How can you get this message to the unwashed masses with a horse that tall?
I mean, where do you get off telling people who is worth idolizing? People have idolized less accomplished, less personable, less accessible people than those two since before media was a thing.
To me Stallman is a toe-jam eating crackpot with no social skills and an embarrassment to all those who support him and does little to nothing worth idolizing, yet I'm in a forum where I'd probably find no shortage of people who idolize him.
I'm not a fan of Justin Beiber... but are you really going to tell me he's not an accomplished artist?
Man does the tone of this comment just rub me the wrong way.
If following your advice means getting into a headspace where you don't cringe at the thought of telling people who's "worth idolizing"... maybe those fans are on to something...
I don’t know, it’s definitely wrong to decide who people should idolize but part of me feels like that’s what’s going on with the most popular idols, that’s why I feel the need to warn them.
There’s a good chance I’m just full of myself though.
We need to have a robust theory of human agency. That I play videogames with no moral worth or depth does not mean I don't also go to the gym, mealprep my lunches, or read philosophy in my free time.
Likewise, just because someone enjoys zoning out and scrolling on instagram or watching celebrities doesn't invalidate their other time that they may spend in beneficial activities.
Everyone has leisure activities that have no value - that's the point of leisure. When we start preaching to others, we've lost sight of what it means to be human.
These people would probably do better to spend that time improving themselves or looking at the amazing things and people near them that they could actually interact with, or if they have to idolize someone at least doing it to someone worth idolizing like an accomplished artist or philosopher. There’s a concern that I think I share with GP: these things are designed to put the viewer into a kind of consuming unsatisfied state that makes it easier to sell them things, and that’s probably a bad thing.
I’m not sure celebrities are so bad, often good ones have good things to say. It’s not like we don’t have our own either: every time FB or RMS sneezes it gets posted on hackernews a dozen times.