Justin Bieber doesn’t need me to defend him, nor console him. But come on, people. Stop being so negative. Bieber-hating really says more about you than it does about him. It marks you as small-minded, jealous, and fearful. Chill. Believe it or not, his presence on this planet and on the pop charts does not require a response or an opinion from you.
In case there’s anyone out there who has yet to hear what the latest tempest in a teapot is all about, Justin Bieber was on tour in the Netherlands and took some time to visit the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam. Before leaving he signed the guestbook, ending his entry with a hope that Anne would have been a Bieber fan.
That’s it. No puppies were sacrificed, no neighbors were spit on. Just a somewhat vacuous entry in a guestbook.
Kill the boy.
Seriously, that’s it? I’m no Bieber fan, but I give the guy credit for having gone to the Anne Frank Museum in the first place. He was in Amsterdam, for crying out loud! He could have done pretty much anything, but he chose to spend an hour learning about Anne Frank. And while his guestbook entry was unfortunate, I kinda feel for the guy. He’s Justin Bieber. You know the expectation is for him to do more than just sign his name like most of us could get away with. So he has to come up with a statement on the fly after having experienced a place that would have left most of us without words. No offense, but Mr. Bieber is not exactly known for deep, insightful lyrics anyway. He’s nineteen. He’s fed a constant diet of his own wonderfulness. The pressure was on and he choked. That’s all. I’d hate to have every guestbook enty I ever made analyzed by a frothing media. I’m sure I’ve penned some that would make Justin Bieber’s look like Robert Frost.
It certainly would have been nice if he had come up with something a little more profound. He didn’t. Why would we expect profundity from a teenage pop star? Instead he wrote something that made it sound like it was all about him. So let’s punish the guy by…making this all about him. Let’s answer his lack of tact at a site dedicated to promoting tolerance and understanding by being intolerant and mean-spirited.
At worst, Mr. Bieber was just self-centered. But the response from his detractors? Justin could have been worse–he could have been like you.
The Anne Frank Museum has been gracious about the entire matter and have done their best to make it the non-issue it is. Perhaps the Bieber-haters should arrange for their own visit. I would hope they would take a little more time to consider what they would write in the guestbook. More importantly, I hope they would learn something.
Repeat the obvious, haters gotta hate.
He’s acting a little more like the scary, weird version of MJ everyday.
That kid has an amazing work-ethic. He has done nothing for the last 5 years but get up, go to endless public appearance, photo shoots and mindless interviews. He has an amazing ability to smoothly work with dancers, businesses, musicians, technical stage people. He has been turned into a Performance Machine like none other. Lots of money and several fortunes have been made off his work. On the flip side, all of that pressure… his teen years have been used by others, so he has not been allowed to “cure” into a person like teens are supposed to. So now we have a Fame Baby with a way too much money to need to listen to anybody ever again. I hope he gets thru this stage with his sobriety/sanity/self esteem intact.
Justin who?
In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit. ~Anne Frank
If people are trying to teach Justin a lesson, to make him see what he did wrong, maybe they should follow Anne’s advice and let the whole thing be. I’m sure that’s what Anne would have done. After all, she was forced to learn that there are more precious and important things in life than someone’s guestbook entry.
Terhi commented on ThomStratton.com:
In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit. ~Anne Frank
If people are trying to teach Justin a lesson, to make him see what he did wrong, maybe they should follow Anne’s advice and let the whole thing be. I’m sure that’s what Anne would have done. After all, she was forced to learn that there are more precious and important things in life than someone’s guestbook entry.