You know, being a former member of the "new linkin park sucks, emily is evil!" club and in the light of a new documentary about the band, I feel like we should talk about how we as a public feel entitled to celebrities' grief. We can see it time and time again, from Paul Mccartney's "it's a drag" incident to Queen fans bashing Adam Lambert and their decision to start performing again. It's not unique, and shows an alarming pattern that should be pointed out. When you're in a band, and an important member of that band dies, suddenly you owe grief to the public. Not private, personal grief. Public grief. Your level of caring is now measured exclusively by how much you express your grief in front of the cameras and on social media. If you don't grieve "enough" by someone's standards, like making a dedicated post on someone's deathiversary, suddenly you're a heartless traitor. It's like we forget that we only see what celebrities let us see, and they live lives as full as ours behind the scenes. We either idealize them or demonize them, both of those serving to dehumanize them and turn them into characters instead of real people. Now, I recognize that Linkin Park is a brand. A brand with worldwide reach and a huge capital. They function like one, and people behind them are flawed and make mistakes or lie to the public. That, however doesn't change the fact that the artists are still people and the most normal thing we can do is assume in good faith that they do miss Chester and don't seek to erase their dead friend of almost 20 years for whatever conspiratory reason you might make up.
