't click the “follow” button on all of his social media accounts, but someone on his team does, or maybe someone tweeted something nice about him and Cena decided to return the favor in kind and follow around 900,000 people.
Social media is a chaotic mess – let's deal with it
If you've used social media at all, you know that today it's all about algorithms that are constantly changing. 90% of the people I follow don't see my actual Twitter posts, and even on the rare occasions they do, there's no guarantee they'll see my subsequent posts. In one post, someone might tweet about a Yankees game, and in another, they might say something awful that I'll never see. This is the lawless world of artificial intelligence and algorithm-controlled social media that we live in today.
Also, who's to say that Cena didn't try to follow people with opposing views to understand what they're saying and why they feel the way they do? (I'm not talking about the real weirdos out there) I would argue that we need more people who are willing to debate and debate, because that's the only way you're going to ultimately come to mutual respect with people you disagree with.
Silencing dissenting voices or surrounding yourself with only people who think like you is foolish, ignorant and dangerous, Rolling Stone.
But then again, we're talking about a media outlet that lied about Covid, that didn't think Celine Dion was a top 200 singer, and that encouraged people to wear masks during the Covid pandemic earlier this year.
