I can't believe this is happening but I just can't listen to it anymore.
I don't have much respect for Paris Hilton, well, actually zero, but I have heard enough of this collective schadenfreude to last me a lifetime. The amount of venom and anger out there is truly extraordinary, specifically for it's irrational proportion to the crime.
I'm surprised there isn't a lynch mob outside the jail by now.
It all makes me (gulp) FEEL BAD FOR PARIS HILTON.
Let me start by stating that this is in no way a quixotic attempt at defending her character, her merits as a celebrity, or her worth to the culture at large. I'm merely observing and following my heart's response to the savage public stoning that is occurring right now. And I'd also like to add that this is not in response to anything I've read here on Dailykos.
Okay, follow me below if you dig...
Seriously, folks. I feel empathy for her. I don't find it funny. I'm the only one I've met. Even my wife is laughing, admitting to enjoying this so debacle, the tears, the talk of suicide.
The way I see, it Paris never done anything to me personally so why should I feel joy at her suffering? Because she was in a sex tape? Because she's daft? Because she goes to a lot of parties but still somehow doesn't have much to say?
Uh, nope. Sorry.
I try to keep the number of people I despise to those that actually have caused damage to the world. You know, like: murderers, presidents, evil oil execs. (sorry for the redundancy)
One may argue Paris has lowered the culture, has set a materialistically shallow model to emulate; but she didn't do any of that by herself. Her people did. The magazine editors. Paparazzi. The public that buys that shit. There are a lot of culprits involved in the dumbing down of the culture. It didn't start, nor will it end, with her. I'm sure she didn't even come up with "that's hot" by herself.
So go ahead and hate Paris with every ounce of bitterly twisted loathing you've got. I'd rather save my outrage for where it counts.
All day at the office I heard women in other rooms yelling updates back and forth about whether Paris was going back in. When the "good" news hit, I heard one of them yell, with feverish joy: "she's definitely going to serve the whole time now. Stupid bitch!" I wanted to walk up to her, shake her, and ask, "did Paris Hilton shoot your dog, piss on your rug, and fuck your husband? No, then what's wrong with you? I mean, as a human being?"
Okay, I work in Hollywood so I guess I should expect that gossipy, superior attitude from co-workers, and to expect compassion from this town is my bad; but I read it all day online too.
People are actually treating this as some kind of victory for the working man. Some kind of long awaited justice.
Give me a fucking break!
She just got a glory-seeking, prick of a judge, that's all.
Let's look at some of the facts.
Even the sheriff said the penalty was harsh.
Baca also charged that Hilton received a more severe sentence than the usual penalty for such a crime, but said he would not try to overrule Sauer's decision again.
"The criminal justice system should not create a football out of Ms. Hilton's status," the sheriff said grimly at a press conference.
Too late for that.
Forget for a second that Hilton is viewed as some sorta air-headed Hitler, does this sound right?
A member of the county counsel's staff said Baca was willing to come to court with medical personnel. The judge did not take him up on the offer.
So the judge has a problem with the sheriff and his decision to release her because he thought she was in trouble, but didn't bother to have him show up to discuss the issue. Sounds like a judge who is feeding off the emotion of the public to punish Paris to the max!!!
This same week Scooter Libby was sentenced to two years in prison, our vice president's right hand man, for obstructing justice in the investigation of a CIA leak. All done under the shady service of revenge, payback to an anti-war critic.
Yet, Paris Hilton is the individual that is viewed as public enemy number one?
She's the one everyone is attacking, denouncing, insulting?
What does that say about us?
Every time someone laughed at the picture of her crying in the cop car, or scoffed at the idea that she may be suicidal, or proclaimed how deserving she is of this punishment and mental abuse because -- you better sit down for this -- she was in a sex tape, or is vapid, I felt more sympathy for Paris Hilton and became less and less hopeful for the future of this country.
What a pack of wolves we have become.
Is there not someone out there willing to say: damn this girl's life is screwed up right now, let's chill for a second? Is there a Christian that will pray for Paris?
The worst thing (albeit it in a charmed life) she has ever experienced is happening in the middle of a wrathfully obsessed public eye. The things I've heard and read have made me wonder what this girl really did to people? Justice in a robe and a gavel is one thing but this public tarring seems way, way overboard.
There is a rumor that Baca was afraid she would get a staph infection that is going around the prison and it would look bad. That's a much bigger issue:, our treatment of prisoners and the deplorable conditions they are kept in, there's something to rally against.
If this is true then yes, Paris was treated differently than the other inmates who weren't removed from the danger and that's wrong. That is an important discussion worth getting into. But it's drowned out in the pointless rancor about what a baby Paris is being, or how she deserves what she gets because she's spoiled.
Yes, I know, she's dumb, shallow, materialistic, promiscuous, blah, blah, blah.
But how many folks are going out tonight for a couple of drinks and then driving home, after spending all week wishing months in jail for Paris? How many men are hoping, praying that they can find a cheap one-night stand this weekend, after spending all week calling her a dumb slut?Sarah Silverman was greeted as a hero for trashing Paris to her face, a comedian who jokes about rape and whose career took off after she started dating the well connected Jimmy Kimmel, and was well known as a "free soul" before settling with Jimmy, who, by the way, was married at the time.
I guess it takes one slut to know another.
Paris may be scum, may be vile, but the way we're treating her right now is not something to be proud of. Paris Hilton is a real person believe it or not. The more we treat her like a symbol of what's wrong with America, and rage against her with hate and hypocrisy, the more we become her.
We created her, and now we're taking pleasure in destroying her.
Who knows? Perhaps she'll find redemption. Perhaps we will too.
Meanwhile, over in Iraq...
from the pages at artofstarving.com