Yeah, it also gives me some closure with firefly being cancelled... like I the fox executive cancelled Firefly because he didn't like Whedon, now I know why he didn't like him. Or at least a probable reason.

I literally learned to read so I could read Harry Potter books so I didn't have to wait for bedtime for my dad to read them to me; even though I was a "boy" I badly wanted to be Hermione Granger when I grew up

it's really heart-breaking that she became so deranged and hateful, a lot of us loved her books growing up

Your hero as a child was the author and not the character?

Yeah, this one hurt.

Good Omens too. Can I pretend it was written entirely by Pratchett?

Been looking for this.

Back in the day I scored a ticket to an Amanda Palmer show, was absolutely floored when he showed up mid-act, completely unannounced. He was one of my favourite writers, a friend to Sir Terry Pratchett (RIP) , and on top of that, someone who seemed like a genuine force for good in the world. I remember that show made my year, I felt so incredibly lucky, like finding a bike under the tree when you're 4.

Then Good Omens happened, then Sandman, and I was just genuinely happy to see him getting the accolades and recognition.

Not mincing words here, once the allegations started floating up, I felt so angry and personally betrayed. For every book or show recommendation, for every conversation where I brought him up as one of my personal heroes. I was almost in mourning, I realise that now, and I'm pretty sure my cynicism levelled up as a direct consequence of that experience.

Fast forward to last week or so, where my RSS feed pings with an article from his blog, the first since the scandal began. He's pointing to a journalist investigation that seems to say the whole thing was a hatchet job. He tries to explain, and this being Neil, the words line up and do his bidding. And I want to fucking believe him, I do. But I can't.

The absolute worst thing? In spite of everything, I hope he's really telling the truth. How does that make any fucking sense?

Read books by Tanith Lee.

Gaiman stole the idea of Death, Evil, and Madness being related from her books.

https://bookshop.org/beta-search?keywords=tanith+lee

I asked for Sandman two Christmases ago, before everything came out. Im still glad I read it, it's good, but I wish I would've gotten used copies so at least he didn't make money off it

When I was a kid I had one of his stand up specials on cassette and I regularly listened to it to fall asleep.

Fatherhood was a great book, and I say this as someone that won’t be having any kids.

This is where it's hard. I still enjoy his work even knowing he was a scumbag.

Same. I remember thinking he was such a hero when I was like 8. What a douche canoe.

I heard that his lawsuit against Gawker (which destroyed the company) was actually paid for by Peter Thiel

Same, I thought he was out to try and save the world from climate change. For me the illusion shattered when he tried to kill California HSR because he would make less in cars. It was never about the environment, it was about being "cool" and then cornering the market.

I feel like I was fortunate that as soon as I came to understand there was alot of buzz about this guy I wanted to understand why, did some research, and found out that he got lucky twice with corporate mergers making him alot of money.

Bill Gates

I remember him as being a scumbag going back to the 80's. Ripping off the Mac GUI, and then going on to bully, absorb and run out of business countless smaller enterprises through strong-arm legal / financial tactics.

What I find most interesting is that Warren Buffet has come right out said it's weird that society will reward people into being billionaires and has publicly stated that there's is for sure a class war going on and billionaires are winning.

I think it's nice he's giving most of his fortune away but disappointing he hasn't called for the system that made his fortune to be dismantled.

i never saw them as rolemodels, its not really somehting that ever connected with me at all, with gates he always seem too snobby and gave off a faek vibe, now we know why.

Damn this was so sad. What kind of a bummer must your childhood have been if Warren Buffett was your hero?

Bah this one hurt... He didn't just go a bit cookie... Went full nuts

Lucy Lawless on the other hand is a fantastic lady and I love how she calls out Kevin Sorbo

I saw a guy at a music festival a few years ago that had a HUGE lostprophets tattoo across his upper back. Poor guy.

Rest in piss, Ian Watkins

a few chiro strokes, he turned into a nutty right winger, who was jealous of XENA. he even managed to ruin his own show, andromeda.

Is that the band who's lead singer got sent to prison in Norway or Denmark for being a pedophile?

My buddy worked in an area that Will Smith occasionally worked.

