What Is A Celebrity?

Who said a celebrity is someone who is famous for being famous?

According to Bing:

The term originates from an analysis of the media-dominated world called The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-events in America (1961), by historian and social theorist Daniel J. Boorstin. In it, he defined the celebrity as "a person who is known for his well-knownness".

Hmmm.

Circa 1976, when most American homes still only had access to three or four channels, and the fuse was still burning on what would be a cable explosion, Dick Cavett mused aloud at the dilution of fame. He had watched a recent version of a delightfully wacky game show called "Celebrity Sweepstakes" that featured six--what else?--celebrities. Cavett stated that he could only identify one or two of the acclaimed celebrities while reminding the audience, "...and I'm in the business."

Then we had cable TV and The Internet and more Internet and YouTube and Twitter and even more social media. The celebrity concept seemed to change with each technological advance. An evolving paradigm, if you will. 

Predictably, the species has grown to Malthusian proportions. The numbers swell with the absence of anything resembling excommunication or retirement. There are no ex-celebrities. In 1969, Pope Paul VI removed over two dozen saints from the canonical roster of holy people. Recently, we have seen monument toppling, renaming of institutions, and even disinterment of fallen soldiers. Cancel culture has not struck celebrityship. Even if you are the third banana in a short run sitcom that ceased production several decades ago, you are still in the club. Once a celebrity, always a celebrity.

With that in mind, let me direct your attention to GLAAD's recent call for censorship.

Let us put the content of the letter on the proverbial back burner and examine the celebrity signatories. Get ready to scroll.

