7 ms·

> Sato admitted to the attack after he was arrested on Sept 17 and revealed that he was a huge fan of Matsuoka. I always find it weird when self-proclaimed "fa

• mumblemumble 7y ago
  I imagine there's an element of solipsism to these sorts of situations. Perhaps you can only get so obsessed before the object of your obsession starts to become literally an object to you.
  • throw0101a 7y ago
    Marshall McLuhan remarked that photography turned the entire world into a brothel: * http://www.sfu.ca/media-lab/426/readings/thephoto.htm http://www.sfu.ca/media-lab/426/readings/thephoto.htm Also: > The camera tends to turn people into things, and the photograph extends and multiplies the human image to the proportions of mass-produced merchandise. The movie stars and matinee idols are put into the public domain by photography. They become dreams that money can buy. They can be bought and thumbed more easily than public prostitutes.
    • icebraining 7y ago
      Thanks for the link. Surprisingly readable even for a neophyte like me.
      • throw0101a 7y ago
        McLuhan's books were (AFAICT) written for the general public, and were not academic works. Worth at least see if your local library has: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_Media https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_Media
  • ACow_Adonis 7y ago
    The other side of this coin is that celebrity culture tends to literally be the selling of a person as an object. The number of people who are incapable of understanding that the image portrayed of celebrities in the media is literally them selling you a manufactured image, and nothing to do with an actual human being, lifestyle, or genuinely held belief or personality I imagine must be staggeringly high.
• chongli 7y ago
  Fan is an abbreviation for fanatic which is a much more appropriate label for this sort of behaviour. Having said that, I’d like to step back for a moment and look at our broader culture. Few people talk about it but it’s actually extremely weird to have celebrities at all. It’s a cultural and economic phenomenon that works to hijack our tendency to form relationships and identify with people we find attractive. It takes a mechanism that’s supposed to help us bond with our family members and leverages it for profit. The fact that some people can’t handle this gets overlooked. All blame is placed on the individual, allowing the rest of us to absolve ourselves of guilt and responsibility.
  • ASalazarMX 7y ago
    The flaw is in the individual. The environment is exploitative, but wantonly acting to harm another person is an individual decision. The only defense could be medical. Our civilization has evolved much faster than our minds and bodies, but the choice to harm others is still ours.
    • dadarepublic 7y ago
      Let's not go into black and white thinking. Saying the onus is societal/cultural or the onus lies only on the individual are both wrong. Environmental/cultural factors will play on individual decision making - this doesn't absolve the individual but it also doesn't absolve any related societal/cultural forces at play. Both angles can and should be explored when examining cases where individuals act out in harmful fashions.
    • SkyBelow 7y ago
      And applying the same mentality to drugs results in the American approach of treating drug use as a moral failing instead of drug addiction as a health issue.
      • ASalazarMX 7y ago
        Also, let's not fully blame the addictive drugs because people seek them for recreation. Addiction is not instantaneous. I support your point, drug addiction as a health issue, but the addicts, while deserving the help, are not all victims of the system.