I Can’t Hate Nickelback

This past weekend, I came across a documentary on the musical group Nickelback.  First of all, I confess that I’d never listened to a song by this group before I watched the documentary.  I also confess that all I knew about Nickelback was that they are one of the most hated groups in the history of rock music.  In fact, that was one of the themes of the documentary, how a group that was once loved by millions somehow became a joke.

Although I watched the documentary until the end, I never did understand what brought down this highly successful group.  The demise of Nickelback clearly also puzzled the members of the band who were interviewed in the documentary.  Did they admit that a few of their songs were vacuous?  Yes, but a lot of groups I’ve listened to over the years produced nothing but vacuous songs.  How did those groups get by without being ridiculed while Nickelback has never been forgiven by its haters? 

That led me to think about the actors Anne Hathaway and more recently Timothy Chalamet.  Anne Hathaway is high up in the ranks of most despised Hollywood actors.  People complain that she is snooty or spoiled.  Oh, really.  As if Hollywood isn’t filled with snooty and spoiled actors.  The complaint, however, seems to be that Ms. Hathaway pretends to be a caring and humble person.  In other words, Anne Hathaway is despised because she isn’t a good enough actor to fool us. 

A few weeks ago, the popular actor Timothy Chalamet made a few negative comments in an interview about opera and ballet.  Suddenly, the internet exploded with attacks on him for sharing his opinion.  Many people are now saying that the backlash to his comments led to him being passed over for Oscar consideration.  Perhaps the one person most relieved that the critical spotlight is on Timothy Chalamet is Anne Hathaway.    

Why these campaigns of hatred against Nickelback, Hathaway, and Chalamet?   Jealousy might explain some of it, but why have this band and these actors become the scapegoats for the free-floating anger so entrenched in our society?  Aren’t these nasty attacks just versions of the bullying that plagues our schools?   We wring our hands at the damage that bullying does to the psyches of children and teenagers but don’t see that vilifying famous people is just as damaging to the soul of our society. 

I grew up with a kid from my church who one day, when he was about twelve years old, showed to other guys in our junior high school locker room that he didn’t know what a jock strap was for.  He was the oldest male in his family, so he didn’t have an older brother to clue him in.  His confusion must have lasted ten to fifteen seconds at the most, but he was teased and bullied about his brief faux pas for the rest of junior high and high school.  I don’t know where he moved to after graduating from high school, but I hope it was thousands of miles away. 

Of course, when we were that age, we were all afraid of doing something that would bring down the scorn of our classmates.  We witnessed what happened to this guy, how his brief mistake one day in a locker room followed him for the next six years or, sadly, maybe longer. 

Similarly, one day, someone who didn’t like Nickelback probably made a joke about them, and one of his insecure friends joined in, followed by others who might have liked the group, but who now understood that it’s better to be a ridiculer than be ridiculed.  The same probably happened to Anne Hathaway and Timothy Chalamet.  The bandwagon of hate beckons to us all.   

As Smokey the Bear warned us, a forest fire often begins with one tiny match.  But oh, what a horrible fire it produces.