Abby Wambach
Adam Eli
Aitch Alberto
AJ Shively
Alan Cumming
Alejandra Caraballo
Alejandra Ghersi
Alex Clark
Alexandra Gutierrez
Alisa Ramirez
Allie Leonard
Allison Goldfrapp
ALOK Vaid-Menon
Alyssa May Gold
Alyssa Milano
Amber Ruffin
Amber Tamblyn
Amy Schumer
Amy Landecker
Andrew Polk
Angelica Ross
Annaleigh Ashford
Antoni Porowski
Aparna Brielle
Arden Myrin
Arewa Basit
Ariana DeBose
Ariana Grande
Arisce Wanzer
Avan Jogia
Barbie Ferreira
Bebe Rexha
Bella Ramsey
Ben Barnes
Benito Skinner
Benj Pasek
Bethany Cosentino
Bethany Leavel
Billy Eichner
Billy Porter
Bob the Drag Queen
Bobby Berk
Bonnie Milligan
Brad Oscar
Bradley Whitford
Brandi Carlile
Brandon Matthews
Brendan Hines
Bretman Rock
Brian Smith
Brigette Lundy-Paine
Brittany Tomlinson
Busy Philipps
Caesar Samoya
Camila Cabello
Camille A Brown
Cara Delevingne
Chani Nicholas
Chella Man
Chelsea Handler
Cheyenne Jackson
Chris Perfetti
Christa Miller
Cleo Wade
Colton Haynes
Corey Jantzen
Cynthia Erivo
Cynthia McWilliams
Cynthia Nixon
Cyrus Veyssi
D’Arcy Carden
Dakota Fanning
Dan Levy
Darren Criss
David Shatraw
David Oulton
Debra Messing
Deepica Mutyala
Demi Lovato
Des McAnuff
Devery Jacobs
Diana Maria Riva
Diane Guerrero
Diipa Buller-Khosla
Dylan Mulvaney
Ed Droste
Eddie Ndopu
EJ Marcus
Elegance Bratton
Eliot Rahal
Elle Fanning
Elliot Page
Emily Hampshire
Emily V. Gordon
Emma Hunton
Erin Reed
Estefania Pessoa
FLETCHER
Freddy Thomas
Gabrielle Union-Wade
Gigi Gorgeous
Glennon Doyle
Gottmik
Grace Kuhlenschmidt
Griffin Dunne
Haley Baldwin Bieber
Hannah Gadsby
Harry Lambert
Hayley Kiyoko
Hilary Montez
Ilana Glazer
Indya Moore
Isaac Mizrahi
Jackie Bazan
Jacob Tierney
Jai Rodriguez
Jameela Jamil
James Blake
James Scully
Jaymes Vaughan
Jamie Lee Curtis
Janaya Khan
Janelle Monáe
Janet Hubert
Jazz Jennings
Jeannie Mae-Jeninks
Jenna Lyons
Jennifer Kerr
Jeremy Fall
Jessica Betts
Jillian Mercado
Jinkx Monsoon
Joe DiPietro
Jonathan Van Ness
Jonathan Bennett
Jonny Pierce
Jordan Stenmark
Jordan Firstman
Jordan Roth
JP Saxe
Judd Apatow
Justin Baldoni
Justin Tranter
Kal Penn
Kamar de los Reyes
Karamo Brown
Kate Reinders
Katherine LaNasa
Kathryn Grody
Kellie Overbey
Kelly Devine
Kendrick Sampson
Kevin Harrington
Kevin Cahoon
Ki Griffin
Kimber Elayne Sprawl
Kimberly Drew
Kristin Chenoweth
Lachlan Watson
Laith De La Cruz
Laura Terruso
Lauren Jauregui
Laverne Cox
Lena Dunham
Lena Waithe
Lena Hall
Lilly Singh
Lily Rabe
Liv Hewson
Liza Koshy
Lola Tung
Lorin Latarro
Lovell Adams-Gray
Lucky Bromhead
Mae Martin
Mae Whitman
Maggie Boccella
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan
Mandy Patinkin
Marc Jacobs
Marc Kudisch
Marieme Diop
Martha Plimpton
Matt Bernstein
Matt McGorry
Matt Walton
Medalion Rahimi
Meena Harris
Megan Crabbe
Michael D. Cohen
Michaela Jaé Rodriguez
Michelle Buteau
Midori Francis
Miriam Silverman
Moj Mahdara
Molly Bernard
Mona Chalabi
Montego Glover
Munroe Bergdorf
Nate Wonder
Nats Getty
Neila Karassik
Nicholas Ferroni
Nico Carney
Nico Santos
Nico Tortorella
Nicole Maines
Niecy Nash-Betts
Nik Dodani
Ocean Vuong
Olly Alexander
Our Lady J
Padma Lakshmi
Patrick Stewart
Patti LuPone
Peppermint
Phillip Picardi
Phoebe Robinson
Poorna Jagannathan
Rachel Cargle
Rafael Silva
Ramy Youssef
Randy Shulman
Raquel Willis
Richa Moorjani
Rob Holysz
Robert Horn
Rory Dahl
Rosario Dawson
Rupi Kaur
Sam Smith
Sander Jennings
Sandy Rustin
Sara Bareilles
Sara Ramirez
Sarah Ramos
Sasha Velour
Scott Turner Schofield
Shawn Mendes
Shea Couleé
Shea Diamond
Sherri Saum
Sinead Burke
Solomon Hughes
Stephen Kunken
Susie Park
T. Oliver Reid
Taika Waititi
Tan France
Tatiana Maslany
Tess Holliday
Tiffany Namtu
Tommy Dorfman
Tracee Ellis Ross
Travis Alabanza
Tunde Adebimpe
Vivek Shraya
Wanda Sykes
Warren Carlyle
Wayne Cilento
Wilson Cruz
Yves Mathieu East
Zoë Chao
Zooey Deschanel

Without consulting IMDB, how many of these names do you recognize?

I could identify 6 of these by name and the name produces a picture in my mind. 

I could list a show or movie associated with 5 of the listed. 

There are about a dozen names that are familiar but do not bring trigger any mental  association.

I am not trying to be intentionally daft and granted, I do not consume pop culture as ravenously as I did years (decades actually) ago. Still, I could identify more YouTubers or Civil War generals or past winners of the Indianapolis 500 than I can name from this list. 

How many can you identify?

There Is No Right-Wing Hive Mind, But There Are Dozens And Dozens And Dozens Of Echo Chambers

Let me state once more that I believe strongly in the non-existence of a right wing. I believe in a Leftist Hive Mind but I hesitate to use the geometric term "Left" because that implies a spectrum concluding with a "Right Wing". 

The forces who oppose The Hive are so vastly different from The Hive that they should not be considered the same species. The chicken is not a right-wing equivalent of an ant colony. Nor is the weasel, the lamb, the slug, the leech, the snake, the turkey, the pig, the badger or the buffoon. All creatures great and small might fear The Hive but the similarities end right there.

We do not envy the Hiver whose only point of reference is her flattering house of mirrors. As free thinkers we can explore nature's many, many echo chambers. Some of us devote our time if not our lives to such pursuits. 

