Percy Bartelt, opinions editor

I’m sure by now most of you have seen the video of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” star, Noah Schnapp, who plays Will Byers, laughing with his friends about stickers they had that read: “Zionism is Sexy” and “Hamas is ISIS” back in Nov. of 2023. Schnapp’s costar Brett Gelman, who plays Murray Bauman, has given speeches strongly voicing his opinions about how unfairly Noah is being treated and how Zionism IS sexy, and even called pro-Palestinian Gen Z, “fake woke liberals,” on Instagram. Gelman has gone on countless tyraids on all social media platforms of his extreme anti-Palestine views. The two have both received warranted backlash from it all over social media. This seemed to cause an even larger chain reaction of celebrities either showing their support for Schnapp, or calling for a ceasefire, but the outcomes from each were widely different. 

For instance: Bella and Gigi Hadid, famous Palestinian-American models, born to a Palestinian father, voicing their protest for a ceasefire in Gaza. According to both “Teen Vogue” and “The Rep” podcast, Bella spoke of her experiences following her actions — they lead to her being completely dropped by both companies and personal friends. The Hadid’s weren’t the only one’s screwed over, another sad case happened over on the set of “Scream” where the lead actors, Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega, voiced their support for a ceasefire. What were they met with? Being completely dropped by Paramount Pictures and even being accused of “Holocaust Distortion.” Furthermore, according to NBC News, Spyglass issued a statement when Barrera’s firing hit the media, they explained that Spyglass has “zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech.” Absolutely ridiculous. 

Pointing out that a genocide is happening to the people of Palestine is antisemetic? Calling for an end to the killings of an entire people is hate speech? Wanting a government to stop killing, looting and bombing people’s homes is offensive? 

On the other side of things, do you know what’s happened to Noah Schnapp for his videos, his tweets and Instagram posts about “not wanting to choose sides” but also that “Hamas needs to stop!” and “you either stand with Israel or you stand with terrorism.” From what he’s posted and shown his support for, Netflix said that they would “keep an eye out on Noah.” Melissa Barrera was immediately fired, accused of spreading hate speech and misinformation. Jenna Ortega stands firmly by her side. Bella and Gigi Hadid have lost deals and company partnerships because of their call for a ceasefire. But Noah gets a hesitant, subtle “talking to” and gets to be looked after by the Netflix execs. Brett Gelman has yet to even receive that despite his more extreme language pertaining to Palestine and its people.

So, I say to you: screw Season 5 of “Stranger Things.” Screw Noah Schnapp and especially Brett Gelman. Make sure you know who and what your idols are supporting — they do truly correlate to one’s values.