Sometimes a single moment crystallizes what a lot of people have been quietly thinking. When James Charles publicly mocked a recently laid-off woman who reached out to him seeking support, it wasn’t just another celebrity pile-on. For many, it became the moment the entire influencer economy started to feel less like entertainment and more like a mirror held up to a widening gulf between the famous and the rest of us.
On a recent Slate podcast episode, host Kate Lindsay sat down with writer Daysia Tolentino to dig into whether influencers actually serve any meaningful purpose anymore in 2026. The Charles incident became the jumping-off point for a bigger question: Why do millions of people spend their time and money supporting people who are, by and large, just famous for being famous? In an era when the average American is wrestling with soaring costs of living—rent, food, healthcare all climbing faster than wages—the spectacle of privileged creators simply existing on camera started to feel, well, tone-deaf.
The podcast makes a sharp distinction worth considering. Some creators do offer genuine value—niche communities, specialized knowledge, services that didn’t exist before. But the A-list tier? Many of them have crossed a line into pure celebrity worship. They’re not teaching you anything. They’re not creating anything particularly novel. They’re just existing in expensive places with expensive things, and somehow that was enough to build empires. At least, it used to be.
What the James Charles moment revealed is that the faith holding up that house of cards might finally be cracking. When someone reaches out in genuine need and gets mocked for it, the parasocial relationship that keeps influencer culture alive gets yanked into the light. We spend hours watching these people, feeling like we know them, and in return they show us that connection isn’t real—it never was. They see fans as audiences, not as people.
The real question isn’t whether influencers serve a purpose. It’s whether we still need to pretend they do. In a world where people are struggling, should we keep feeding an economy built entirely on the elevation of the privileged? Or is this the moment something shifts?
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Local Lawton
Local Lawton is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.