Unlike the phobic, brain-dead Hivers, we can entertain ideas without submitting to them. There is no danger in what we hear, but there is danger in what we don't hear. That which we no longer hear. The contradiction, the falsity, the duplicity, the deception. The bull shit.

As with things like transparency, capitalism, and republicanism, eclecticism's flaws are better resolved by more eclecticism, not less. Truth is not threatened by eclecticism, it is refined by it. Truth is brought into focus by varied perspectives.

There is no far-right, alt-right, or right wing. There are only echo chambers.

The Democrats' Tribal Morality

What is good for the Democrat Party is moral.

What is bad for the Democrat Party is immoral.

That is tribal morality. 

Groupthink. No think.

This brand of fundamentalism permeates the soul of every Democrat.

There is no sense of common good.

There is no sense of shared interest.

The Party and only The Party is significant. Other is evil.

We saw this ethos on full display during the recent Durham hearings. Thumbnail: Durham reported serious crimes committed by high-ranking Democrats and their henchmen. Congressional Democrats attacked and vilified Durham and impugned his testimony.

If you just returned from a long cruise you might say something like "The republic cannot withstand unconditional partisanship! Western Civilization cannot endure this toxic fundamentalism! Our nation cannot survive an entrenched political party that is unconcerned with the welfare of our beloved country."

To which we might reply, "That was one long ass cruise, buddy."

You would have witnessed something similar when card-carrying liberals, Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger, were ridiculed and insulted by Democrat Representatives after exposing "Twitter File" censorship. Every Dem Congressman was uncivil to the witnesses. Zero exceptions.

This has been the state of affairs for a long time. January 6 insurrection hoax. Widespread election fraud. BLM riots. Hillary's espionage and brazen destruction of subpoenaed data...we could go back to the Lois Lerner coverup. Crime. Scandal. Lawfare. Homicide. "What" never matters to the Democrats. They are only concerned with "who and whom".

Tribal morality trickles down to the rank and file. What you might see as abnegation, they see as loyalty to Team Blue. If the minions do not possess the expertise to slay a enemy, they can certainly be counted on to rig a judicial proceeding in favor of the Dems. Their capacity for destruction is only limited to their skill set.

There is no middle ground with fanaticism. We can hope for some sort of mass deprogramming. We can hope for a resurgence of the Walk Away movement. We can hope that millions of cultists reclaim their individuality. We can hope but it won't happen. 

What is good for the Democrat Party is moral.

What is bad for the Democrat Party is immoral.

A Message To An Old Lefty Friend: It's Not Just That They Stole Your Mind

 No, we don't talk much anymore. Funerals and weddings maybe. I appreciate it when you text me that a mutual friend has passed away. In the old days, that would have triggered a phone conversation or maybe even a communal cup of coffee. No more.

Discounting the brutal effects the aging process has inflicted on this writer, I submit that I have not changed all that much. You, on the other hand, have undergone an ugly metamorphosis. 

The Kool-Aid has been unkind to you. It has not turned you into a bad person and it certainly as not turned you into a good person. The Kool-Aid turned you into a non-person.

You are an empty shell of the human being we knew and loved. You are much like the aged relative wracked with dementia. Yes, we still love Uncle Harvey and we want to make sure that his staff keep him clean and warm, but that person we try to talk to is not Uncle Harvey. Not the Uncle Harvey we like to remember. That Uncle Harvey was sharp-witted and kind and loving. The person occupying Uncle Harvey's body is cold and fearful and incapable of exchanging ideas and perspectives. Nature has played a cruel joke on all of us.

Tell us what GOOGLE ET AL wants us to believe and I can tell you what your opinion happens to be, one hundred percent of the time.

Climate Change.

Election fraud.

January 6.

COVID containment.

COVID vaccine.

Donald Trump, of course.

The Bidens.

Kyle Rittenhouse.

It's a long list. If it's been in the news, your perspective has been assigned to you, and you guzzle the Kool-Aid with pronounced gratitude. So kind of your overlords to spare you the burden of thought.

But the greater tragedy is not that you surrendered your mind to the overlords, the worst part is that you have also sacrificed your heart and soul.

Many a Kool-Aid abstainer expressed sympathy with George Floyd at the first posting of his barbaric treatment. You waited until the overlords decided that Floyd would be a sanctioned victim and that his death could provide a venue for determining the outcome of the presidential election. On cue, your roaring sentiment would hit the stage.

