The Dark Lord versus Perez Hilton: Bullying

I never thought I’d type these words:

I’m with Lord Voldemort.

But there you have it.
On Twitter, I luckily caught the retweet of this pretty perfect comment of @Lord_Voldemort7’s tirade against the hypocrisy of PEREZ HILTON having the fucking audacity to lead a campaign against bullying, despite it being started by the well-intentioned Dan Savage.
I’ll let the Dark Lord have the floor:

Perez’ website is designed to ridicule & mock others. Whether it be a a smarmy comment, unoriginal nickname (kiki drunkst, Mischa Fartone, Slutty Cyrus etc) or a photoshopped picture with drool added; his posts garner attention through bullying. Currently Perez has made anti-bullying his pet project. He has gathered videos from celebrities & reiterated over & over the importance of putting an end to the very ridicule & comments that have made him “famous”. Additionally, celebrities have responded to his requests & made their own videos (many of them the celebrities that he mocks on a daily basis). Whether these videos are genuinely because the care about the cause or were created to gain favor with Perez is up to individual discretion. One thing is certain, creating these videos is simply the victims aiding the bully that terrorizes them. It’s Pettigrew all over again. (See what I did there? With the reference to the wizarding world? Yeah.)
In spite of my efforts for world domination, there still remains freedom of speech. He is entitled to say whatever he wants. However, to turn around & chastise others for writing “belittling, hateful comments” while calling teen celebrities promiscuous & other celebrities ugly or fat makes him a hypocrite.

I got chills when I read his rant, because this is how I’ve felt about the celebrity gossip world for years. I’ve hated it, I’ve ranted against it, and I love to see the sentiment shared by people who nail it to the wall.
The Dark Lord and I, in short, concur.
I don’t DO celebrity gossip. I don’t respect it, I don’t think it’s funny, and I don’t believe it’s a past-time. I think it’s an example of everything that’s wrong with today’s society.
I think anyone who’s ever been insulted, mocked, bullied, and hurt by others who enjoys spitefully tearing down public figures, yet cries out about the injustices they’ve supposedly suffered is a big fat h-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e.
Making a passing comment is one thing, but making a career out of finding things to spite in other people is something I will never understand.
Living in that headspace? Daily? How can you hold such contempt for people? I don’t get it. I need to hope and believe that we’re better than that as a society.
Everybody hurts. Everybody gets betrayed. Everyone’s all alone in their head.
When it comes to celebrity, I don’t believe that getting famous suddenly makes you impervious to pain. I think it makes you a target.
But, hey, in today’s society, everyone’s spiteful of success. We celebrate it, then we throw darts at it.
The only thing more hypocritical than writing those gossip columns is when one lives and dies by reading their favourite trash-slinging daily, especially devouring the juicy bits, then goes about life pretending they’re Little Good Citizen. Seriously?
I don’t really get this whole “It Gets Better” crap coming from Perez Hilton’s site. I don’t. The Dark Lord points out an absolutely fantastic ethical paradox.
Somehow, it’s okay to be the completely cunty gay man who slams the shit out of everyone’s self-esteem, using “gay” epithets as insults, but if someone’s cruel to a gay teen, that’s the world’s most horrible crime?
I HAVE AN IDEA. LET’S NOT BE CRUEL TO ANYONE.
Bullying sucks. Belittling sucks. Mockery sucks. Laughing and pointing? Really sucks.
I always reserve the right to comment on clothing that’s way over the top. And, you know, toupees and comb-overs. A lot of other stuff, though, really crosses a lot of lines.
It’s really pretty simple, you know.
Would it hurt YOU if someone said that about you?
Then shut your fucking mouth.
My interpretation of the “Golden Rule”. Enjoy. Apply liberally.
I’ve been mocked, bullied, harassed, insulted, and betrayed. Not just 20 years ago, but even weeks ago. I live on Planet Earth in the Internet Age. Of course it’s happened recently.
I will not knowingly do it to others. I will not support websites who do it. I will never behave that way on my blog.
If you don’t see the hypocrisy in reading gossip sites and you’ve ever been hurt by a thing people have said about you, perhaps you need to rethink your behaviour.
You need to rethink your integrity and your ethics.
Really.
Hypocrisy isn’t less offensive just because you’re pleasant to talk to at cocktail parties.
But, hey, it gets better. Chin up.

