Politics

At my Facebook page yesterday, a friend teased me about being the “Access Hollywood of the erudite class.” She has a point.  First I promoted my article about how Lance Armstrong deserves to be ignored.  Then I reveled in the truly bizarre Manti T’eo story.  In particular, I love the fact that it will steal the show from the Armstrong-Oprah Winfrey shenanigans. But my attitude towards T’eo is very different than my take on Armstrong.  As I explained yesterday, Armstrong’s impending celebrity rehabilitation is such a cliché as to bore me stiff.  Plus, he doesn’t seem to deserve our sympathy. But T’eo is another matter altogether.  Let me explain why. There are really only two possibilities here.  Either he’s the most gullible person in the world, or he was in on it. After reading the extensively researched Deadspin article by Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey that broke the story, I find it very unlikely that T’eo is some heartbroken simpleton.  Rather, he probably concocted the entire story with the help of a 22 year old named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo. So $64 question is: Why?

There are so many reasons to hate Lance Armstrong. For some, it is enough that he cheated his way to the top.  For others it is that he lied about it repeatedly.  And for yet others, such as Linda Holmes at National Public Radio, it’s about the way he lied, arrogantly flinging indignation in our faces. And then there’s all the stuff unrelated to his fraudulent cycling career.  Such as the way he abandoned his wife, who had raised their kids while he was off biking and supported him while he fought cancer, so he could have an affair with singer Sheryl Crow.  Before moving on to actress Kate Hudson, fashion designer Tory Burch and child actress Ashley Olson (she was 21, he was 36). Hell, the magazine Ask Men came up with no less than ten reasons for hating Lance Armstrong, ranging from his shallow and self-entitled political aspirations to the fact that he hangs out with Matthew McConaughey. Why does everyone hate Matthew McConaughey? No matter.  I don’t hate Matthew McConaughey.  And I don’t hate Lance Armstrong either, though he probably deserves it.  Because to me, hating Armstrong is uninteresting.