Twiddlebirdlet's Id

Based on context, I’m going to swap out your first “you” and put in a “he”.

I honestly believe he surrounds himself with “yes” people. I know he’s said that he keeps with his friends and family from high school because he thinks they treat him like a normal person and keep him grounded, but…well, I don’t think some of those people are really the best quality people, and I call bullshit on them keeping him grounded.

Fame is like a bright light that attracts people, and it doesn’t matter if you’ve known someone since childhood, fame casts its own light that shines and reflects on everyone it surrounds.

He might not want to acknowledge it, but it’s not only changed him: it’s changed everyone he knows.

The only people that can really hit him on the head are probably people that are deeper into fame and with a longer and more legendary position in Hollywood that he’d respect.

You are correct.

I’m not a fan anymore, and I suspect a lot of us in the chattering class aren’t either. We’re just here for the mayhem.

However, there are fans but they’re Steve Rogers fans. That’s his comic con audience. My bet is there’s going to be a greater and greater imbalance between fans that pay to see Cap and fans that pay to see Chris and want to talk about his work outside of Marvel.

He will always have Cap. So there’s that.

What’s left after Cap will probably fade away, along with his rapidly declining looks as he exposes his middling talent at acting. Maybe he finds a groove being typecast in a certain way, which could be profitable for him, but his depth as an actor is very limited. So that’s his best bet in the short term, at least to me.

He doesn’t suck at some things, but he really lacks range as an actor.

That’s not a crime. Some actors are that way, but the ones that stay successful are the ones that are very good at picking their work, and he’s the worst at picking scripts. He’s dumb and picks dumbly. He should just acknowledge his extreme limitations, but despite his awe shucks demeanor, he really does think too much of himself.

If past is prologue, I don’t see great things for him unless he returns to Steve and Marvel, imo.

I did not. I don’t care enough about him or his work to spend my time reading what he has to say. None of his thoughts really matter much in the grand scheme of things, tbh.

I do have thoughts about topics that have come up since his fandom imploded.

Things like:

Misogyny and sexism and age gap relationships, and how we think of “adulthood”.

How celebrities use PR and manipulate their fans, and how messed up his particular fandom has been for a long time.

How far people can stretch themselves mentally to deny what’s before their eyes. BTW: this goes beyond fandoms, but goes into politics, science, etc. Why are we able to do this as human beings?

I admit I’ve been peripherally following this shit-show, but mainly through LSA since it’s easier to keep up with there. For a while it’s been like watching a car wreck in slow motion. The mistakes, the manipulation, the insanity. It’s been wild. As a life long people watcher, this has been truly nuts.

Tumblr has been….interesting, which is why I’ve stayed away from here.

I heard. I still follow things just enough to be entertained. He’s always been a dumbass, so I’m totally not shocked by it.

I feel slightly evil for hoping he didn’t have a prenup, tbh, but for men like him he kind of deserves what will eventually come his way without one.

I personally feel a great deal of regret about how I behaved around the JS relationship. She didn't deserve him. Not one bit.

lol

Bless you, in the best way possible.

Look, I grew up the child of a single mom, and my dad left her for another woman. She was left alone, without so much as a career, with three young children.

To add, my father was a deadbeat dad that refused to pay child support. My mom had to make it all on her own.

I learned at a young age, you have to take care of yourself. You cannot depend on the generosity of others if you don't want to go homeless or starve in the end. It was the single most significant lesson I learned in my childhood.

I'd only change that lesson to add one word: family. You should be able to depend on family...but in the end, you cannot depend on most men.

Now, I'm not a man hater, I LOVE MEN!...but let's be real here: men are often led by things that defy logic and all common sense (ie. their dicks). You will never go bankrupt betting on yourself, but you can be damn sure that someday a man will let you down if you don't choose yours carefully.

Happy Valentine's Day, Ya'll!

Chris doesn’t have the balls to deal with his consequences. And Josh isn’t going to go out of his way to post especially about stuff he knows nothing about. Chris probably cared but not as much as we thought he did and he’s not interested in seeing any backlash to get on to post anything anyway.

It's also in many ways regressive, isn't it?

Now, I'm not trying to infantilize Alba. I think this is where people get strung up saying that she's a legal adult and above the age of consent, and all is great with it.

