You are not only hypocrites, but kind of heartless (Re: Britney's Breakdown and CS)

The BBQ Pit
1

I’ll say this from the get go: I know this wont go well for me. The general attitude on this board about celebrities is very detached in the sense that celebrities are them and normal people are us. It’s a perfectly understandable perspective, but for goodness’ sake.

Over in this CS thread, people are discussing Britney’s breakdown last night. While the facts are still moderately unclear, what we do know is:

[ul]
[li]Britney was supposed to turn her kids over to Kevin at about 7. When she refused, the police were called.[/li][li]Before long, there were like 20 cop cars, 3 police helicopters, and several ambulances sent up the hill towards her home.[/li][li]Four hours later, she was wheeled out, strapped to a gurny and put into the back of an ambulance. [/li][li]A few minutes later, her youngest son- Jayden- was brought out and put into the back of another awaiting ambulance.[/li][li]Both were rushed to the hospital. [/li][li]While in the ambulance, pictures have surfaced where it seems Britney was restrained even further with some sort of blanket or something.[/li][/ul]

The speculation is that she suddenly freaked out and started screaming that she’d rather die than let him have her kids. She locked herself in a room with the baby and kept screaming this. Supposedly, while she was being wheeled through the hospital, she was screaming that she wanted to die.

Regardless of what she’s done in the past, I think even a lay person with no more psychological experience than watching an episode of Dr. Phil can see that she is clearly having some sort of breakdown. Is it drug induced? The reports say no. But, does it matter? Either way, here is a young girl who is clearly over her head, having some sort of breakdown, and putting herself AND her two young sons in danger.

And yet there are people in the thread making jokes and downright cruel comments. Most didn’t know her kids were in danger, but even after I pointed that out, I was compared to Chris Crocker and told that I was on a high horse. Como what?

Look, there is a tremendous double standard on this board. When it comes to mental health, there is a huge amount of sympathy around these parts. Actually, it was reading here that made me realize how awful mental illness can be- I don’t have depression, rarely even get sad, and have some issues with empathy, so for a very long time, I thought that depressed people were just weak. Reading here made me realize that depression and other mental illnesses are SERIOUS diseases that can’t really be blamed on the individual.

My point is: I don’t understand how a place that is so sympathetic towards even (to me, at least) the strangest mental illnesses can be so absolutely cold in this case. Is it because she’s a celebrity? Maybe. I, frankly, don’t understand the disconnect. I mean, here she is- a young girl who certainly has made some questionable decisions in her life- losing it totally and almost hurting herself and her sons. How is that funny? How is a two year old being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance even kind of a laughing matter?

Maybe Biggirl is right, maybe I’m oversensitive (this would, quite truly, be the first time in my entire life I would have been accused of that! I’m usually the cold and heartless one), but great googly moogly, I don’t understand the double standard one bit.

Oh, and I’m not pointing out anyone in particular, because this thread isn’t about that. I don’t want to go back through each poster’s history to see if they’ve defended the mentally ill or anything anyway. I’m instead pitting the general feeling of this board, as well as the expected, general reactions to cases like this.

2

I agree. While I can’t speak to whatever general attitudes are prevalent on this message board, I’ve seen this disconnect many times with media coverage of celebrities. It seems to be an integral part of the definition of celebrity: they’re not real people, they’re quasifictional characters in the public consciousness, and as such not afforded the same disinterest with which we would react to knowledge of a stranger in the same or similar situation.

3

Much as I enjoy mocking celebrities under most conditions, I’m with Craig Ferguson where Britney is concerned. The girl is a mess, and she’s long since passed the point of mocking, IMO.

I’m with you, DiosaBellissima, on thinking that laughing about last night’s mess is definitely crossing some kind of line. Of basic human decency, at a minimum.

4

Instead of making fun of Britney Spears, we should be making fun of the people who obsess over her and read about her in gossip websites and magazines - those are truly the ones to be pitied.

5

You know, I actually agree with you to some degree. And I say this as someone who actually enjoys reading the gossip sites and such. I was thinking about it this morning and I realized that I’m doing nothing but contributing to the train wreck by refresh Oh No They Didn’t every 10 minutes. Actually, my initial interest was wondering if her kids were ok, but now that we know that, I’m not paying nearly as much attention. Anyway, my point is that I’m with ya- I realize there is a disconnect in my actions as well.

