Whitney Houston has died

[Rasix]

Who?

[Mrbloodworth]

Exactly!

[HaemishM]

I'm with Bloodworth on this one. I'd rather the media piss themselves to death over someone who actually was more than just a singer. Or just, you know, leave the family and friends alone to grieve privately instead of plastering their faces all over the news 24/7.

[Sky]

Dude.

If we're going there....

Dime.

[HaemishM]

Yeah, like seriously Dimebag. Or a whole host of metal artists that no one has seemed to give a shit about except the small nest of metal fans. Cliff Burton for another.

There's just a lot of people that to my mind contributed more to the world of music than a very talented, messed-up warbler.

[Rasix]

I'm with Bloodworth on this one. I'd rather the media piss themselves to death over someone who actually was more than just a singer. Or just, you know, leave the family and friends alone to grieve privately instead of plastering their faces all over the news 24/7.

But they won't, because they never heard about them.  The public tends to care about dead people they know about.  That's kind of why they're the public.  We can rage and pout all we want, but she's still Whitney Houston and anonymous to 99% of everyone, metal god, is still going to be nothing more than some obscure counter point no one gives a shit about.

Personally for me, it's another dead junkie.  Whoopidiy-doo.  I have enough personal experience with worthless junkies to not care about when they finally kick it. We're just waiting on my uncle's liver to finally give so we can forget his ass exists.  His most often repeated line is "I have no regrets".  Really?  A guy that hasn't lived in a place of his own in like 35 years, has 3 kids that won't speak to him, divorced, toothless, dying, and generally disliked by everyone still thinks slamming heroin into his veins was worth it all.  

fast edit: Heh, even I've heard of Dimebag and most probably know about Cliff.  It's not like a drummer from Sepultura or something.

[Paelos]

I say we piss on her corpse while we're at it.

[ghost]

I say we piss on her corpse while we're at it.

 

I didn't know you were into that kind of shit.

[Paelos]

Me and R Kelly. Corpse pissers.

[Azazel]

What kills me is the hypocrisy of it all.

People die of drug abuse in the streets every day and people don't give a fuck. But when a celebrity dies everyone is supposed to be gushing about it.

Everybody being indignant about people don't paying proper respect to Whitney Houston dying better be equally heartbroken about the Hobo down the street. Apart from the people who liked her music she was equally important to society.

Tebonas wins the thread for me and my line of thinking. It's not about empathy or lack therof. It's about "Why is *famous person* more important than *other person*? Why should we mourn Whitney any more than, say Ryan Bonaminio.

[Velorath]

What kills me is the hypocrisy of it all.

People die of drug abuse in the streets every day and people don't give a fuck. But when a celebrity dies everyone is supposed to be gushing about it.

Everybody being indignant about people don't paying proper respect to Whitney Houston dying better be equally heartbroken about the Hobo down the street. Apart from the people who liked her music she was equally important to society.

Tebonas wins the thread for me and my line of thinking. It's not about empathy or lack therof. It's about "Why is *famous person* more important than *other person*? Why should we mourn Whitney any more than, say Ryan Bonaminio.

Clearly it's impossible to empathize with every single death that occurs, and celebrities are not more deserving of mourning than anybody else.  That said, it's not the lack of sadness or empathy from some people here that bothers me, it's when people feel the need to say stuff like "Fuck her, she made her choices".  If you don't care fine, but taking it any further than that is unneeded.

[Selby]

I have enough personal experience with worthless junkies to not care about when they finally kick it.

"I heard a police man say it's just another overdose.  Just another overdose."

As much as it sucks for her family that she's dead, I know enough people personally who have their own drug struggles who have cleaned up or aren't doing well so I end up having a hard time giving much sympathy for drug addicts that I don't know (famous or not).  Especially since I've had so much oh my shit stolen or broken into by junkies looking for anything to sell over the years.

[Lantyssa]

It's sad for her family, but no impact upon me.

The people in my life who screw up?  Yeah, those matter to me.  Some made it, some didn't.  All of those were sad, but not like I expect anyone to care beyond thinking it's a good thing to try and help those who are having a hard time making it.

[Sky]

It's sad for her family, but no impact upon me.

