I Hate The News Today

It’s hard to articulate how I feel right now. The news has been a remarkable set of collisions between news that actually hurts, and the reactions of other people to news that hurts them. Right now, the two pieces of news that kick around my mind are Robin Williams’ death, the violent assault of Christy Mack.

Robin Williams was a comedian and an actor. He was really quite funny, he did some very impressive things, he entertained for a living and he was a geek. He liked things I like. Yet despite that, I just don’t feel like I have any real connection to the guy’s death. He made Aladdin? I liked Aladdin. Oh and he was in some other movies I liked, but nothing sprung to mind when I tried to list them. I don’t wish any sadness further on those people around me – it’s a struggle to deal with the loss of things that matter to you, after all.

The assault on Christy Mack has me twisted up inside because somehow it feels more unfair than Robin Williams’ death. Christy Mack is a well-known porn star and lego aficionado. She’s been very prolific, has a twitter presence and following, and when I’ve read what she, personally, has to say, she’s been very interesting. Even when she’s describing being stripped naked then violently assaulted by an ex-boyfriend. Yet when I saw people discussing this, people didn’t seem to want to mention her by name, or that she was a porn star. I saw a few news stories that framed it as Former MMA Fighter Tweets Pleas For Fairness, which made my blood boil, too. Look, internet, a lot of you download free porn and look at it and that’s fine and all so why the fuck are we so squeamish about this? An actor that an awful lot of you like an awful lot was violently assaulted.

I don’t imagine Robin Williams and Christy Mack have comparable fan bases, but something in the comparison smells off to me. I’m not comfortable about the way one living person’s horrible experience is a minor note while the end of another person’s experience is the most prominent one possible. If there was no other news today, it would probably still bother me.