The Chalamet outrage responded to by artists and organisations isn’t the advocacy they think it is. It addresses the already-converted. It’s performance. That performance has a cost: it’s exhausting to witness, and it makes the cause seem more fragile than it is. If Chalamet’s opinion about ballet genuinely threatens ballet (or opera), then both have problems no Instagram post will fix. And it alienates people like me who are actually sympathetic and life-membership advocates.

The arts, at their best, model humility and curiosity. How many of the people responding have seen the long-form version of the interview? Why was that clip made available in that form, at this moment? The answer probably has less to do with ballet or opera’s plight (after all, is Chalamet a credible commentator on the industry’s health?), than with the entertainment industry’s appetite to damage an Oscar campaign. The arts community has been played. Their outrage is someone else’s strategy working exactly as intended. They’re not getting the reach they think they’re getting. They’re shouting into an echo chamber.