The demonization of celebrities
When U.S. Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte was allegedly robbed in Rio de Janiero, most Americans grew immediately concerned for his safety. Some Facebook comments on various news outlet postings after the incident (before we knew he made it up) were supportive of Lochte and critical of people who were anti-Lochte.
One read, “I think that it’s insane that some of you think that the four swimmers are making up a story for publicity. Ryan Lochte is probably the second most successful swimmer in human history, I don’t think he needs to make up stories for publicity.”
Another read, “It’s no wonder I hate Brazil. They should not be allowed to hold the Olympics ever again. They should also be stripped of their Olympic gold. I’d like to see Brazil banned from the Olympics.”
Finally, there was, “I choose to believe these swimmers over the Brazilian police!”
Given, a large amount of people stopped supporting Lochte after they found out he was lying about the whole order, but let’s compare the supportive comments about Lochte to the ones made on news posts that reported Kim Kardashian was bound and gagged, held at gunpoint and robbed in Paris last week.
First, “She likes to get gagged anyway.”
Next, “This was staged and they are lies, and if she was duck [sic] taped (be marks around her lips), and no marked around her wrist, it should be bruised at least. Come on people, insurance scam!”
And my favorite, “She is so lying. Hillary must be coaching her. Wasn’t Kyann (whatever his name is) just a few months ago saying he was broke or in debt for $10 million?”
These comments were made in addition to hundreds of other comments about people wishing the robbers would have killed her.
Kim Kardashian is not my favorite person. I think she and her family are rich and famous for no good reasons, they don’t necessarily seem to be the most intelligent people and I don’t respect their careers. However, I respect them as people. Have people made such terrible comments about her because they are simply annoyed by her?
It seems to me that the people making these offensive comments just dislike her for the same reason I dislike her. The difference between us is that I understand that comments like “too bad Kim couldn’t just do the world a favor and get killed” are extremely insensitive, inappropriate and unnecessary. Kardashian is a mother, daughter, sister, aunt and friend to many people and it sickens me that random people who have never even met her and more than likely have never been directly affected by anything she’s done have the audacity to wish her dead.
The question begs to be asked: Why was Lochte not given the same treatment? There’s no good answer to that, but one can certainly speculate. It could be because Lochte is a man, an American “hero” in terms of the Olympics, he is famous for actual talent and ability or simply because this scenario happened to him first. I am very curious to know what comments the world would make had this happened to Kardashian first. Unfortunately, I think a lot of them would be the same because of the poor reputation she’s made for herself through the years.
I can speculate for days about why we treated each of these stars differently, but overall I know one thing for sure: No one how much you dislike a celebrity or anyone of the sort, they probably don’t deserve to die. Quite frankly, the comments made about Kardashian are very hurtful and I feel truly sorry for her and her family.
I am in no way condoning these negative comments about Lochte, either. Yes, he lied and was wrong to do so, but I don’t think he deserves to die. Overall, our society needs to tone down the level of anger and hatred we spew on the Internet about people who really have no effect on our lives.
Our Viewpoint is written by Dakota Palmer, voices editor for The Spectator. The topic is agreed upon by the editorial staff of The Spectator.
