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Bloggy Blog #3

So the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards occurred over forty days ago now, and the world is still crapping the bed over a particular event that went down that evening. I guess I'll chime in with this:



Great. Now with that out of the way, I suppose the rest of this will make me look like a hypocrite for talking about it. I'm only doing this because I feel oddly compelled to, just like everyone capable of typing something has for almost a month and a half. Practically anyone with internet access has chimed in with their two cents. Recently, Sinead O'Connor tried to, and now she's apparently engaged in a TwitBook (Twitter+Facebook) pillow fight with Miley. Because hey, when you're a celebrity and have access to people who can get you things like other celebrities cellphone numbers or email addresses to achieve something that might accomplish more privately - the most logical thing to do of course is pen an "open letter" for everyone on the internet to read. Let's keep in mind Sinead is forty-six years old. Miley is twenty. 

I bring up the ages of these two ladies because frankly, it's not important. And that's the thing here - none of this is important. Miley Cyrus is not the first entertainer who has ever acted out as a kid. This has been well-chronicled by now, but Miley's doing the same thing Madonna did when she was younger. Christina Aguilera, Brittney Spears, hell we can even flip over to movies with Drew Barrymore. Every single one of them - and many others in between - needed that image-changing moment. This is Miley's moment right now. 

However, Miley's "problem" is not quite her problem. 

It's ours. 

We have created this monster that we can no longer control. The voice of reason is now completely irrational, and speaks through eleventy billion different voices. Everyone feels like they have the inside scoop on Miley's problem - and subsequently, your problems, his problems, her problems, and the problems of that guy over there. We're all way, way too invested in everyone else's ordeals. Miley just happens to be someone in the public eye, and so she receives the brunt of this kind of criticism. 

Why does she receive the brunt of it? Well, why not? She's much more easily accessible than any of us are. I don't have a Wikipedia page. Most likely, neither do you. The social media boom has turned most of us into terrorizing verbal jerks, painstakingly looking for somewhere and someone to listen to what we think is remarkably sage advice and wisdom. Read the comments section of just about any web article that allows such commenting. In those trenches lurk our inner bigots, critics, advisers, counselors, mothers, and scumbags - just to name a few. Thanks to the internet, suddenly we are all experts. Suddenly, we all know what's right and what's wrong. Nobody else has the inside scoop on a celebrity, or someone we haven't met. Except for you, of course. You know. You have all the experience in the world. You know what's up. You've got Miley's "problem" all figured out, and it's this, this, and that. And you're right. Because you're always right. Because you have the backing of an anonymous screen name. You have the power of that keyboard behind the screen. And you make the "problem" bigger by preserving it. Blowing it up. Bringing it up, time and again by commenting on it. Because the world must, must know your opinion. Because you're right. You always are. 

We're all merely a bad Yelp review away from getting unmasked - like that diner that didn't give you those extra napkins.


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