Can we please stop the 2016 year has been horrible because so many famous people have died. I find this insulting. How is it someone who is famous we don't know has died and thus makes the year horrible but yet when my parents died, when my wife's parents and loved ones dies makes that year ok or the many people on this forum who have loved ones die make it any less horrible?

Just because a famous person has died doesn't make the year horrible. Why are people diminishing the year that our loved ones have died any less just because they were not famous? While it might seem cute to say "Dang you 2016" for taking a famous person, it's actually insulting for and diminishes all the people who have died this year. So if the many famous people didn't die, that would make the year 2016 any less evil?

Someone's mother has died. Someone's father and sister and brother and grand parents and children have also died. So because they are not famous it doesn't make 2016 and less bad? Only if you are famous and die it's horrible but if you are not famous and die, it's less evil or doesn't matter?

Please stop with the insults. It's not cute at all to say.

I agree. Not to mention 2015 had double celebrity deaths than 2016.

I think you should not take any comments about how horrible 2016 is seriously.

Agreed 100%. It's not good to take anything you read on the internet seriously. There's never been a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.

It isn't insulting in any way.


I've not seen anyone saying "The deaths of loved ones is irrelevant because famous people died."


What is insulting, is telling how other people to express grief.

Guess what, millions of people honestly grieve when a famous person that touched their life has died... And grieving together is healthy and normal.

People are in a sense mourning for people that have meant quite a lot to them and to some these well known people have played a major roll in their life. For some it might have been their music. For some it might have been watching them act in movies and on TV. For some it might have been watching them excel in sports.

Sometimes these threads help in the mourning process.

First of all, my condolences to you and your family. I am sorry for your losses.

Second of all, even though there is usually going to be more buzz about a famous celebrity dying because they are famous, I believe most people aren't trivializing the fact that ordinary and/or non-famous people are dying. I'm sure many who are mourning celebrities' deaths also had loved ones pass away as well, and the deaths of the famous people they revered is a way of pouring salt in their wounds. And for some people, the work of some of these celebrities had a significant impact on their lives. For example, the music of Prince or David Bowie was probably a solace for some people going through a rough patch at some point in their lives. It's easy to see it as people solely saying 2016 svcks because celebrities are dying because they are reacting to famous people's deaths, but they may not just lament those (e.g. the events going on in Aleppo).

I personally have multiple grievances that extend far beyond celebrity deaths this year, although some of them have made me sad as well. As an example, I played (American) football back in high school and one of my old teammates died earlier this year. We weren't close friends, but he was still a friend and somebody I had been teammates with. I don't think people are trying to trivialize the fact that ordinary people like him passed away.

I was 14 when Star Wars came out. That was also the year my Dad died. Watching Carrie Fisher and company destroy the Death Star was a bit of an escape for me, for an hour and a half anyway, more than once. I can be upset and regret her passing, and her Mother's a day later without insulting or denigrating anyone else's loss.

I think what makes this year seem worse is that so many have happened so close together, and during the holidays, when most people are set to "happy and traditional" memories, which does include family, and people who might be important in our lives.

2016 is horrible.

It can do for those of us whose lives are bad enough to need the escapism. It can be sad to see the people who inspired us dying, especially as not all of us were surrounded by loving families to provide that inspiration.

You ruin your post with this line.

Sorry but this year has svcked, we've lost a lot of good entertainers like Anton Yelchin, David Bowie, Prince, Carrie Fisher and her mother. This year was also the worst Presidential Race I have EVER seen in all my 35 years, heck my Dad even had some issues with Social Security so yeah this year has blew mega chunks.

2016 is awful because my country's Supreme Leader is a spiteful, arrogant, narrow-minded little man and our education system is going to hell. But you don't care about that, do you? It's not your problem, it doesn't affect you and you probably have no idea it's happening. Just like we didn't know about your loved ones' passing. Everyone is concerned with what touches them personally (and yes, celebrities can do that) - what's actually insulting is when you tell them they have no right to do so.

While I personally wonder why people care about someone that they've never met, or know intimately, I figure there must be something there that I just don't see. What I do agree with, when it comes to the OP, is people constantly going "Oh, 2016 is such an awful, awful year, so many celebrities have died", when as someone else proved, really isn't true, it's roughly about average. Every time I see a "Damn you 2016" post, I can't stop myself from rolling my eyes at the absurdity of the statement.

It is about average (it is above average, actually), but remember that there was a huge spike at the start of the year which put the first 3 months of 2016 far, far ahead of other years in the 'dead celebrities' tally. It has evened out over the year, but that initial spike has become a part of the 2016 metanarrative, and so the perception is that it continued at that pace unabated. As such, it is understandable that people incorrectly believe 2016 to be unusual. We are human and part of our general psyche is to look for patterns, and that's what you're seeing when you see a "damn you 2016" post.

For me 2016 was great. I have learned new things, I have met new people, the quality of my life has increased. Every year some actors and musicians will die, but that doesn't make the year bad for me. I always try to find the beauty and the positive, otherwise I'd fall victim to depression. 2004 is the year my grandma died, but for me it was a great year because I got into the university.

Surely we can agree that every year is as bad as the last in some way or another?

It depends on who you are talking to and their priorities. This year was worse than last year. Without getting in to details because of forum rules, a political turn of events in the UK cut my share price in half losing me thousands and thousands, and the resulting deterioration in company profits following the political event meant that we didn't meet performance targets, so I lost a further ￡7000 bonus. Its financially crippled me. So if you ask me, 2016 was awful. You can't possibly say that, for everybody, every year was as bad as every othwr: that just doesn't follow logic.

Indeed

Opinions are like ***holes, everyone has one and they all stink.


For me personally this year was good but has had a lot of negativity. My health insurance (subsidized by the fed) is a joke and with a DVT it's not a funny one. My dad has had a total of 14 mini strokes and Dr. Say the next one will either turn him into a man child or kill him, he asleep went on SS in his 30's because of a serious neck injury so he has no retirement to fall back on and relies on incredibly small monthly check to live on so finding him assisted living is impossible. The devided between me and my brother has only grown deeper and he's to stupid to stop acting like a teenager. Several people that I idolized as a child are now forever gone and the light that they gave others in their dark moments is now reduced to their captured moments in the past.

on Wikipedia, I counted 310 celebrity deaths in 2015 and 347 in 2016. This is from around the world, and from everything from politicians to scientists, but all famous for something.

That doesn't include my lost family and friends, it just compounds my sorrow.

so, just above average.

There are many other reasons as to why 2016 was not a good year outside of the influential celebrities and artists passing away.

true, many reasons (but, that can also be said for almost every other year)

I dunno, I kind of agree, I find it difficult to feel any emotional impact from the death of people I don't actually know. I'd imagine people would think that I was infantile and emotionally unstable if I did act that way. But I assume it's just the way people word things online, and they're not actually sitting at home sobbing into a teatowl because some guy they don't know has died.