Category Archives: News

Celebrity is a Performance

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The Neil Gaiman story which went much wider this week with a long and disturbing account of his alleged sexual assaults and other nasty work has stirred up some very deep feelings of betrayal among his fans in the fantasy and horror communities.

I don’t blame them for feeling betrayed. Gaiman had constructed a nearly perfect public persona that invited respect and admiration. He doled out advice that encouraged artists of all stripes as they struggled with impostor syndrome, his stories celebrated the outsider, and they presented a level of inclusion that welcome many groups of people form whom society has always felt excluding and threatening.

But it his public persona was all for show, and the most vital lesson we need to take away from all this is that all public personas are for show.

Gaiman, Whedon, Cosby are but a few names of men with public faces that made them admired are people who lifted up others and presented what appeared to be images of our better selves. The truth for each of these turned far darker than most expected.

Everyone who is some form of celebrity presents a public face that is not their true self. Some do it to market themselves and their art. Some do it to cover up an inner insecurity that never leaves them. Some do it because their true selves are not readily accepted in wider society. This is particularly true for those in the closet. But some do it to conceal their monstrous nature.

On the outside looking in we cannot not their true selves, we can only know what they project, the image that they create and distribute for their own purposes, some of which are mercenary, some self-protecting, and some nefarious. This is way it is important to never place anyone on that pedestal of admiration.

Praise the art, praise the skill of the artist, but do not believe that simply because of the art that they are good. They may be, there are noble, good, and great people everywhere, but you cannot know them save by their actions and even then, your data set is limited by what they want you to know.

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A Murder in Mid-Town

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Yesterday morning in New York City, the Chief Executive Officer of UnitedHealthcare was slain in what seems to be an obviously preplanned assassination. Leaving his hotel, Brian Thompson was shot multiple times from behind by an assailant who took precautions to mask his identity and fled on foot and on electric bicycle and remains uncaptured.

Following the killing a lot of dark, nasty, and cruel comments began appearing on social media, much of which utilized the for-profit Health Care industries verbiage utilized when denying coverage for medication, procedures, or care.

I know nothing of Brian Thompson as a person or as a CEO. He may have been a man who wanted to bring more care to patients under UHC’s coverage. He may have been the sort of CEO who demanded that every department met ‘quotas’ for rejected claims to protect profits. He may have been a kind and empathetic employer, or he may have been the sort that demands you return to work and leave friends and loved ones stranded. Whatever the case for Thompson as a person murder is murder and the assassin needs to be brought to justice.

The hot and fierce feelings of those people making their online comments is utterly understandable. My job previous to my current one was working for a medical access company. Doctors would send over to us proposed treatments for patients and our company dealt with the byzantine bureaucracy of the for-profit insurers to obtain the approval. UHC was one of the worst to deal with. For some treatments it seemed that every single request was denied forcing us to launch an appeal on the patient & providers behalf. In my opinion that denied knowing that some people wouldn’t know to appeal to avoid that expense for the company. When politicians, nearly always Republicans, scream that you don’t want bureaucrats between you and your doctor it infuriates me. They are there already and making it more expensive and complicated than it needs to be.

Perhaps the murder in mid-town was because someone’s healthcare was delayed or denied and for someone this broke them in a violent manner. It has been reported that shell cases at the scene had the words ‘deny, defend, & depose’ written on them and that support this possible motivation but until the killer is captured, we will not know the truth.

I have not made the biting, cynical, cruel comments that others have but man oh man I understand the hurt and the rage that motivates them.

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