From the NYDailyNews.com:
In an interview with Re/code, the GOOP founder talked about Internet commenters and how she has learned to ignore their negativity.
by Kirthana Ramisetti
Gwyneth Paltrow has a message for Internet trolls: Look inside yourself before attacking others.
The actress spoke out about online commenters in an interview with Re/code on Tuesday, in advance of a surprise appearance at the Code Conference, a two-day event of “top industry influencers in media and technology” taking place in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.
“It’s culturally acceptable to be an anonymous commenter,” she said. “It’s culturally acceptable to say, ‘I’m just going to take all of my internal pain and externalize it anonymously.'”
So far, not so stupid. Drowning in self-pity perhaps, but not so stupid. She promptly, however, crosses into stupid:
“You come across (online comments) about yourself and about your friends, and it’s a very dehumanizing thing,” the star said. “It’s almost like how, in war, you go through this bloody, dehumanizing thing … My hope is, as we get out of it, we’ll reach the next level of conscience.”
With that in mind, SFC Bryan Sykes (photo above) had the following to say regarding Paltrow’s comment.
To Miss Paltrow,
I’d first like to start out by saying how terrible I feel for you and all your friends that on a daily basis have to endure mean words written by people you don’t know. I can only imagine the difficulty of waking up in a 12,000 square foot Hollywood home and having your assistant retrieve your iPhone, only to see that the battery is low and someone on twitter (the social media concept that you and all of your friends contribute to on an hourly basis to feed your ego and narcissistic ways), has written a mean word or 2 about you. You’ve hit the nail on the head, war is exactly like that. You should receive a medal for the burden you have carried on your shoulders due to these meanies on social media.
You said, “Its almost like, how in war, you go through this bloody dehumanizing thing and then something is defined out of it.” I could see how you, and others like you in “the biz”, could be so insecure and mentally weak that you could pair the difficulty of your life on twitter to my brothers who have had their limbs ripped off and seen their friends shot, blown up, burned and disfigured, or wake up every morning in pain – while just starting the day is a challenge. How about our wives? The ones that sign on to be there for us through thick and thin, that help us to shake the hardships of war upon our return? And do all this while being mothers to our kids, keeping bills in order because we are always gone, and keeping our lives glued together. They do all this, by the way, without a team of accountants, nanny’s, personal assistants, and life coaches. Yeah, reading a mean tweet is just like all that.
You know what is really “dehumanizing”, Miss Paltrow? The fact that you’d even consider that your life as an “A-list” celebrity reading internet comments could even compare to war and what is endured on the battlefield. You and the other “A-listers” that think like you are laughable. You all have actually convinced yourselves that you in some way face difficulty on a regular basis. Let me be the first to burst your bubble: a long line at Starbucks, your driver being 3 minutes late, a scuff mark on your $1200 shoes and a mean tweet do not constitute difficulty in the eyes of a soldier.
Understand me when I say this: war does not define me. It is a chapter in my life that helped shaped me. Being a husband and father is what defines me. Remember, sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never…be close to what war is.
I don’t suppose anyone could have written this reply better than SFC Sykes.
BZ
