It’s one thing to dislike or disagree with a public figure, especially if that figure is a politician or some other person whose words or actions can affect your life. What I don’t understand are people who organize themselves—to the point of setting up “anti-” blogs and “hate” web sites—like these people who formed the “Rachael Ray Sucks Community.” In case you don’t know, Ray is a TV personality and host of a couple of shows on the Food Network, which have spun off into several best-selling “30-Minute Meals” cookbooks, a magazine, and even a TV talk show.
Her critics seem to be united in their disdain for her perkiness, her lack of culinary training, and from what I can tell, her success.
“This community,” the official explanation reads, “was created for people that hate the untalented twit known as Rachael Ray.” The most important rule for those who wish to join: “You must be anti-Rachael!”
As with any community, the key to attracting members is not just a clear core idea but one that can be fulfilled in a variety of ways. Members of the Rachael Ray Sucks Community certainly do this, criticizing her cooking skills, her over-reliance on chicken stock, her kitchen hygiene, her smile, her voice, her physical mannerisms, her clothes, her penchant for saying “Yum-o,” and so on.
It is for people like this that phrase, “Get a life!” was coined. But this is not a phenomenon reserved for the most famous of folk. Even not-so-famous folks in the blogging world have attracted their own anti-groupies. Rod Dreher, friend of this blogger and author of “Crunchy Cons” has his own set of anti-groupies who not only disagree with Rod’s ideas, but regularly express their revulsion of the man. There are a few Catholic bloggers who have attracted similar attention.
Like I said, it’s one thing to disagree with a person’s ideas or even the way they present them. You can even disagree with someone else’s disagreeability. But to hate a person such that everything they do or say is fodder for negative commentary or mockery, well, that shouldn’t be done anywhere, but especially among Catholics.
Technorati Tags:blogs, fame, hate, Rachel Ray