At every opportunity, will Smith would go out of his way to meet the people around where he was working, talk with them, get selfies, etc, when there was absolutely no need to do it. This was even later in his career when he was really well-known: he'd be walking down a hallway chatting about electrical stuff with a maintenance guy for no reason. I do believe will smith would also return a shopping cart if tested.

The thing where he assaulted someone else on live TV was either out of character, or every appearance from the years before was out of character; exclusively so.

I refuse to believe Will Smith is irredeemable yet.

To me, Smith will always be a rapper first. He was right: parents just don't understand.

Why the fuck does a Norwegian care about fraud in the US?

That is not good. I am sad to hear MAGA is alive and well in Norway. :-(

Sorry to hear about yours (and the others in here), mine too, she used to be a clever, kind lady - or I thought she was - now I reflect and realize she fed me poison, abused me, and has no perspective outside of her own shallow little life. I couldn't get her into therapy, and when she started pushing fundraisers for the Good's murderer, I cut her out for good. In response she told me she "won't let" my adult brothers speak to me anymore - yeah that's what I'm talking about, mom. FFS

Honestly, same. She's not as radical as yours, but I had this idea that my mum was clever, sensible, and capable of critical thought. She used to read a lot, made better political arguments compared to my dad, and somehow managed to raise her children into smart individuals. The combination of me growing up, her getting addicted to Facebook, and the pandemic warped my perception of who my mum really was. She forms emotionally-driven opinions, she jumps to conclusions, she's gullible, and she's close-minded.

I don't think she would ever justify killing someone, but she's suddenly anti-vax, she's anti-choice and would vote for anyone who vows to maintain that culture, she's obsessed with drag queens and transgender people, and she gets her news from Facebook. All of her comments involve the phrase, "I've seen the comments on Facebook."

In 2024, I decided to cut contact with her because she kept spreading misinformation and sharing petition links to ban gender-affirming care. And in addition to that, she was preaching about the Olympic ceremony being blasphemous and "woke." My reason for going no-contact with her was that I couldn't bring myself to maintain a relationship with someone who made other people's lives dangerous. Everyone took her side and accused me of causing a drift and being immature because I couldn't handle other people's opinions, apparently.

I ended up talking to her again after a couple of months because I visited my family and I couldn't avoid her. She was going through a tough time and she was crying so I gave in. I still have a relationship with her but only because I actively choose to live as if I don't know those details about my mum. She's otherwise a good person; she donates to charity and she cares about democracy, the environment, and her children. But whenever I remember the kind opinions that she has, I get angry all over again. It sucks because she was indeed more sensible, but her brain got rotten by social media...

Lovecraft deserves some redemption. First of all he wasn't especially racist, just the "normal" amount for his time (take with a grain of salt please!). More importantly he significantly mellowed out in his later years primarily due to exposure to talented black writers which made him realize the error of his ways.

But yeah, I wouldn't ask him to name my void cat.

Other people have already confirmed he was a racist, but think Clinical Xenophobe is a more apt distinction. He was a unconformable around minorities, but he was also unconformable about the ocean and the color violet. And he wrote about his discomfort. He didn't write political manifests. This isn't a case of separating the art from the artist, but seeing the art to see the broken person behind it.

oh god please no

some people eluded her books as part of her way of expressing her bigotry.

I love watching Harry Potter fans get mad over JK Rowling.

It was always trash and they always had no standards. It's nice to see that crowd have to separate mediocre art from mediocre artists.

If the Christian god was a person and he moved next door, i would move out of town. Can't trust that bastard.

Same here. He could do ANYTHING, start a time loop until everyone makes the right choice, NOT create life you know will be damned.

But no, he tortures us to make us break, then punishes us FOREVER for it.

Also, all the animals who don't go anywhere, and can't sin, but suffer anyway.

I don't want to hear the justifications, they are all bullshit.

Sounds like we had a similar upbringing. Do you still find yourself humming the old hymns sometimes? Like I'll be doing the dishes and suddenly I'm whistling Love Lifted Me.

"Jesus was probably cool, but nobody gives a fuck about him."

Around here, if I meet someone that talks about God, then maybe they are cool. Maybe not, but they are probably the normal amount of religious. If they talk about Jesus, they are hundred percent batshit. They think trans people and gay people are the same thing, and both are a threat to children, unlike their pastor, who is not allowed to let children sit on his lap anymore because he fell to temptation that one (4!) time(s!).

