What is it with some people?

[Mythsaje]

I'm watching the most recent episode of CSI NY and it features a supermodel who's just obnoxious as hell, like her celebrity status allows her to treat everyone around her like crap.

I realize this is a fictional situation, but I'm sure all of us have heard of celebrities who think they're somehow justified in acting this way. I'll be damned if I can understand it.

There are others known for just the opposite. Tom Cruise, though I think his religion is pretty kooky, is known for treating the "help" with respect. Tom Hanks is another one with this reputation.

There are a lot of authors with similar reputations. Genuinely nice people. A lot of them are romance authors, but, then again, I know a LOT of romance authors, at least via e-mail and chats.

I guess my issue is how these people can think that celebrity or its attendent wealth can justify abusing other humans, mentally, emotionally, or even physically (though this last seems to be fairly rare, and, when it has happened, it's often at least somewhat justified--cold-cocking paparazzi, for example).

I know that if I someday gain the sort of success I'd like to have, I would NEVER be the kind of person to do this. I LOVE my fans, and I'm the kind of guy who believes in treating everyone with respect, no matter who they are. Unless, of course, they're the kind of people who don't afford the same treatment to others.

Of course, I suffer from social anxiety, and, as is common with people with this affliction, I'm compulsively polite to strangers and generally courteous to even those I know well. I guess this is one of the reasons this kind of behavior baffles me. I simply don't understand it.

Now this isn't to say I always understand some of the social niceties some people take for granted. I'm baffled by facades and aggravated by pretension. And that's what I think a lot of this anti-social behavior is...pretension. Conducting oneself from the perspective of a false sense of superiority based upon nothing much more than being at the right place at the right time.

From my point of view even athletes or artists (and authors) with talents that aren't exactly run-of-the-mill aren't entitled to lord it over anyone else.

Humility. It's not just for religious icons anymore.

[NMMNG]

1. It's not just celebs and the wealthy

I've been to restaurants, donut shops and stores where the customers treat the staff abominably--yelling at them because the place is understaffed, because something is out of stock or not available for special order, because it's 15 minutes before closing and they're out of jelly donuts, because they don't like the corporate policies, etc. I've also been on the receiving end of such nastiness, having worked in retail for around 5 years.

People don't need to be rich or famous to be nasty to "the help". They just need to be jerks.

[Mythsaje]

3. Oh, I know...

It literally gives me chills to be on the scene when something like that is going on. I can see commenting on bad service (and service standards in a lot of places have really gone down) but not outright berating someone for it. And yelling at someone for something completely outside their control, like corporate policies, is just stupid.

But as rude as I find this sort of behavior, I'm ultimately more repulsed by what I see as abuse of power. Celebs and the wealthy can do more than just yell at someone if they wish, and I can't imagine how degrading it would feel to have someone you may look up to (deserved or not) treating you like dirt. Psychologically I imagine it might be like having ten people in a row do it to you.

[lapfog_1]

2. Read about what Chaney "requires" in his hotel room wherever

he stays. Just as obnoxious as any rock star you've ever heard of. No class at all.

[Mythsaje]

4. That guy probably swallows live hamsters

like one of those lizard people from "V." Nothing he did would surprise me.

[lapfog_1]

5. Much much worse... the TVs must be preset to Faux News

and no, I kid you not.

[Mythsaje]

6. I'd already heard that....

The guy must like living in an echo chamber. It's a wonder he doesn't pay someone to follow him around and flatter him constantly.

[atommom]

9. I think he does ... that's why only political cronies get hired by the WH.

[Karenina]

7. It's a common affliction

among people who attain a position where others are reluctant to say "NO" to them.

[Township75]

8. ^^^^Winner!

You nailed it.

And Hollywood superstars are a great example (some of them at least). But it certainly isn't restricted to them.

I have watched customers at big box stores give minimum wage employees hell, because they know they are in a position of power so-to-speak...but these same customers wouldn't dare talk that way to anyone in the store who doesn't work there and thus doesn't need to put up with their BS.

These types of a-holes are in all politcal parties, religions, careers, ect..

[atommom]

10. I agree. This is one of my pet peeves. Behavior like this always

makes me think much less of a person, so I'm baffled when I see people getting away with it and thinking they've "won."

[raccoon]

11. I agree, Mythsaje, I'm sick of this crap myself.

Some people, power goes to their heads.

When I heard about that Avril bitch spitting at somebody, that was really over the top. I don't know her music or anything, nor do I care to, but I have absolutely no respect for somebody, celeb or not, that behaves so trashily and disrespectfully.

As for people mistreating wait staff, employee at big-box stores, etc., I think this is contemptible, to be hateful to somebody who can't fight back.

To me, a real measure of a person's character is how s/he treats people such as these. If the person treats wait staff, etc., like crap--run!