Never meet your heroes, you’ll inevitably be disappointed. As hard as it is to accept, nowadays you don’t even need to meet them, you just need to scroll through their Twitter account. Tough, but true. After all, even people who might have enabled your personal epiphanies and milestones are just human at the end of the day. And humans suck. Here’s a few times our heroes let us down.
1. JK Rowling makes anti-trans tweets.
Recently, the author tweeted this.
‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 6, 2020
Opinion: Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate https://t.co/cVpZxG7gaA
People called out Rowling’s comments ‘anti-trans’ and ‘transphobic’ as transgender people, non-binary people and gender-nonconforming people can also menstruate. They were disappointed that a person who shaped so much of their early life could say such things.
2. Sachin Tendulkar doesn’t attend Parliament, wastes a seat that could have been used to address important concerns..
He might be one of the shining lights of cricket history, and an Indian icon, but Tendulkar’s track record as an MP has been pretty terrible. He had a 7.3% attendance record in Parliament, taking part in only 29 out of 400 sessions. He essentially wasted two seats that could have been used to raise important issues, and to address citizen concerns and other urgent activity.
3. Amitabh Bachchan consistently tweets incorrect information, tone-deaf reactions.
In one deleted tweet, he shared a theory which claimed that India’s population clapping together would make a vibration in the atmosphere that would destroy coronavirus.
4. Alok Nath was called out for sexually harassing several women.
The torchbearer of sanskaar was accused of sexual harassment and there even a rape charge levelled against him. Considering his status as a pure and pious on screen personality, this was a real fall from grace.
5. Lance Armstrong disgraced after being found to have used performance-enhancing drugs.
In 2012, an investigation found that the internationally lauded Lance Armstrong had been doping during his professional cycle races. The news made global headlines, and resulted in him being stripped of his prestigious Tour de France title. Many of the people who looked up to him as an inspiration were also left disappointed.
6. Kanye West claims slavery was a ‘choice’.
During an interview, Kanye had said,
When you hear about slavery for 400 years … for 400 years? That sounds like a choice.
This obvious caused quite an uproar, and rightfully so. He also claimed that Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were not relatable for the present generation as they were too far in the past.
It’s hard to see your idols do the kinds of things they did, but that’s humans for you. Constantly disappointing.
