How did we get here? I find myself asking that question over and over. It’s almost a daily reflection for me. How did Harvey Weinstein vicitimize women for thirty years? How did Jeffrey Epstein turn sex trafficking into a cottage industry? How did Trump maintain his personality cult across thirty allegations of sexual impropriety? The truth nearly seems stranger than fiction. At least, to me.

I’ve always been an incredibly defiant person. I buy heavily into the “No gods, no masters” mantra, and I feel as though we’re the masters of our own destiny. But that isn’t true for my peers. If they were to see a famous person in person, all bets would be off the table, and many of them would cease to be the same individual. The truth is that the “rockstar effect” is killing society.

Donald Trump has been recorded saying that Corona is a terrible thing, and that he downplays it publicly. You’d think that would be enough to destroy a person’s popularity, but these days it takes far more. I’m honestly not sure what the hell it takes to destroy a person’s popularity, as I haven’t seen any sort of valid example of that happening. If anything, the only thing that can destroy a person’s popularity is time. Popularity is a fad, albeit a powerful and driving one. It’s still just a fad. It comes and goes with the passage of time, usually forgotten as quickly as it happens.

The “rock star” effect is most detrimental when it causes people to behave self-destructively. I could go on and on about it, but the reality is that we’re already very acquainted with the beast.

The only sentiment I can lend is this: fuck famous people.

Without further ado; This is a list of everything we’ve been gifted by the “rock star” effect.