5 People Equally as Unlikeable as Kobe Bryant- Part 1

(As I started writing this I realized how long it was going and decided to split it up into two parts so it didn’t take you a month to read.)

Last night Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA title. I threw something up on Twitter and Facebook saying that it sucked that one of the least likeable athletes over the last twenty years won the NBA title. As soon as I did that I got a ton of responses without a single person defending him. Next to Barry Bonds, Kobe Bryant as cemented himself as someone most people despise. (Note: Dog murder Vick and anyone else that have served hard time no longer counts in this debate.)

There seems to be a shitload of reasons for why someone wouldn’t like Kobe Bryant. You have the privileged background not often seen in many athletes, his arrogance, the overall aura of fakeness, the constant reminding that he is a shitty teammate, and the whole rape thing, not to mention the apology with the giant ring after the fact. It has gotten to the point where Kobe could go save a kitten in a burning building and we would still shit all over it and say something asinine like, “Yeah that was great that he saved the kitten but his body language told me he was going to go home and sacrifice the kitten to some mystical dark force before using it’s pelt as toilet paper.” (Ok, maybe that would just be me.)

This got me thinking last night. Who are five current famous people, besides politicians and anyone on trial for killing their kids, that triggers the same response?

"And then I chopped his balls off..."

5) Kate Gosselin- I had my head in the sand forever about Jon and Kate Plus 8 but now that it is out I can’t help but pay attention. On an almost daily basis there are reports about how crappy of a person this lady is and people just keep piling on. It almost gets to the point where feel sorry for her but then something like this video comes out and it just ends up enforcing everything you thought.

What entertains me about the whole thing is if she were one of those people that shot her entire family before offing herself the outrage around her would be so much smaller. Sure there would be this massive reaction around the tragedy and then we would all just move on, like we do every other time a tragedy like that occurs. But since she is on television, is raking in a shit ton of money, and continues to put her face in the press with her children all wearing matching clothing we continually attack her like she is worse than the shotgun toting lunatic. (And really anyone that makes their children wear matching clothes is… am I right?)

And I am perfectly all right with that. In fact I am currently working on making my own Kate Gosselin doll to hang in effigy when her book tour comes a city near me.

4) Limbaugh/Olbermann- Both guys get the same reaction out of people with opposing political believes and probably out of a lot of people that are in the middle somewhere. I have to say that I have always been really political and during the election my interest really reached a fevered pitch. I would watch, listen to, and read just about anything from any viewpoint, the entire process and debate interested me. Now though, I just can’t handle paying attention to the pundits on either side. I think it has something to do with the two different arguing styles each side has and how it has worn so thin.

Democrats style smug and whining. The one thing that always bugs me about the left is that there is a certain smugness to their arguing technique like they are smarter than everyone else. I can see where that would be grating to anyone that didn’t completely side with them on an issue. It is one thing to tell someone they are wrong but to do it while essentially calling them stupid adds another layer of asshole to it.

Add to that the technique of whining, like the whole if “Bush wins a second term I am moving out of the country” thing. You now have the perfect mixture of how an elitist 12 year old would act.

Republicans fake outrage and lunatic assertions. On the right you have the technique of utter and complete fake outrage. Basically if you freak out about every little thing (The President had his shoes on the desk, Letterman needs to be kept away from my daughter, we can’t serve French Fries anymore…) eventually one will stick and it will become a talking point to be repeated over and over and over. By doing that something that is a non-issue and ultimately unimportant becomes a real issue.

This is only topped by the technique of lunatic assertions. This really is kind of in the far right where fear mongering has been taken to a level that borders on genius/really frightening. For example they could use two pointless stories that they were fake outraged about (Obama having his shoes on his desk and the whole Letterman/Palin thing) and turn it into, “By putting his shoes on the desk the President has opened the doors for David Letterman to rape your 14 year old daughter while at a Yankee game and eating Cotton Candy… which will probably kill you.”

It has gotten to the point where any reasonable, middle of the road or moderate on each side, is kind of sick of discourse being done in this way. Plus they are afraid to take their 14 year old daughters anywhere.

Tomorrow: Part 2