Sure it does.

AAAAAND IIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIII.....

Ad nauseum for a while. Then maybe it can go away for good. But we'll always have the oversinging divas to reminds us of her.

[ghost]

There is a big pharmacologic/physiologic difference in how one person reacts to a drug as compared to another.  If we all were to take the same blood pressure medication, most of us would respond fairly typically, but a small subset of us would not really respond at all and an equal subset would respond a lot.  Addictive drugs like heroin and cocaine and alcohol don't act any differently.  Some people lie in the subset of strong responders and just cannot put down the bottle.  Some people have absolutely no interest in drinking, even a tiniest amounts.  Most of this interaction for the severely addicted is based on biology and not "willpower" per se. Once you get a person that responds like this it doesn't really matter how much money you have to start with.  Money can't change biology, at least not yet.  Those types of folks are always going to end up in the same spot-  dead.  The fact that Whitney actually had her shit together at one point and made a lot of money doesn't change any of this or make it any less of a sad case.  

[Khaldun]

Notice that the answer to "why should we care about famous person?" cuts both ways. You could argue that we should have sympathy for people whose lives are messed up, whether they're famous or not, or that we should be equally dismissive of both the famous and non-famous.

[ghost]

Notice that the answer to "why should we care about famous person?" cuts both ways. You could argue that we should have sympathy for people whose lives are messed up, whether they're famous or not, or that we should be equally dismissive of both the famous and non-famous.

Very true, but the sentiment here seems to be more negative against wealthy or famous drug addicts as compared to the street corner variant.  The biological portion doesn't care how famous or rich or poor you are.

[Mrbloodworth]

No, but the clinic does.

[Ironwood]

I don't think so.  I think it's more 'what's the difference' ?

For my part, as I said already, it's a shame and all but it's not important to me and the wailing and gnashing of teeth is ridiculous and unneccesary.  She had every opportunity to seek help, biological factors or not, more so than some others do.

I have no fucking idea why we're wasting 4 pages now talking about it.  There are people getting fucking murdered in their beds all over the world for madness reasons.  I don't intend to waste much thought to a totally avoidable death that everyone saw coming miles off.  Just like Winehouse.  Just like Jacko.

[ghost]

I have no fucking idea why we're wasting 4 pages now talking about it.

 

You really don't know why?

[Sky]

Because pot kills.

[01101010]

Because pot kills.

Cast Iron ones especially.

[IainC]

As can be expected, the learned scholars and philosopher poets who inhabit the comments section of Fox News have been in fine form.

Not Safe for Faith in Humanity

Likewise A Powerful Argument for Electrifying the Mason-Dixon Line.

[Engels]

Wait, isn't Little Green Footballs a right leaning mag? If so, good for them on policing their own base a bit. More than any other right wing mag has done.

[MahrinSkel]

Charles Johnson had an "I'm surrounded by assholes" moment, decided he wasn't on board with the (barely) veiled racism and blatant anti-intellectualism of the right-wing blogosphere, and made a very public "These guys are fucking nuts!" denunciation.  These days they hate him even more than they do Kos.

--Dave

[luckton]

Since her funeral's happening right now, I thought I'd hold a candle-light vigil for her.

[climbjtree]

Whitney Houston, one week sober! Woo!

[Ratman_tf]

Whitney Houston, one week sober! Woo!

I loled, you terrible asshole. 

Really. People care about celebrities more that a bum down the street. No duh. That's just the twisted way people work, and the reason why a mother can love her child and not break down crying every second of every day over all the children of the world who died today. Because if we couldn't compartmentalize, we'd go nuts with grief.

[Merusk]

It was funnier when I heard it the first time for Amy Winehouse.

[climbjtree]

Who is Amy Winehouse?

[Paelos]

Another dead junkie.

[Der Helm]

Need a rope there, Paelos ?

[croaker69]

The christiany lack of judgement is palpable...

[Paelos]

Should I clarify? Another singer with massive drug problems who died of an overdose after even going as far to sing a popular song about how she would never go to rehab.

Judgement was where exactly? She is factually 1 - Dead, and 2 - a junkie.

[climbjtree]

Opinions! And I was just trying to reverse-troll Merusk!