A lot of his works are still good. I just won't buy new ones, I won't give him any profits.

This is true for me as well and kinda hurts. Dawkins in particular was quite a big part of my radicalisation pipeline/growing up. His books also helped me go through some stuff when I was questioning faith and my beliefs. I still think his books had a very positive impact on me and my approach towards science. But yeah, it's heartbreaking to see him (and the other horsemen) turn out be a bit of the very thing they swore to destroy

noam started peddling for PUTIn of all people, putin likely had krompromat. Norm too, he shilled for trump before he died.

Man if those are your childhood Heroes you must have had a shit childhood.

Oof, got me panicky for a moment.

he had PR because vince gave it to him, because Hes is a union breaker, he often snitch on other wrestlers if they were trying unionize or complain. so he get goodies from daddy vince. Also jesse ventura dint make things better, since he abandoned the wreslters because they couldnt unionize for the fear of retribution from vince McMahon if they attempted to unionize.

Oh no, don’t take The Ultimate Warrior from me…

I always didn't like Steven Seagal, he always rubbed me the wrong way. My mother would always bug me about it: "You don't personally know the guy, you don't know at all what he's really like". Turns out I was right mom, Fuck that sleazy bastard

Dennis Miller

He always came off to me as a smarmy, sarcastic asshole, but I thought that was part of his game. Did he turn out to be far worse..?

Oh yes, the "I elected a garbage human being because I thought he would be better for the economy despite bankrupting more businesses than any known man alive".

Sad to hear about you Grandmother, but she betrayed so many people by siding with the Nazi.

The two worst actors and actresses in the show too, tbqh. Chacotay couldn't act his way out of a paper bag.

At least Picardo is loudly and proudly anti trump and seems like a good person from what I've heard.

Roxann Dawson

You sure that isn't Rosario Dawson instead? I can't find anything about Roxann Dawson and transphobia. Every search on duckduckgo with her name and transphobe comes up with a Rosario Dawson link.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Roxann+Dawson+transphobe&ia=web

Eww, I didn't know about Dawson.

Yup. Tis sad as a lot of that stuff was funny.

Probably the earliest celebrity from my childhood who turned out to be a POS. I loved Fat Albert.

Who could have known?

Yeah, the Bill Cosby As Himself set got quoted a lot in my household growing up.

he got killed by his own hubris, when he was diagnosed with a rare pancreatic cancer, PNET. it was treatable, but he went on a fruit diet to treat it, and plus he paid to be on the top of a list of A LIVER transplant only to waste it with his "fruit diet" it allowed the cancer to spread and kill him. this pancreatic cancer is rare , unlike the common this is much more tretable and slower growing, while the normal ones are usually more aggressive(adenocarcinoma vs PNET) AND USUally ad advanced stage when discovered in patients.

Jobs was an interesting man in that he’s a prime example of an environment creating a person. If you haven’t read the biography it’s a fascinating read. The TLDR is that personality didn't appear in a vacuum.

He was such an amazing writer. Some of his books and themes in those books broaden lots of horizons around peace, acceptance, gender, and even race. It was clear, at least to me, that when ender used the n-word he was rebuking the other boy for his use of a Chinese slur. That was a positive message in my childhood.

And yet later he goes quite racist with that shit essay about the Obamas, and obviously homophobic in a bunch of his other activities and works.

That being said, In a way I almost don't blame him for it, he was raised as a member of the LDS Church. While some people break out of the Mormon church, it's not easily done. The only thing that made his standard Mormon views on these topics "important" or "special" was that he is more famous than most members of the church.

I disagree with him on most things, but he's been programmed to act that way well beyond anything I experienced in my childhood and had to overcome.

Disappointed is the better word for my views on him.

Here's a virtual hug from a stranger. May the road ahead be smoother and more fulfilling, mate.

Your parent also completely disappointed me. I saw the Netflix documentary.

Also, 'Don't Do Drugs'.

Oh man, this makes me think of Hulk Hogan. Talk about a guy who aged like milk.

Getting there is not half the battle.

Scott Adams

I'll never understand how a guy who build his career on lambasting the Pointy Haired Boss would think the IRL Pointy Haired Boss would make a great president.

