"The celebrity who excoriates others to spend more of their already
meager income purchasing more environmentally benign products and take
public transportation rather than an SUV while they fly in private jets
will not be perceived as the above Dr. in your example. That is why it
is a poor analogy. [JT][WS:] "
>
Which is followed by:
" In addition people are more likely to alter their behaviours to emulate the behaviours of others (especially those of the classes they perceive as above them) than they are to change their behaviours because of the admonitions of people who do not follow their own advice."
[WS:] Are not these two statements contradicting each other? If the latter is true, and I believe it is, then all that matters is the celebrity status. Whether the celebrities are hypocrites, as most of them are anyway, is of lesser importance.
I would like to add that questioning the credibility of the messenger is seldom done spontaneously, "from-below" - unless there are clear telltale signs that the messenger is a fake. Private lives, however, are seldom such a telltale sign.
More often, credibility questioning is instigated from above, by hack propagandists, in an effort to stave off the challenge that the message poses to some entrenched interests. This method was perfected, for example, by Stalinist and Maoist hacks, who frequently used "bourgeois" life styles (real or manufactured) to discredit their internal opponents. Lesser figures on the left (Lou P. for example) are quite skilled in this tactic as well. Right wingers used similar tactics to discredit communist activists, union leaders, or leaders of communist states.
Therefore, it is safe to assume that most appeals against hypocrisy are themselves prima facie hypocrisies - thinly veiled propaganda campaigns aimed to smear the messenger rather than debate his/her message. In my mind, self-styled Leftist agitators (Cockburn, for example) using gotcha tactics and populist appeals to advance what amounts to the most reactionary corporate agenda simply do not pass the smell test.
To sum it up, personal life styles should not, and usually do not matter. Most people simply do not give a shit how others live their lives. Life styles of political figures become an issue only when hack propagandists start using them in their smear campaigns.
Wojtek