Are you suggesting that you did have something to add to this thread? And what makes this thread a more appropriate place to point out differences? You didn’t come in here to point out differences, you came in to smear the thread with your supercilious “You’re all a bunch of posers” snot. Save it.
You claim people don’t sincerely grieve when someone dies unless they were personally known. That’s what’s going on here, fuckwit: Thompson was NOT “just a writer,” and certainly not “just a celebrity”; he was an active, living personality in people’s lives. I was aware of his loony presence as a continuing part of the world I live in, on a day-to-day basis. He was not words on a page; he was a fully-formed person in the mental landscapes of his fans.
I’m not trying to educate you; I read your smarmy post, full of “rather remiss” and “another person who is incorrect.” I’m thoroughly not impressed that you are a Ph.D. candidate in History. I’m particularly not impressed that you assert that grief is a one-upmanship contest. And I’m fucking appalled that in the middle of so much honest, obvious grief you’d drop in to dismiss it all as a la-di-dah game of Look-At-Me.
You took a great big shit in a memorial thread. Get it into your thick fucking skull.
Bullshit, judgemental asshole.
Man may live as he wants, and die as he wants. And it isn’t your call, and you have no right to choose how someone else chooses to end their life. It’s wrong in your little fantasy realm where you have the unmitigated audacity to think you can enforce your aesthetic prefrences for death and call them ‘right and wrong’.
Because it’s a MEMORIAL thread!
It was a memorial thread, and although people were talking about it from different angles, nobody was slandering his memory. Except you.
For fuck’s sake, just stop being an asshole and apologize!
Nobody ever made it clear it was a memorial thread where only positive things could be said about the man.
Well, since nobody can tell me how to live my life, I going to do down to McDonalds and masturbate in front of everybody. Don’t judge me or tell me it is wrong.
Ooh, are those my only two choices?
“Kel-atchu, I choose you!”
You’re who I’m really mad at - and I don’t agree with your *opinion * that Thompson was a coward.
Just Fuck Off.
Shitting in a memorial thread is impolite bordering on naughty. Especially when they involve cats (Just so you know). Note the multiple Tuba threads we have. And the Carsons. Just such an illustrative example might serve you well here.
You are being pitted for being impolite. The fact that you are a moron is admissible in this pitting because you have established a pattern. If this was an isolated incident, then we would take it on its face, and not judge you on your general punkness. Yes, I learned that from Law & Order.
I didn’t go shit in the Enterprise is cancelled thread. Think. Learn. Apply.
Kel, you’re stretching here and I think you know it. I think you’re also being purposely evasive.
What you basically did was go to a memorial service for someone who just died and peed on the roses. Would you do that in real life? I think not. Or if you would, you probably wouldn’t have many friends left.
Would you want that done to yourself when you died as well?
Inre: the issue of mourning the passing of famous people who we did not know personally:
All I know is that a person who had the ability through his writing alone to simultaneously inform me, make me think and make me laugh my ass off is a person who is making a positive contribution to my life and it’s a contribution I am entitled to feel bad about losing.
HST’s literary voice was uniquely valuable and is irreplaceable. American journalism is now poorer for his loss.
This thread was started in the Pit. Image if it had been put into Cafe Society right after the death.
If you wanted to start a thread on the “cowardliness” of Thompson’s death, you should have put in the the Pit, preferably waiting a while before starting it. Even if you hated his work, show some respect and compassion for the Dopers who appreciated his stuff.
You’re really quite cute when you’re acting like a moron. Sure the second half of your name shouldn’t read “ass” instead of “elope”?
Whether you’re impressed with my grad student standing is irrelevant to me, not only because your opinion is manifestly worthless on its own, but because i only made the point to demonstrate that my lack of grief over Thompson’s passing had nothing to do with ignorance of his value as a writer and a cultural figure. If you can’t understand that, you’re even thicker than you appear, which would be quite a feat.
Also, i didn’t “drop in” in the midst of the grief. In fact, if you bother to look at the thread in question, you’ll notice that i have not made a single post there. As i said to someone else before, if you want to grieve, go right ahead, and if you want to talk about your grief in that thread (or in any other), then do that too. But don’t expect me to walk on eggshells in other threads just for your selfish ass. Fucking moron.
:Sigh:
Do i have to say again that i believe the world is poorer for Thompson’s loss? After all, i’ve only said it in three of my posts so far. But if it makes you feel any better, i officially reiterate the sentiment again in this post.
I’m not saying that we should feel nothing when someone like Thompson dies, only that, for me at least, what i feel for the loss of such people is not the same as what i feel (or would feel) over the loss of someone close to me. I guess this sort of things depend both on how we define and describe what grief means to us, and also on our own psychological makeup and how sensitive we are to different emotional stimuli.
I’m not saying that you’re wrong to feel the way you do, any more than i’m saying that the way i feel is objectively “right” or “correct.” All i’m saying is that i don’t undertstand why you feel that way; it’s not something i can identify with in a case like this.
Also, when i suggested that grief over celebrity deaths was a case of emotional one-upmanship i was overstating the case, for which i apologise; i don’t believe that this is by any means always the case, and i wasn’t trying to minimise the feelings of those who do, in fact, have genuine emotions over issues like this. Of course, the reaction of people like jackass only tends to confirm my suspicion that, for some people, grief is all about them.
Do you have no empathy at all? Was the vast outpouring of grief and mourning not evident to you? The shock, the sadness, the anger, the disbelief? You didn’t notice them?
Pfft.
Hunter killed himself in his own home. In the privacy of his own home. He’d called himself a ‘private criminal’ and he died the way he lived. If you go out into public and masturbate, well, you’re just a masturbating chimp. But this may very well be the case if you don’t go out in public, judging by your posts.
The good thing is that Hunter obviously doesn’t give a rat’s ass what any of us think of his decision. It was his to make, and I’m sure his reasons were valid enough for him.
And that’s that. The man is dead. For those who can’t understand or aren’t willing to see his greatness, it’s your loss.
Hunter Thompson was a hero to me, much like Charles Bukowski and Kurt Vonnegut. I guess only one of them will actually die of old age. And sadly, he’s getting old enough to do just that. Fack. There just aren’t replacements for people like this. And they aren’t “celebrities,” they’re writers, and there’s a BIG fucking difference.
Speaking as someone who battles depression on a daily basis, and constantly has to keep thoughts of suicide at bay, I can tell you that there is no greater hell than knowing that your own body would like nothing better than to see you dead. I do not wonder why anyone kills themselves, I only wonder why so few do.
Frankly, Kel, “fuck you” doesn’t express my feelings towards you well enough.