My thoughts about “It Gets Better”?
I love Dan Savage and I know his heart is in the right place, and I know Dan speaks out often about all kinds of injustices — he’s awesome.
However: the Bullying Problem is bigger than dressing it in platitudes. Instead of saying “It gets better, chin up!” I’d rather see all these stars use their power and high-profile to get some motherfucking laws up in here.
Bullying needs to stop, and it needs to stop in administrative levels at schools and workplaces.
Platitudes won’t do a thing long-term, but I really hope the campaign does change some thinking on the ground right NOW. Still.
Less ain’t more here — time to petition congress, parliament, whoever the hell makes laws in YOUR world.
Gay teens have longattempted suicide, but now it’s apparently en vogue to make videos about it.
Laws, people.
LAWS will save lives. And education. Videos will just make people warm and fuzzy for three minutes. Get real. Make shit happen. Change this. Go to lawmakers. Be adamant.
For those so motivated, check the bottom of this page for a list for how to accomplish getting laws passed against bullying.

6 thoughts on “The Dark Lord versus Perez Hilton: Bullying

  1. Matt

    I always thought I’d like to start a tabloid of my own… one where I expose the seedy home lives of the editors, publishers and “reporters” of other tabloids (or if I can’t expose anything, I’ll make it up). Maybe get a couple of photographers to stalk the other paparazzi and get incriminating, unflattering, or misleading photos of them. Basically a “see how YOU like it” concept.
    Does that make me a hypocrite?
    BTW, as much as I can’t stand the cheesy music, I find this video a rather clever jab at celebrity gossip rags: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CprGk5rKSC0

  2. Trish

    I’m with you 100%. I’ve never, ever, EVER liked those gossip rags, or their online counterparts. Criticize someone’s choice of clothing, or their hairstyle? Sure. Shit, I’ve made fashion decisions that could be generously called “flawed”. But make it a personal attack about someone’s face, weight, sexual orientation, or other characteristic? No. Never.
    If Perez REALLY wanted to put his money where his mouth is, he’d shut down his horrible business, and start getting behind a real movement to end this sort of behavior from ANYone.

  3. eeeegads

    I have to agree with you. I think you get back what you put out there, and unfortunately for PH, he reaps what he sows. His black eyes had less to do with the fact that he comes across as an a**hole, in my book, and less to do with his homosexuality. Furthermore, I know that neither I, nor anyone else I know, looks to PH for any sort of ethical advice on how to treat others, so I am not sure his statement means much. I hope it will help someone else, but really it just comes across as publicity stunt.

  4. Wendy Blackheart

    Huh. I have to agree with old Voldy as well. What sickens me is that, in the span of my life time, this sort of shit moved from trashy supermarket check out magazines (Which were just awful. At least you knew that the Inquirer was being silly and fun, what with Batboy and aliens and Jesus in Wheetabix or something) to real news papers. Every paper I read has a nasty gossip column. You know what? I actually want to read real news in my paper, not what ever is happening to Linsday Lohan. I can kind of see why they put it in the free papers I get (they have to move papers) but still – I do want to know whats going on in my city for real. Like MTA fair hikes and whats going on with the Islamic center near ground zero, or hey, maybe more about that guy who got gay bashed in the fucking STONEWALL INN. These articles should maybe be longer than Lohan’s ‘I’m so sorry, I’m in rehab’ article. Just sayin’.
    And PH is just a twat. I love a bitchy queen as much as the next guy, but he’s made his career out of tearing people down and shitting on them, and NOW jumping on board a cause because its queer youth getting attacked now? (And don’t even get me started on Dan Savage and his hate on for bisexual men….)

  5. Rob J

    I am becoming more and more aware that grasping, really grasping, empathy is the single most important lesson that anyone can learn. I believe that this lesson, fully grasped, would completely eradicate most of the violence in the world. It would have prevented any number of namecalling incidents that happened today on schoolyards across the world. It would have stopped Columbine. It would have stopped the Holocaust, the Witch trials,the Crusades,the Spanish Inquisition, and any number of other incredibly shameful periods in human history.
    Understanding and implementing actions based on empathy is the way to world peace, in short.
    Thanks for the post!

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