A couple of weeks ago there was a rumor, posted on Huffington Post, that Justin Bieber was possibly in talks to play Robin in the new Batman/Superman movie. I wrote a quick little comment in the message section of the Huffington Post and let it end at that.

Here is the comment I made on Huffington Post about the article:
“I pray this is a hoax. I want to believe it is a hoax. The fact that I'm posting about this shows I have doubts about this being a hoax and I hope someone can prove to me I am wrong. If he is seriously being considered for the role . . . words cannot describe my disappointment. The shock that the powers that be are trying to shoehorn the last book of the Dark Knight comic series into a first meeting of the characters is disturbing. If this is a hoax it's a good one but I have a bad feeling about this.”

I had an emergency trip I had to make to San Diego and was out of reliable internet communication for 2 days. Sunday afternoon I had reliable service again and I was happy to see more comments were made about the post, but there was one which concerned me.

Here is the comment made by Libby123 -
“You seem to have an inordinately deep emotional investment in this. It might help you to remember that it's a movie. Just a movie. Nothing but a movie. A movie without any kind of original thought or creativity in the process of its creation. Get a grip on yourself! There are important things happening in the world that actually do deserve the kind of emotional attachment that you are giving a third-rate comic book story and the casting of the likes of Justin Bieber! 1) People are dying from diseases, war, starvation and natural disasters. 2) A stupid movie might cast a stupid loudmouth kid. Which of the two preceding statements do you think will make it into the annals of the history of humanity?”

It got worse. This same person, commenting to other posters, continued the pseudo-pop psychology analysis of me based on what I thought was a humorous comment to a rumor I hoped was not true. In a nutshell, let me explain why comments like the one made by Libby123 gives me some concern.

The easiest part of my concern comes from the lack of research Libby123 did on me. I used my real name so a simple Google search would have shown my website, my blog, my company and other accomplishments. To say I have an emotional attachment to who is cast in a movie is a joke. To say that I’m not concerned about real life tragedy or more important events is laughable considering the amount of articles I have written about such events.

To me, and this goes back to years of being a comic book and science fiction fan, what always gets me rather angry about people like Libby123 is they can throw the ‘get a life’ card at a comment I made yet their own obsession with pop culture is supposed to be perfectly valid. I saw where Libby123 wrote a comment on Huffington Post about an article about Bob Newhart getting his first Emmy. Libby123 complained in her comment about how the female characters on the show were treated badly and that more female writers should go on the show to rectify the situation. So, wait a minute. I say I’m concerned that Justin Bieber might be cast as Robin and I’m emotionally stunted yet her call for a writing change in a TV show they watch is OK? Seems a bit of a double standard to me.

With the new television season upon us, it has been humorous to me to watch news shows devote hours of coverage on the new season. There is a looming shutdown of the government, fighting in Syria, a massive heath care policy within days of being activated as well as other important issues that will affect the lives of hundreds if not millions of people, and for two weeks I have read articles and seen news casts about the last episodes of Dexter and Breaking Bad. It seems every few years there is an IT show that the ‘cool people’ like and the coverage of those shows is massive. While I’m writing this article, with all the world events I talked about, the Today Show has spent almost 30 minutes of its one hour weekend broadcast celebrating the 10th anniversary of Lester Holt. Another 10 minute segment was spent on the season finale of Breaking Bad. There was a 10 minute segment about the looming closure of the government. While I can understand the 10th anniversary of Lester Holt on the Today Show might be a big thing for NBC, I would figure a smaller celebration would be in order when a government shutdown and health care will be important to a lot of people.

Old school science fiction guys like myself always get a little angry at new fans of media pop culture. We remember when people like Libby123 would ridicule us for being passionate for a presentation. We would always hope the creative people ‘get it right’ but more often than not we would be disappointed in the finished product because our passion was considered odd. We have endured the ‘get a life’ sentiment while sports fans can root for ‘their team’ without any psychoanalysis. Now we watch as shows like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad are water cooler shows the cool people are free to obsess and comment with little fear of laughter and derision.