(03-01-2022, 10:49 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Almost all "celebrities" today. What a contrast to what I see on MeTV, Buzzr, GetTV and other channels that broadcast the old shows. The Dean Martin Roasts were gatherings of real celebrities. Today, such phonies think that whatever dumb remarks they make are interesting just because they are celebrities; that is when they are not shouting and raving and stomping and yelling about nothing. I could not even name most of these non-entities and I won't even try.
Any Republican speaker like the current nonsense being sprayed over the land by the governor of Iowa to respond to a Democratic state of the Union speech, extolling the virtues of sameo sameo neoliberalism and trickle-down economics-- even if not using those terms, that's what it is. Truly annoying and truly inconsequential in the extreme.
Sport stars are entertainers, except that most entertain with some athletic activity. At least one sporting 'institution' counts as useless due to the nature of the sporting event. Roller derby at least went into obscurity because its devotees were largely 'trash' for advertisers -- poor people with little disposable income. Not even tote-the-note car lots want its viewers; that is saying something.
Contrast pro golf, which has a high-end clientele of people who buy expensive stuff, use brokerage services and high-value life insurance, and take lots of expensive trips. Golf gives advertisers an audience which watcfes little TV but is the dream audience for some items that non-affluent pople rarely buy. At this I speak of pro wrestling. I'll say nothing of its viewers but instead of the spectacle: it is awful. At least the poor people with little disposable income may include those unfortunate to be paying off student loans while paying off student loans necessary now even for much clerical work. Neoliberal economics creates a huge proletariat of people under the compulsion to be over-worked and underpaid while elites that wax greatly make some of the easiest money possible.
So I went from sports to economic inequality fast? Sure. I can talk of much-lauded sports stars like Brian Bosworth and Joe Charbonneau who failed to live up to their hype. I can also talk of athletic cheats who got stripped of medals after they proved positive for performance-enhancing substances, and of course Tonya Harding (enough said). Len Bias of course exemplifies good cause to eschew "nose candy".
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.