As Floyd's death descended (from my perspective, not yours) into political theater, we would witness displays of conspicuous compassion. Each new event more animated than the last, culminating in arson and homicide, and "Black Lives Matter" lawn signs sprawled across the fruited plain. Virtue signaling and fund-raising and more virtue-signaling and more fund-raising. Pay no attention to the marionette's strings. Our hearts are big! Huge! Enormous! Gigantic!

When Ashli Babbitt was murdered in cold blood, the Kool-Aid abstainers reacted in horror. You, on the other hand, provided a laugh track. She was a Trump supporter for crying out loud! She walked into the Capitol! Death might have been too good for her! HAH HAH HAH! A real knee-slapper!

The laugh track would grow louder each time Babbitt's mother protested her daughter's death. She would be cruelly heckled and brutally handcuffed and a sidewalk memorial dedicated to her deceased daughter would be destroyed. Your sympathy, your empathy, your compassion will only be expended on designated political pawns. Insert laugh track here.

 I remember a younger version of you, a different version of you, who was...human. You had a heart and a soul and you would have been sickened by Babbitt's murder and repulsed by her mother's abuse. Like Uncle Harvey, that person we knew and loved is long gone. Someone has played a cruel joke on all of us.

My Harshest Criticism Of Donald Trump

 My harshest criticism of Donald Trump:

You can judge a man by his enemies and in the case of Donald Trump, he checks all the boxes. Has there ever been a human being who has compiled a better gallery of antagonists? From Hollywood to Silicon Valley to Wall Street, and of course, DC, the worst of the worst have risen from their crypts to attack Donald Trump, his supporters, and the best things American. 

The latest lawfare attack by Jack Smith and his band of Latter Day Nazis serves to enhance DJT's iconic value. He is the only thing evil fears. No one else scares them.

The Trump Administration was successful in bringing peace and prosperity. Better than both predecessor and successor. Trump hit the light switch Obama would never touch and Biden tripped over himself to turn the switch off. A second Trump Administration might be even more successful, but...

We were told by more than one pundit that Donald Trump is a sharp judge of character with a keen eye for talent. His intuitive business skills stemming from his looking someone in the eye from across the table served him well. A perfected skill honed over decades of practice. People sense. Social IQ. A character accountant more accurate than those mystics who read auras or chakras or energies. The master.

Why then, was every Trump appointee a disaster? Even before he landed on the White House lawn, Trump had selected Mike Pence as a running mate. His first appointee turned out to be a Judas. Let's not be too harsh, even Jesus selected a Judas. You pick 12 people and the law of averages catches up with everyone. But how do you select a turncoat every time?

Jeff Sessions would be Trump's first Attorney General. Sessions would open the door for Rosenstein, Mueller, Weissmann, CNN, the FBI, et al, to hold the Trump administration hostage and to boost Democrat performance in the 2022 mid-terms. One bad apple?

Sessions would eventually be replaced by deep state heavyweight, William Barr. Yes, Mr. President, you outdid yourself. Rotten apple gave way to cyanide apple. Three years into retirement, Barr is still working to destroy your administration's great work.

Trump fired the world's tallest dirty cop and replaced him with the equally corrupt Christopher Wray. Was there no one else available? No one?

Usually, a president can find a general who won't betray the country, but Trump seemed to fail in that endeavor. Yes, he did select Michael Flynn, but remember that Flynn got waylaid by two other Trump selections: Mike Pence and Jeff Sessions. Chief of staff is usually a safe bet but not in the Trump Administration. Were there any good selections at any office? Mike Pompeo? Nikki Haley? John Bolton? Rex Tillerson? It isn't even crystal clear that Trump's three Supreme Court appointees are who they claimed to be.

If I was advising Ron DeSantis, I would tell him to publicly support Donald Trump's war against the deep state. Yes, he fought the good fight and his values are sound, and his policies were damn near flawless and his enemies are my enemies, but he failed to crush those enemies. Trump is a good soldier but not a great general.

Not sure what campaign slogan to give DeSantis. "Fewer Benedict Arnolds Appointed" does not roll off the tongue. "Not As Many Loser Appointments"? Needs some work. "Lesser Disappointments!"? "Lower Quisling Content!"?

How about this one, Ron? "Drain The Swamp".