I recently watched the new The Naked Gun, with Liam Neeson. It was a worthy sequel but I thought they did a great job with the couple seconds of OJ

Joss Whedon

That one really hurt for me. He was the launch pad for so many great talents and iconic media. Total turd of a human being.

This poor guy didn't grow up with Weird Al.

Were you not in the age group to watch Mr. Rogers? Because he turned out to be exactly what he appeared to be: kind.

Oof that speech did not age well. Basically a ignore systemic racism and just pull your bootstraps extra hard coming from a wealthy person is about as hollow as you can get.

And look what happened to dinosaurs

As they say: "never meet your heroes". Two out of three ain't bad.

For me it was the other way around. I was a kid when the only thing he was in the news for was that he had to go to court again. Only later I found out why he even was famous and that he had a lot of good music.

In hindsight I'm not totally convinced about him. I think about how Corey Feldman said he never did nothing and Corey seemed willing to burn any bridge. Not that it isn't possible that MJ left Corey alone but still hurt others.

Just paniced by the name. Please tell me he hasn‘t done something bad.

Honestly liked the Cosby show, and even his standup. Was very disappointed when I heard.

Same with Musk. I was teaching engineering courses at the time of the first falcon heavy launch. I actually stopped my class so we could watch the launch. When those boosters landed in a perfect synchronous ballet, I told my class it was "engineering as poetry."

Why couldn't Musk just stay the fuck out of politics?

when he called one of the Thai cave divers a pedo

I think that was when he exposed himself widely to be a garbage human.

He actually won a court case saying he didn't defame that guy by calling him a pedo, so I've been calling him pedo elon for awhile. But then it turns out he's all over the Epstein files, so he was actually a real pedo all along. Guess I have to start calling him a double pedo or something.

I listened to that every night as a teenager. Seemed like I was really learning something, but the amount of opinions and broscience that they threw around was awful in retrospect.

Adam did come up with good handyman tips now and again like:

If you have a door that seems warped and sticks or won't close all the way, try tightening the screws on the hinges before you start shaving it with a plane.

WHAT?? No.... And I saw him live with his band, The No Smoking Orchestra. Turns out I'm never listening to them again 🫩

Black cat, white cat was amazing

I think we have that with dr Mike on youtube now. He’s still in the pre-enshittification stage where he’s responsibly saying “I know things but I’m a YouTuber. Please ask your actual doctor.”

But pressures change people over time so I have no doubt he’ll be shilling supplements eventually.

He didn't even make me his bitch. Disappointing.

Oof. Lot to unpack there.

Somewhat related but I had to stop listening to Lostprophets once I found how shitty the lead singer was.

Bill Gates is probably the only one on the list I have a positive bias for cuz he's spent sooooooo much money buying goodwill.

Behind on the lore.

What did Shaq do other than nearly every ad in the world? I can accept being a sell out for car insurance but anything egregious?

I used to look up to him, and met him at an astronomy symposium once. (About one of my actual heroes, Galileo!)

I dunno, he's not horrible, he was just like, so obviously pissed that people recognized him and wanted autographs and a picture lol.

I kinda understand, and he had the patience to put up with it. He wasn't outright mean to me or anything, but geeze man, you don't gotta so obviously display contempt for the kids who will be carrying the torch because you inspired them.

Anyway, I forgive him. Was just a little disappointed.

I feel his frustration at sharing the world with a lot of stupid people, but he's another one of those science communicators like Tyson, who get to a point where they get smarmy and smug and holier-than-thou.

Like damn, maybe we could be on a similar level if we could get paid to learn things too, sirs.

I'm still not sold on this one. He may not be the nicest person, he may even be a jerk sometimes, but I don't think calling him horrible is fair either in that regard.

Unless you're a conservative and now hate science as an adult, then I can see why those people might call him horrible.

Wait, what did he do?

I remember having to write a paper in elementary school about my "hero", instead wrote about how I don't have one and why.

I think I still got a passing grade at least.

Yup! Mick Foley and John Tenta are my only childhood favorites that I can still look back on with adult eyes, and think they are/were genuinely decent human beings.

Geordi LaForge

"When you're touching my engines, you're touching me" probably should have gotten him MeToo'd.

True! I like Merlina from Sonic and the black knight. What about you?

Ah, so you had a terrible childhood, fair