I'm mostly, but not exclusively, referring to Kanye West. I don't humor the "Ye" thing because as part of his god complex he started using it because he saw the King James version of the Bible and its abundant use of "Ye" as directly speaking to him. That's not the only example; in fact unless I grossly misheard one of the "good" tracks that was recommended to me, Kanye West outright says "I'M A GOD" in it.

Yes yes eccentric genius and all of that. I don't like god complexes, no matter how rich and famous someone gets. I don't grant eccentric genius passes for them and sometimes I wonder why almost everyone else seems to. :doomer:

  • UlyssesT [he/him]
    hexagon
    ·
    2 years ago

    I don't fully believe that. It's too wide a presumption, and even if it were true, there are degrees of severity between, say, Fred Rogers and Kanye West.

    • CarmineCatboy [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Well, those two might be in the same industry but they aren't in the same class. Rogers is an entertainer, but Kanye is in the celebrity business. It really isn't the same thing. One is an educator who made a tv show for kids back in the 1950s, the other is a musician in the age of the influencer. Celebrity runs on narcissism. Managing and selling someone's personal image is what work consists of in this buiness and nowadays it doesn't even need a starting point such as 'being a movie star'. People are famous because being famous is their job.

      • UlyssesT [he/him]
        hexagon
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        You said "good entertainer" not "celebrity" in your first reply and Fred Rogers was also a celebrity arguably.

        That said, yeah, in a post Paris Hilton world, it does seem "famous for being famous" is the only kind of famous that matters.

        • CarmineCatboy [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          Not me, I'm somebody else. And yes I agree. There are different levels of achievement when it comes to entertainment. You don't need to be a narcissist to be a good singer. But the music industry does select for a given type of personality. What I'm saying is that I don't think Fred Rogers is a good comparison here.

          Sure, Rogers achieved celebrity status. I'm not an american and I never even saw a Fred Rogers show but I am aware of him. Someone who watched the shows in their formative years have personal reasons to remember the man fondly. And then there's this media I randomly consumed at some point on YouTube. These two relations are distinct and interdependent. Rogers had an impact as an educator and a media person, which leads to his memorialization. One feeds into the other.

          The difference from an industry of celebrity is that (presumably) Fred Rogers didn't get started with the proverbial 'you are really good at this kid, I'm gonna turn you into a star'. Turning out icons is the beginning and the end of the music and film industries. Maybe someone in the studio always had the idea of turning Fred Rogers into the biggest edutainer in America, but I'm guessing children's public broadcasting is rather chill and less cocaine fueled than, say, the 17th circle of hell otherwise known as the k-pop industry.

          • UlyssesT [he/him]
            hexagon
            ·
            2 years ago

            It's too bad you never saw the show. It went hard even if its reputation among the masses is sort of Flanderized (the show covered the Vietnam War in its first week and discussed political assassinations a short time later!) and just about every criticism that Mr. Rogers made of pop culture and the direction it was heading came to pass, regarding what lasting damage is done to children and to extension to society when its entertainment complex only cares about profits and sensationalism.

            • CarmineCatboy [he/him]
              ·
              edit-2
              2 years ago

              From what you're describing Fred Rogers and the work surrounding him was about caring for children and edifying their lives. That sort of work selects for someone who is humane. It's entertainment sure but it's at least 6-7 parallel universes detached from, say, Tom Cruise, who has a literal cult built around him. While the next Fred Rogers is studying to be a teacher, the next Kanye West is making a tik tok duet in their grandma's funeral for views. And if life rewards you with fame and fortune for something like that, you'd have 0 reasons not to behave like a god. You've been pre-selected for narcissism and your narcissism puts food on the table of dozens of investors, thousands of brand consultants, and millions of underpaid bengali footwear assemblers. Not to mention the scores of people who do worship you.

              So really, what I'm trying to ask is: can you think of someone in the same business as Kanye West who is comparatively down to earth? And if so, wouldn't you say it's probably down to either a) they have a brand-image of someone who's good, kind natured? (Ellen Degeneres lmao), or b) their individual psychology?