#fuck2016 etc...

Every time another celebrity pops their clogs and disappears to the VIP party in the sky, I see all number of interentisms 'fucking 2016' and I can't help but find the whole thing to be unbelievably absurd. Come on guys! Are you fucking morons?

What does it say about the world we live in when rational, normal people are genuinely upset that a star (they didn't know) who is no longer producing any work of merit dies?

Can we discuss?

apparently, my wife does not agree...

Agreed.

I'm looking forward to an @Oliver Schick comment on this.

I do enjoy reading the drivel reaction on Facebook. Although I am losing respect for so many 'friends'.

The rise of the right is more of a concern.

You can find some rich pickings on the RIP thread.

In 2017 no celebrities will die obvsly

There are some interesting thoughts about the perceived value of a celebrity life and the one-wayness of our 'relationships' with the celebrities.

Definitely not a fucking moron. Thought Bowie's Black Star was ingenious. Leonard Cohen's final offering listened to by me (60) and my hip hop devotee son (22) both finding quality and depth. George Michaels latest due in March 2017 may provide some interesting sounds. Rick Parfitt and Status Quo entertained me for a lifetime. Massive respect. So...I'm OK with feeling sad when these and other lower profile and possibly more talented musical artists step out into the big stadium in the sky. Or the corner of a pub lounge. Miss them all.

Fuck 2016

General rational normal people want to break up he EU too. Because celebrities?

^classic derail

Thanks & Sorry. Yes I agree with you. Like lady Di madness only slightly less insane.

I wasnt a huge fan of george, but can appreciate he wrote some great songs. never met him and know little about his personal life, but from what i've read he seemed to be a nice man.
The fact he is only 8 years older than me makes me reflect on time and my own mortality but am i crushed? do i need to share on facebook? No.

i'm a much bigger fan of lou reed and bowie (to give examples of recent deaths) but again, still just not that sad. ive seen them both live, but never met them. their music is always going to be there.

Wasn't that a complete farce with people trying to out-mourn the next person. The same with the Queen Mum, absolutely fucking ridiculous. I bet someone will put a bouquet of flowers outside Snappy Snaps too, thought that might actually be amusing. I hate public outpourings of grief as they just look so false like when Kim Jong-Il died.

it's a good thing none of the almost 50,000 Syrians killed this year graced Top of the Pops or there'd be a real bout of Twitter wailing

Nothing worse than people being saddened by the deaths of people they didn't personally know. Empathetic cunts.

I pruned one of George's trees at his place in Highgate a few years back. Was a nice guy and made good coffee.

Euph?

Anyway, mostly, I'm not bothered one way or another, but a couple have made me a bit wistful.
I think it greatly helps that I've never had, nor never will have an arseface account.

My daughter, an otherwise normal 23year old with a degree, turns into a twat when telling me things I don't want to know, about people I don't know.

Fuck Facebook

Tru dat.
The older I get the fewer celebs I know or care about. In fact I only know or care about Bob Dylan now...

And Facebook. Well i left Facebook because no one said anything I understand

I can't believe George Michael's death is today's lead story and I agree on the collective outpouring of false grief thing. It is sad though and the timing particularly is, I feel for his friends and family who will be reminded of it every Christmas.

FWIW, there was a significant increase in celeb deaths in the first quarter of 2016, then things went back to normal for the rest of the year. But there is a perception that it has been worse than usual.

I think the #fuck2016 thing is part of something wider though: Trump, Brexit, Syria, Aleppo, Mosul, lots of militant attacks, some with high death tolls etc. etc. Objectively it has been a pretty grim year.

Agreed all the #WTF2016 is v.tedious. False empathies or otherwise aside, why can't people see the 'phenomenon' for what it is: the ageing demographic of the 'celebrities' known to an unprecedentedly connected and vocal generation, who were kids in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Celebrity deaths are a red herring, of course. I don’t think 2016 would come out much worse in the analysis than previous years if we had access to the full information. There have always been unreported wars, agenda-driven media, etc. We worry about our perceived impotence in the worst client war in recent memory, but the more or less open resumption of such wars happened in 2014 when some people seemingly imagined they could just sneak Ukraine away from Putin’s influence while he was distracted by Sochi. Syria and Aleppo have been horrible stories for two years at least, can’t remember when it started. There’s no winner in puppet civil wars. In the ‘West’, enabled by steadily rising inequality over the past few decades, political extremism has been undermining the established centrist parties, which, while the parallels are not as strong as perhaps they could be, creates an uncomfortable echo of the situation in Germany during the early Depression, 1930-1932, not helped by the apparent neo-fascist agenda driving some prominent contemporary political figures. Plus ça change, plus ça reste la même chose.

Charlie Brookers year review should be good

fuck 2016 has more to do with brexit and trump hasn't it