Early Thursday morning, Miami Beach police arrested 19-year-old pop star Justin Bieber on account of drunk driving, drag racing at double the legal speed, and driving with an expired license. After his arrest, Bieber admitted to consuming prescription medications and smoking marijuana.
Legal issues aside, most would agree that Bieber’s getting drunk, smoking illegal drugs, driving at double the speed limit and yelling expletives at a police are unquestionably repulsive behaviors, especially since he’s not a citizen of the United States.
Yet, some beg to differ. After Bieber’s arrest, social networking sites began to overflow with empathy for Bieber.
Two especially trending hashtags were “#WeWillAlwaysSupportYouJustin” and “#hereforjustin.”
Common comments included, “You know that we care for you. We promise we’ll always be there for you” and “I’ve been with you at your worst but that’s not going to change anything.”
Bieber’s fans, also known as “Beliebers,” seemed to have formed a seemingly personal connection with Bieber, and are hoping that they will be the ones to help him out during his time of “hardship.” Sadly for them, this “personal connection” to a pop star with thousands of fans is just an illusion.
Fans also tended to claim that Justin’s behavior should be excused because he is, after all, “just an average human” who makes mistakes. By that (flawed) logic, Bieber should be shown no more sympathy than any of the other hundreds of drunk drivers arrested on a daily basis. By justifying Bieber’s behavior, fans simply seemed to change their moral judgments regarding misdemeanors.
Simultaneously, Bieber’s dislikers crowded Facebook and Twitter with their own opinions.
One Facebook user commented, “Right, if he was a regular person as apposed to a celebrity, he wouldn’t have got away with half the stuff he already has, nobody would still like him and support him after behaving in the way he has. Why are his fans backing him up? What has he done for them? He didn’t make any attempt to stop his fans from cutting because he smoked weed and I’m not judging or saying self harm is wrong but I know for a fact you don’t genuinely feel the need to do so just coz someone had a bit of pot. Ugh, it was just a trend and his obsessive fans took it too far, and I don’t see how it’s trending to free him. If he wasn’t famous would you still want him freed? Get away, Beliebers you need to open up your eyes.”
People who make moral decisions based on a person’s social status or occupation need to force themselves to make moral decisions more objectively. This recent occurrence is the epitome of people’s bias towards considering it morally permissible for the more “favorable” members of our society to get away with actions with which the “less favorable” would clearly not.
