It seems that Americans have their priorities up their asses and that outrage may only be hemorrhoidal.
James Hellwig’s death and the subsequent coverage of it seems to have enraged the fans of The Ultimate Warrior into almost a rage of the aforementioned roids (Hem or Ster). Nancy Grace’s treatment of the “Death Of The Ultimate Warrior” has raised not simply the ire of wrestling fans nation wide but also their willful ignorance of both Hellwig and Grace, with both of their past indiscretions being ignored in favor of pointless outrage.
About Nancy Grace
Nancy Grace has always been a poor excuse for a TV personality and a worse example of a human being (and she was never a journalist so don’t you dare call her that). Grace has none of her namesake and is a vulture of human misery personified and yet for all of the evils she has perpetrated under her guise as a humanoid creature there has never been as much indignation as what has happened subsequent to her commentary and insinuations over the death of Hellwig. There is a massive “CANCEL NANCY GRACE” campaign being spun around the internet with furious wrestling fans calling for her head and that makes me cringe that THIS was the tipping point for people. Really? Not her shameless and offensive abuse of her authority over the years? Not for Richard Ricci who was wrongfully targeted by Grace as Elisabeth Smart’s kidnapper despite no evidence to support such an allegation? How about during the farce of the Duke Lacross trial and how Grace willing withheld the exonerating evidence from her viewers because she wanted ratings and to hell with the truth? Melinda Duckett perhaps? Grace accused Dukett of killing her 2 year old son and badgered Duckett so hard that Duckett committed suicide after her manhandling by Grace and the non-stop assertions that, with NO evidence, Duckett had to have killed her child*. None of these caused the mainstream of america to crow for the cancellation of Nancy Grace and yet her (admittedly) shameless coverage of Hellwig’s death starts this ball rolling? Do you people even care about right and wrong or the general ideals of morality anymore?
How Wrestling Fans Reacted
The big deal here is that wrestling fans are simply appalled that Grace would suggest that Hellwig’s death had something to do with steroids… Hellwig admitted to steroid use in the past and given his build at the time of death, suggesting that steroids might be a factor was not an unreasonable connection to make. There was no evidence of steroids use but with an admitted past history of it this was the prevailing theory for most of the net (and yes, even by wrestling fans) until the autopsy report was released. Grace has never let evidence or facts intrude on her show before so why start now but in this case she almost (almost) tried to make a somewhat fair accusations. In her attempt to ride this story for all it was worth she also linked the deaths of many wrestlers to the “steroid problem” even though many she listed had indeed died of natural causes, accidents or other methods which had nothing to do with roids even if they had used them in the past. Is that where this outrage comes from? That she finally kicked a puppy that was in your camp? Who cares about Melinda Duckett right? That falsely accused and viciously maligned woman yet when Grace came after a known steroid abuser and went so far as to make up things about this industry of homoerotic play acting, then you get involved.
This is the kind of thing that pisses me off more than anything, how pop culture is all that you care about while actual culture corrodes around you and you blink narry an eye. Not a care about the actions of Barack Obama (good or bad) until he confuses Star Wars and Star Trek**. Geeks don’t often become involved with the words of politicians until they call some bombastic pop star out for being a live action cartoon or they attempt to stop you from downloading porn via SOPA. Only then do we get involved it seems.
Pop Culture Vs. Politics
How do people ignore the real world like this and only keep their heads in pop culture? Wasn’t there a time when pop culture was a reflection of the culture at large and not simply an escape from it? You can’t keep your head down in the sand and just watch TV and allow pop culture to seep into your mind, you have to live in the real world too and yes, it does effect you even if you don’t want it to. What happens when you have your head in the sand? It raises your ass into the sky making it all that much easier to fuck. There is no reason you can’t be a nerd and live in the real world too, it is a CHOICE to do that and I will not abide willful ignorance as a valid defense against the problems of the world. When pop culture does indeed reflect what is really happening why is it dismissed as being a bad thing? I see this all the time when Science Fiction makes political allegories and they are lambasted for “destroying the fantasy”.
I get dismayed when I see that people only get involved or even pay attention to reality when that reality intrudes on their carefully constructed fantasy worlds. They only know their governor’s name when he screws up a Star Wars reference. They don’t care about rampant tax abuses or police abuses until a celebrity gets caught up in them. They ignore reality in favor of a carefully and meticulously laid out daydream where bad guys get punished and good guys win the day when reality is far less predicable and yes, less palatable. I get told again and again that politics are too “heavy” and people just want to relax and not let the world get them down and that is why they inundate themselves into realms of fantasy while they allow reality to run over them in an Orwellian nightmare. You CAN successfully balance reality with fantasy, never allowing the two to come unbalanced and even with them crossing into one another, but you can never, NEVER allow one to overtake the other lest you become useless as a person. I am a nerd of the highest order and yet I am involved in my world, I make that balance work, and you can too.
This Nancy Grace issue is an example of how it sometimes takes the pop culture outrage to show people the reality they have previously tossed aside. My hope is that once people look into this with their rassling anger they will see that this is not new, simply new to them.
*Duckett had nothing to do with it, but this was ignored by Grace who swooped in as she saw human carrion waiting to be plucked clean to the bone.
**”Jedi mind-meld”.
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