I Feel Sorry for Celebrities Thread

[neonspectraltoast]

I don't know why, but I feel such pity for these, ostensibly, wildly happy people. They seem to me to be victims of an unsympathetic enterprise. I know it's not healthy...in many cases for your life to be a ticking clock, to be repulsed histrionically by the "common" and "commoners," which thing, verily, thou art.

I just saw a pic of Burt Reynolds walking with a cane. So alone. Superficial love is the worst kind, but it poisons every aspect of our culture.

[6-eyed]

I don't.

It's not easy to become famous. They worked their asses off to get that far. From an early age they craved attention and that's why they chose a career path that would get them plenty of it. Many people work their entire lives trying to get famous and it never happens to them.

[Din Djarin]

A lot deserve to be pitied imo. But in the end we're generalizing about celebrities. They're a diverse bunch of fellow humans.
I prefer not to focus on celebs or value them beyond their particular kind of work.

[6-eyed]

I suppose a lot of them soon grow to realize the fame doesn't fulfill them the way they thought it would. And eventually grow tired of the attention and the lack of privacy.

[neonspectraltoast]

Sometimes it's not, and sometimes a person just has a passion, but more often than not it's circumstantial and arbitrary.

"They worked their asses off..." No. They did something or looked a certain way that was deemed marketable. (If that.)

Some, though, even if circumstances made it their birthright, do have a true passion.

But, then, Jill Schmill might have a true passion and have been born in a junkyard. Where's she? Shooting up heroin in an alley.

All kinds of people, in the saddest, most soul-sucking way strive to be famous. Which is why I say the whole concept is reckless and corrupting.

But, as to celebrities, I know there's nothing to them. There's no special knowledge. Talent, arguably. Knowledge, no. They're just put in a situation where they're worshipped and left to psychologically account for that. They're worldly because they're famous, not the other way around.

And it often ends in tears and chaos, once their youth and marketability expire.

Brendan Frasier, for instance...suddenly everyone loves him again. But it's like night and day. Before he finally landed a role, the public was being awful to him. Now he's in the winners circle again.

I just don't agree with the way our society is structured. I think we can have the arts without dividing people into classes, and those lines, with social media, are becoming very blurry anyway..

And it's just not conducive to a healthy society to tell some human beings they're simply superior to others.

Radical thinking, I know.

We're a hairs breadth away from worshipping fictional human beings.

[neonspectraltoast]

Not that I mind. I just feel bad for them, especially when the spotlight dims. After building up this idea in their heads of being so praiseworthy, and overnight you can't get a role, can't sell a record...

It's like a dog that wants to be a good boy. I feel bad for a lot of them that way.

[Din Djarin]

Meh, i only agree in a meaningful way with this:

I just don't agree with the way our society is structured. I think we can have the arts without dividing people into classes, and those lines, with social media, are becoming very blurry anyway..

Having a verdict on people because they happen to have become celeb is nonsensical and pointless in most cases.

And it's just not conducive to a healthy society to tell some human beings they're simply superior to others.

They get more attention because more people know them, or better said: because more people take notice of them/have the feeling they know them. I don't think they're really seen as superior. But what they have or how they seem to live is craved by the gullible fan.

[Jessica]

They're definitely treated as if they're superior, and the stupider ones will start believing it.

I feel sorry for people like Grimes. She made a couple of videos today first explaining her absence from the internet as having developed intense anxiety about being on social media.. and just going by how anxious Treefort has been able to make me at times, I can only imagine what it's like having millions misunderstand you. The second wanting to explain her ideas about wealth redistribution through video games, which meant little to me.. but I can tell she is exactly the kind of person willing to experiment with radical new ideas to replace the whole broken system we're living in. And right away the comments are full of "omg what lipstick are you wearing" etc etc. And then there will be the criticism of her ideas from people with no ideas of their own.

People who chase fame to fill some hole in themselves, I pity them but in a different way. The way I pity anyone who isn't finding inner fulfillment.

Others become famous with purpose, because they have important things to say or beautiful art to share, and the fact that we just kind of shrug off the abuse they get as "oh well they shouldn't have put themselves in that position then" seems so fucked up.

[neonspectraltoast]

If not superior, society leans towards fame as a cherished goal, of which only a select few will attain.

And that's fine...I think it'd be great for their health if they could walk down the street and somehow still make art, but society will have none of that.

And nobody just warrants that kind of money, but its supposed to be sensible that they do. And it's a great divide and ruinous to our culture, which doesn't hold a common man in high esteem.

And why should it, as he's only a glutton for sex and money. But, oh, family, I forgot.

[Youfreeme]

I don't know any celebrities well enough to feel much of a way about them. I'm sure they are a diverse bunch with complicated inner lives, just like the rest of us.

[neonspectraltoast]

Yeah. I probably can't say I pity all celebrities. The girls more than the men folk, definitely. But even then.

When they're having troubles, I worry. It's also backwards that I'm so supportive of them.

I just notice myself feeling bad for them quite often.

I think we have an overblown and misguided sense of success in general. Psyches are complex, and people think fame and fortune will flip on eternal happiness, and it just won't.

What you're left with is the same existential human condition we all face, yet held to a superficial standard of some mythical idealized version of yourself.

And it's all the worse that some of them try to buy into that completely, especially the flash-in-the-pan females, but maybe that's sexist of me.

[neonspectraltoast]

It's weird that people perceive the impoverished as being less susceptible to pain, too.

[neonspectraltoast]

I don't really want to know who is being served by all this. Will art die?

I guess I'm just too much of a revolutionary. I don't think it will. And I think the establishment makes an ass of itself buying its own hype.

[neonspectraltoast]

I just think in more classical terms, but I think the truth is we're all scared. This society isn't built for the real long haul, though...and celebrities may know that better than your average Joe.

I'd rather just let it be, though. I suck the fun out of everything being nice. Man was not meant to be considerate.

[Jessica]

One day we'll all start glorifying each other equally, I hope. Like we do here. Don't we kind of treat everyone else on the forum as a celebrity of the forum? Like that but everywhere and in real life. Got to be a post-capitalism thing because take the money out of it and fewer people would be celebrities anyway.