RANT: Using Your Two Cents to Kick People While They're Down

First, I must confess a somewhat shameless penchant for reading entertainment news, gossip columns, and things of that nature. There, I said it.

And now, I shall rant.

In recent months, there have been a few articles about some tragic, untimely deaths of celebrities. And, because apparently I like having my blood pressure bumped up a few notches, I've taken to reading the comments people post on these articles.

The comments on two in particular have made me see red: Irish pop star Stephen Gately, and Kevin McGee, ex-husband of British comedian Matt Lucas. Both gay men, both married (presently or previously) to other men. Oh. The. Horrors. And if I had a dime for every comment along the lines of "why do you use the word 'husband'? They're not legally married!", "they aren't really married, so how dare you call him his husband", or "two men do not make a marriage" after these articles, I'd be a rich, rich woman.

Really, people? Really?

Is it so important to inject your two cents and be right that you would turn an article about someone's death into your own little soapbox? Someone loses a loved one, and all you want to do is throw in your little jab about semantics and political opinions? Isn't that a bit, I don't know, shallow? Petty? Tactless?

Seriously, who the hell taught some of these people manners?

Let me spell something out for you: The people in these articles are real people. Yes, celebrities do some strange things in their private lives, but they are real, feeling, thinking human beings. Whether or not the state allows that person to legally refer to their significant other as a husband, wife, or pet rock does not diminish how much it must hurt to lose that significant other. Gately's husband and McGhee's ex-husband are both said to be inconsolable, the latter being described as "utterly destroyed". The legal status of their relationships has no bearing at all on feelings of grief and loss.

And yet, people can't muster enough empathy - even for complete strangers - to keep their comments to themselves. I can only imagine what it must be like to live in a fishbowl during a time of grief, and what it must be like knowing that people will use your personal tragedy as a way to strut their arrogant little feathers and show the world how fucking smart they are.

This isn't a "how dare you snipe at a celebrity I like" rant. Up until the articles about their deaths, I hadn't even heard of these two. What bothers me is the need to use someone's death and someone else's time of grieving as a soapbox to comment on the particulars of their personal life, or your political opinions, or anything else that you hopefully wouldn't dream of saying directly to them.

Really, it boils down to this: If you feel the need to tack a comment like that onto an article about someone's death, no one is going to hear you over the sound of how classless, tactless, and narcissistic you are.

/RANT