#fuck2016 etc...

I think fuck 2016 is an all encompassing hashtag

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Celebrity_Deathmatch_episodes

the order was predicted years ago

George Michael dies before Pee Wee Herman
Prince dies before the Prince of Wales
Fidel Castro dies before Antonio Banderas

I think the point here is that in the OG post you use the word 'celebrity' which is a massive difference to using the word 'talent', 'star' or whatever.

Celebrity comes with the territory but Prince, George Michael, Bowie, Caroline Aherne etc hated the 'celebrity' lifestyle

They were just regular people with immense talent

Massive difference here

Yep, very happy to agree with this.

Symantics.

What difference does it make when George Michael dies than anyone else? Why are people notably upset about the death of this stranger. It's weird as fuck.

When artists express personal feelings (it's what artists do, although there are, of course, many who appropriate the term without really having a legitimate claim to it), they may be felt by others to become closer to them than they really are. In the ideal scenario, great art also expresses more or less universal truths and goodness, which makes it even more likely that people will feel very connected to it and see it as of great personal significance. It's natural for people to feel grateful to the artist who produced the work, even if an artist's intention may be for it to stand on its own merits.

You're missing the point again and this thread may as well be called:

'The If My Aunty Had Bollocks Thread'

People on here saying they feel more strongly about people dying in Syria yet saying that people feeling grief over 'celebrities' is weird because 'you never knew them'

Hmmmmmm 🤔🙄

Welcome to 'The Contradiction Thread'

People don't choose what to get sad about as a rational decision, though, so I don't see what relevance it has to being 'rational, normal people' nor does it say much about 'the world we live in'.
I'm actually quite upset hearing that George Michael died, but I wouldn't have predicted it - I wasn't on a personal level upset about Bowie or Prince and I'd say I was a bigger fan of both (or any other 'celebrity' this year). It's not 'rational' but I don't think it's a big deal. 1. His music is strongly associated with lots of memories for me. People are nostalgic creatures and so it makes him feel 'important' to me in a way that someone who didn't make emotional music I liked wouldn't. 2. Yeah the relationship was of course one-way, but I liked him. I think that's within normal human sympathetic/emotional capacity, to like someone we've never met, even if we know it's based on nothing more than filtered PR fluff.
I just don't think it's that big a deal if people are upset about these things. It doesn't mean they can't also hold other thoughts in their head or be more upset about more important things. I don't think it's weird.

It's useful and understandable for people to find some kind of meaning/value in expressing shared loss in an easy, uncomplicated way, because it's a fuckload easier than fixing Syria or worrying about USA/Russia/China. Again, I think it's just humans being human.

On the day of christmas eve the body of a toung girl was found in a lake some 50 kms fom where she dissapeared thos summer. She was 17. Police say she was victim for a criminal act.
I think about her last time alive. I think about her family and friends. I don't care much about george michael. #fuck 2016.

Not to mention photos of dead children being carried out of collapsed buildings in aleppo. #fucktheworld :(

Edit: merry christmas

That is a bizzare distinction you're making. "This stranger" isn't some bloke they didn't know existed until this morning. This stranger, whether George Michael, Bowie, Prince etc is the human they have been listening to on their radios for decades, singing along to in the car/shower/pub, dancing to at weddings, listening to at the funerals of loved ones, paying to see perform at concerts, buying their albums and watching on TV.

Building memories and a connection with another human through the music or art they've created, and tangling it up with our own lives is hardly a difficult concept to grasp.

Don't get me wrong, I understand feeling discomfort at the value we as a society attribute to public figures over everyone else, and the outpouring of grief on social media is often over the top. But to me, if after years of seeing a person in popular culture, who you've made a direct connection with to your own life and memories, and you felt nothing, that would be weird as fuck.

Agree with Fyoosh and Hoefla

I'm not fussed about the #fuck2016 sentiment, although it's quite interesting that it's definitely a mix of celebrity/pop culture death and serious geopolitical stuff like Syria/Trump/general rise of right wing populism. I think it's quite natural that people are upset about both, and there's been lots of out-pourings on social media and coverage on the news about Syria and Aleppo this year.

Humans aren't really rational and I don't think we should aim to be all the time. There's something creepily neoliberal about the constant need for rationality - like our emotions should be like economic markets and we should be most sad when the objectively worst stuff happens. That's not really how we perceive tragedy and loss. I don't have the energy to be sad/angry about everything that I should be, because it would be pretty much 24/7. Also one death is something I can comprehend and relate to because I've experienced in my life with friends and family - the deaths of thousands of civilians in a conflict I still don't really understand can be harder for people to grasp. I have been physically upset by the news numerous times this year though but I would say i'm pretty emotional.

Some figures relating to celebrity deaths in 2016.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38329740

Then there's also the question of who even counts as a celebrity in the first place.

This is a key point. There are more people construed as celebs by some media with the fragmentation diversification of media outlets. So headlines about celeb lives in, say, hello magazine I and many on here probably will not have heard of

I don't care what all of yous think.

George made me comfortable masturbating I'm a public place and for that he will always have a place in my heart.

Trufax.

If rapha dies I'll mourn for a month.

Then buy le col obvs

rep

Top marks on all.

I actually genuinely miss Malik Taylor. And Dylan Rieder. Never met either.

Shit year personally so am 100% down with #Fuck2016. But if Kim Kardashian and Graham Norton karked it in the next 5 days I'd probably look back fondly. Celebrities are a disease. Talent is a blessing.

I can't believe George Michael's death is today's lead story

I couldn't believe that a minor royal's miscarriage was lead news story. Pretty harsh on a personal level and absurd given what else is going on in the world.

Is it my imagination or did celebrity news used to come later on the main TV news? Freddie Mercury's death on evening TV news is something really strongly marked in my memory, it seemed to be a massive deal at the time with lots of airtime given over to it, but I think it was at the end of the programme. Might be totally misremembering.

Celebrities and sports news should go at the end. People want to know this information, but it isn't Important News.

I've thought before that wars should go at the start of the news, every day, ranked in order of numbers of people involved, regardless of whether the UK is. Every single fucking day for the duration of conflict.

Anyway. Your a weird.

Two words

Jade Goody

RIP IN PEACE

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