I’m just baffled though, by the viciousness some show for her. She’s a person, too, but as SpatialRift47 says- no one seems to remember that.

6

Not that I want you to do it, but this might be where your answer lies. It wouldn’t surprise me that posters who frequent “mental illness support” threads don’t also frequent “PALATR” threads.

What frustrates me about the situation is that Spears has shown herself to be thoroughly unreliable and on the verge of a breakdown for quite some time now, yet still gets unsupervised visitation?

7

Spats said it pretty well - I’m not sure it’s this board, so much as it is a general attitude in the media, and hell - society as a whole. If Britney weren’t Britney, and instead was the girl down the street from you with two kids, previous drug/alcohol issues and a messy divorce, there would be a lot less mocking, a lot more concern for the kids.

8

Twenty cop cars, three helicopters, and several ambulances? Why embellish? And why concern yourself with “speculation?” Wouldn’t “facts” offer a better handle on things?

9

There was a court appointed monitor there- she isn’t allowed unsupervised access to the kids. The monitor is who called the police.

10

I’m sure this type of situation plays out all across the country on a daily basis- parent doesn’t like custody arrangement and at some point says fuck it, I’m not letting you come in and take them tonight at seven as arranged. Something vaguely similar happened to me as a kid, but it took one cop to handle it, not ten, and no fire department, FBI, biohazard team, etc.

And why on earth would they take the kid to the hospital if nothing happened to it? And I’m no law talking guy, but can any judge allow her any contact after this?

11

What am I embellishing? Three police helicopters.

More cops showing up.

I was watching the live feed for a bit last night-- her entire street was lined with cop cars and then paparazzi. There were two ambulances in her drive way and another one on the street.

12

I agree that it’s tasteless and insensitive to come on this board and make fun of Britney’s troubles. It’s much, much better to continue to do so only among friends and acquaintances, or even alone while watching the trainwreck on tv.

13

Na, TV is out. Everyone knows they are a good three hours behind all of the good stuff. :wink: kidding, kidding.

It’s tasteless and insensitive regardless, but I think that it’s particularly hypocritical around here, where the general sentiments are that mentally ill folks deserve nothing but sympathy. I still fail to see how this situation is any different.

14

Neither CNN nor MSNBC mention helicopters, and both refer to six police cars, not twenty. If you prefer gossip blogs to standard news outlets, and speculation to facts, more power to you, I guess.

15

Does it really make a difference, though?

16

Uh, 98% of celebrity stuff that is reported on CNN and MSNBC in regard to celebrities is taken from TMZ. TMZ is one of the leading paparazzi agencies. Almost ALL of the footage being shown on standard news outlets, as well as their updates, are coming directly from TMZ. In fact, most news stations happily cite TMZ as their source.

I watched the video feed. You don’t have to believe me, but I know what I saw- an entire street lined with cop cars and three ambulances.

That’s a good point, as well. The point of the OP really doesn’t surround around that particular data point anyway.

17

Then how did they miss the twenty cop cars and three helicopters?

18

I think **Arnold **hit closest to the mark. There really is a culture of celebrity worship going on and for everyone that thinks of Britney as her role model, there’re a dozen more that think of her as an inhuman piece of trash that exists only for the schadenfreude they get from watching her come apart at the seams. This board tends to have a larger number of the latter and I think part of the reason is its own culture of being above such plebian interests.

A lot of malcontents, intellectuals, nerds, geeks, and other people that don’t quite fit in have that sort of attitude and it’s almost enough to choke on here at times.

19

Facts v. speculation? Not if you don’t think so, I suppose. It does to me.

20

Beats the hell out of me. The live feed was from a helicopter that would randomly pan out from the house and onto the street- the whole thing was lined with police cars, there were two ambulances in her drive way and a third on the street. You could see two of the other LAPD helicopters in the footage from the Fox News feed at certain points, too. You’re right though, I didn’t see the third.

Then again, I’m probably just making that up. I mean, why not? I figured I’d concoct a really good story so I could make a Pit Thread where I was 90% sure I was going to get flamed for anyway. What can I say? It’s how I pass the time.