Finance Creators Should Be SPEAKING OUT

Pop onto TikTok and you’ll quickly get the sense that the world is falling apart. Fascism. Billionaire oligarchs. ICE murdering U.S. citizens in the streets. It feels like total collapse—and everything is being filmed and uploaded in real time.

It’s an endless highlight reel of misery.

So people turn to their favorite content creators and demand they speak out. And when they do, a few predictable things happen.

First: their follower count drops. That hits the ego, sure—but more importantly, it hits their income. Brands get skittish. Deals disappear. You might say, who cares? The injustice matters more than a paycheck. And you’re right. But put yourself in their shoes. If social media is your only source of income, are you eager to torch it? Especially when you’re not convinced your post will meaningfully change anything?

Second: the comments turn vicious. Again, you might say who cares? But unless you’ve been verbally assaulted online, all day, every day, you have no idea how mentally exhausting it is.

Third—and this is the big one—death threats roll in.

You might brush them off like I do. Most of them are probably written by angry teenagers rage-typing about things they don’t fully understand. But let’s not pretend that means nothing. Almost every school shooting was committed by a “stupid little teenager.” Our world is increasingly full of vengeful loners who absolutely will get in their car and drive across the country to kill someone over something they saw online.

And if you have a family? Are you willing to make them live with that fear?

I know plenty of creators who were happy to speak out—until the threats started. They could handle it. Their families couldn’t. So are the threats winning? Is it really that easy to silence people? Just toss out a death threat and—hey, look—they stop posting?

Then there’s another group of creators altogether: the ones who’ve built intentional safe spaces. Their pages are about recipes, workouts, yoga, cats. An oasis. One small corner of the internet that isn’t an endless doom spiral.

You know that one account you go to when the world feels unbearable? Now imagine followers demanding that creator “use their platform.” Suddenly, even that refuge is gone.

I’m as left-leaning as they come. I think people should speak out. But I also understand why some don’t—and that’s their right.

Let me put it this way: if The Rock posted a video condemning ICE, what would actually happen? Would any minds be changed? Of course not. People already assume how he feels. All it would do is alienate part of his audience, flood his comments with hate, and hurt his brand. And protecting his brand is his job.

Yes, it’s ironic coming from a guy who’s teased running for president. Some might say his silence is deafening. But realistically, his speaking out would just make people who already agree with him like him more—and people who don’t agree with him like him less (and maybe stop buying his energy drinks).

That said—there is one space where I believe creators don’t get to stay quiet.

Finance.

Because everything is money.

Everything.

Is.

Money.

If you want to make the global elite sweat, stop buying things. Collectively. Globally. If you support ICE or fascism, we’re done funding you. Period.

Money is the most powerful force in the world. Hit companies in their wallets, and they will listen.

But here’s the catch: we have to stick with it.

We’re outrage addicts. Every week there’s a new boycott. The list gets so long no one can keep track. Wait—are we still mad at this company? Or was that last month?

You know who tracks it perfectly? Corporations.

They know we’re weak. They know we love a discount. They know we’ll cave. They can outlast us. Easily. Their wallets are deep, and our attention spans are short.

I know what you’re thinking: Kenneth, you’re a Wall Street guy. You’ve built a platform convincing people to invest. Now you’re telling them to stop supporting companies?

Won’t that hurt earnings? Won’t that wreck projections?

Yes. That’s the point.

Collectively, we can force change by hurting companies financially. Eventually, this nightmare ends. People buy non-essentials again. They subscribe to apps. Revenue rebounds.

But until then, ethics matter more than earnings.

You can hate Wall Street. You can hate the stock market. But you also need them.

Capitalism sucks. It exploits workers, pollutes the planet, makes people sick and broke. All true. But it also creates wealth—and right now, wealth is the only real escape hatch most people have.

We aren’t paid living wages. We don’t have affordable healthcare. We don’t get proper parental leave. Housing is unaffordable. Inflation is crushing us.

So yeah, hate Wall Street. Hate the stock market.

But invest anyway.

Because investing is what buys you freedom. Freedom to leave the rat race. Freedom to boycott. Freedom to protest. Freedom to look around and say, you know what? This isn’t the land of the free anymore—and actually have the means to do something about it.