No one's saying she isn't an adult. No one saying she doesn't have agency. No one's saying she can't make her own decisions...even a bad one.

Now, I do think it's a bad decision for many reasons, but it's hers to make. She's an adult. We can all acknowledge that. However, just because something's legal doesn't make it a good thing.

First, let's talk about Chris and his judgment here first: what goes on in the heads of men that seek out young women?

Power. Control. Getting a "Pretty Young Thing", and all the things that go with that. I doubt it's for the common experience, but instead for the "teaching experience" that young people offer (for reference, see the "Mario" video he posted today...damn, the man just tells on himself, doesn't he?).

In the end, a large part of the reasons men choose very young women is for objectifying purposes that have more to do with themselves and their own emotional needs than for the needs of the woman involved. Her needs are in the end, going to be very much secondary to his own. Ultimately, I have to pin this on patriarchy and the supremacy of the man involved.

I'm sure he loves the cheering on and the congratulations of his male friends.

What about her? I've said before that I don't think it's a very healthy emotional choice for the woman involved. There might initially be an attraction to the financial security and experience that a much older man offers to a young woman, but that will fade eventually. Maybe that man will be generous and allow her to age and grow older and secure with him over time, eventually leveling out to an even playing field where the power and experience imbalance becomes almost nonexistent.

Sure, that can happen.

In Chris's case, I think that's doubtful, because I really don't think that's why he sought her out in the first place, and she's not likely to ever achieve his career and material success. Couple that with his fame and money, and I see nothing but problems for her.

He'll grow bored. He'll cheat with all the women that throw themselves at him, despite his hairline. If she's still with him when that happens, she'll be powerless to do anything about it other than sit back and watch it happen, and just grow to be a bitter and jaded Hollywood wife someday.

Honestly, though, I doubt they'll last that long in the end.

—

Absolutely. I know a lot of people are saying “It’s not like he has a history of dating women in their early 20s” to defend the age gap, but a lot of fans in the know saw that pre-Alba, he was liking a lot of posts by women (that he didn’t follow) who were in that same age range and where the focus were their bodies. If they didn’t respond, he’d go back and unlike the posts. So he’s been trolling for 20 somethings for a while.

Plus, I remember when he was all about that Sammy Rae girl, even so far as to having that live stream. And as soon as she mentioned in that livestream that she had a partner, we never saw anything about her from Chris again.

Nope. Most would not.

I've said in the past that celebrities often get "stunted" at the age they were when they initially became rich and famous. I'd change this to say that this doesn't just happen with celebrities, but with rich people in general.

People treat you differently when you're very very wealthy, whether you are famous or not, and that's what stunts you.

Thank you thank you! I’ve had this theory for a while that Chris has a complex about not having gone to college, so he has to incredibly overcompensate in trying to make people think he’s smart.

I also suspect this inferiority complex is also at the root of the downfall of his relationship with Jenny. Unlike his other exes, she had a degree (Ivy League even!) And at first he thought it was exciting to date someone who could converse and have well formed opinions etc. But as time goes on, the gap in their education becomes apparent. He can’t pontificate at her because she has the knowledge and resources thanks to her education to lobby it back and him, and he can’t handle that.

And along comes Alba, a high school dropout. I’m not saying she’s dumb, but she’s a definitely going to lack the life and educational experience of someone even 5 years older who has a degree. And if you read some of her interviews she does a lot of the same stuff Chris does, throw around a collection of words straight off a word of the day calendar to try to sound smart and deep. But they aren’t ideas that either of them came up with when they do that, they are just parroting ideas they think sound meaningful.

Plus with the age difference, Chris can really get his “let me educate you and lecture you” rocks off introducing her to all these things that he likes that she has no cultural touchstone for because they happened before she was born. Ghostbusters, Super Mario, probably his favorite 80’s music, etc. He’s not interested in shared life experience, he wants someone with less life experience so he can feel smart for introducing them to ideas and things.

Which, I have no love for Alba, but she’s not a prop for Chris to work out his inability to not be the smartest one in the room. And someday she’ll look back and realize that’s what she was.

Bingo.

Honestly, it's a plain as day. Thank you for saying this.