Don't get me wrong. Any loss of life is a sad thing. Either in their passing or in the fact that the circumstances of their life made their death a happy occasion for others.
But I'm ranting about what happens to Celebrities after they shuffle loose the mortal coil. Namely how people (and the news media that panders to them) vilify people while they're alive and then all but canonize them into Saint [celebrity name] after they snuff it.
This has been going on for years. But let's look at the last three.
Going back to 2009, Michael Jackson was sent into an overdose by his doctor. Now as I frequently would joke, "Only in America can a handsome young black man turn himself into an old, ugly, white woman." And the media loved showing us MJ's latest deterioration. "Oh look, his conk just fell off." they would point and encourage us to laugh. South Park had his character representation falling apart like a zombie.
Then of course there was all the alleged child molestation that was never proven in a court of law. But if you ignore that under the "Innocent until proven guilty" bit that is implied in the 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution, you still have this...A lovely video where MJ dangles a baby out a fucking window.
Not exactly "Father of the Year" material there is he.
So you have all this "MJ is a surgery addicted weirdo who at the very least dangles babies out windows and possibly touches children in ways they ought not be touched" while he was alive. But now that he is dead we have all the people talking about how his music revolutionized the world.
And do not get me wrong. I did like some of his music. Thriller was catchy and I loved Vincent Price doing the narration. The video was likewise a popular one for my friends and I to watch when we were kids. I see the influence of his dance styles when I play World of Warcraft (Male Night Elves dancing) and I can hear "Billy Jean" in my head when I see it. And while I was not a fan of his later works, I did like "Black and White" for both the video and the message contained within. So I do have some fond memories of MJ.
But some people out there take it to the extremes. To the extreme that can not say anything bad about him without someone screaming that MJ would never do that. It was so bad that I would keep a copy of the youtube video about MJ dangling his kid just to say "Yes he did and here's the proof". Then they'd defend him by saying that he would never actually drop the kid.
Unless someone is suffering from some sort of mental disorder, no one deliberately drops their children. If a person drops a child it is usually an accident. Meaning that a rational and responsible person would not carry a child so carelessly as MJ did while in a high place. So either MJ was a person with mental disorders, or he was irresponsible. Either way, he did wrong.
Not that anyone wants to hear that about St Michael, Patron Saint of the Groin Grope.
Fast forward to 2011 and Amy Winehouse. A woman who took the concept of the celebrity train wreck and raised the bar. She was missing concerts, got the words of her songs wrong, even insulted one town by being so confused that she claimed to be in another town in another country. She was so plastered during that concert that she was even unable to remember the names of the people in her own band.
With this one it's easier to have you read the Wikipedia Article with the number of problems she displayed.
So now she's dead and while she's not being canonized, people who used to watch and read with sadistic glee about her latest flamingo-up (like a cock-up but much bigger) are now saying that she was a troubled woman with problems (really Captain Obvious? Really?) and that she should be pitied.
I really insulted someone when I pointed out that just a few days before her death, that person was saying that people like her should just drug themselves to death and now that she has you say that we should feel sorry for her. Really took offence when I pointed out their hypocrisy.
Now just recently we lost Whitney Houstin. This is a woman who I was unaware of her problems largely due to the fact that I have not had Television for many years now (and I do not fucking miss it) and missed out on all the tabloid outlets (like TMZ) showcasing it.
But it's the same thing. People who would document every little problem that she had while she was alive are now doing the same thing. Vilify while alive, canonize while dead.
You know what it reminds me of? Take a baby. No longer interested in a particular toy, they'll often throw it from them as hard as they can. But when you shrug and figure that since we're no longer interested in Mr. Bear, now's a good time to run him through the wash to clean all the baby hork off of him. And now that you've taken away Mr. Bear, we are angered that you took the favorite toy away.
