i like to think i treat people how id like to be treated terminally ill or not.

I wont be joining Glitters Gang.

Glad you agree justafriend, if theyre nasty people why should we be nice?

I am terminally ill. I'd like you to be nice to me.

I wanted to meet Gary Glitter when I was little....

Sorry to hear that Cologne, feel a little insensitive now.  In hindsight the thread title is worded badly but I hope you understand the point i'm trying to make?

My mum hated it if people kind of pussyfooted around her after she was diagnosed, she reckoned it should be business as usual .

Tuppance, I'm not offended, but I don't quite understand your point.

It's that old " don't speak ill of the dead " thing really, eh?

except  earlier..

Tuppence. No you don't have to be nice but you never know who might be reading what you're typing (friends and family etc). I hated Michael Jackson's music he couldn't sing to save his life (just imo of course) but my opinions of him end there. That's fair game imo but attacking him personally is not.

My point is I don't believe that If someone is horrible up until the point of diagnosis, and hasn't changed their personality for any other reason, then being able to discuss this should be fine and not frowned upon.  Its not like I was saying 'Jade deserved to die', i'm just saying she WAS a bully, on every single reality show she appeared on.

With respect Prometheus, and while I understand your point, nothing would ever be discussed if we were so worried about offending people.  While I agree I should have thought about my post rather than vomitting it out, there is always someone out there that you could offend with the slightest of things.  A celebrity's family member perhaps who stumbles upon a bad post about them etc

I don't think you blurted it out it's a perfectly valid question. There's just something in me that finds it hard to speak ill of the dead. Probably my catholic upbringing which was designed to make me terrified of just about everything (I'm an atheist now with good reason).

Were you abused by a Priest?

No I was brainwashed by religion as a child and indoctrinated into a lie and was led to believe if I didn't do everything the way they wanted me to I would burn in hell. Needless to say, I have not burned in hell. Well not yet anyway, maybe when I die.

I went to a Christian school where they refused to teach us about evolution in science. It was on the news and they banned us from talking to the press because apparently we'd signed a contract when we enrolled at the school.

  Heathen!

Am an atheist too - funny that huh!

Yep, sounds about right.

Sorry slim the endless squeaking and bleating with intermittent grunts drove me nuts  He could dance a bit though, I suppose 

I went to Convent. I actually had a very nice time. None of your lesbian stuff I had a good time.

Out of all of those, Jade Goody was the only one who was terminally ill. A car crash and a drug overdose don't qualify. Gary Glitter is still alive, by my reckoning.

I wasn't a fan of Jade Goody, but I thought Frankie Boyle's "joke" was way out of order. How is it funny to mock someone for dying, no matter who they are? It's fcuking horrible, same as his "joke" about Jordan's disabled son.
I never bought into the whole "nation's mourning" crap about Diana. Partly because, despite what her brother said at her funeral, the media didn't kill her. The media made her - she used it at every opportunity to boost her profile, do you think the press photographers turned up by accident at all those late-night vigils she held at operating theatres? Bollox - she TOLD the press where to be, the same as she made sure she was photographed alone at the Taj Mahal, to emphasise what a lonely, neglected princess she was.
But the main reason I never got into the hysteria when she died was, the day she died, I'd buried a friend who was 3 years younger than  her, who'd died of cancer. When all this mass psychosis was going on outside the palace, conducted by saddoes who never even knew her, all I could think was, I just said goodbye to my friend Chris, who was 33..

Gary Glitter is still alive, by my reckoning.



Shame.

I don't buy into that no matter who's involved. Of course your friend's death meant more because it meant something and it was personal. I will be devastated when Paul McCartney dies (it will be like the Beatles finally died to me) and I'm sure I'll cry but I would never go to his funeral or any service or publicly mourn him I'd keep it to myself I never met him or knew him.

. I will be devastated when Paul McCartney dies (it will be like the Beatles finally died to me) and I'm sure I'll cry but I would never go to his funeral or any service or publicly mourn him I'd keep it to myself I never met him or knew him.


I was extremely upset when John Peel died. But same here, I didn't feel the need for a huge public regurgitation of grief,,

In the interests of full disclosure, I'll tell you that I removed an incredibly insensitive and tasteless comment. Thank you all for being polite enough not to quote it.

I cried when Freddie Mercury died 

My mother taught me if you can't say someting nice, don't say anything at all.

I reckon if you are terminally ill... then show a little respect, yes jade goody was , in my opinion a horrible person but i would not have wished that on her. But no it does not make them a saint.

If someone is in that situation then i would say it gives them time to reflect on their lives.
Obviously child abusers and people of that ilk deserve no sympathy whatsoever..

If someone I knew was terminally ill I would show them respect even if they never showed any respect to me or others in their lifetime, celebrities or others with a high profile who I had never met only  read about if I had nothing nice to say about them on a forum etc I would not bother to say anything there would be no point,murderers abusers that speaks for itself they dont deserve to get anyones respect or kindness even when they are lying in their deathbed.

If someone who had treated me badly or had shown me nothing but ignorance became terminally ill, then no, I would not suddenly do an about turn just because of their diagnosis.

I think it's a very different situation with people you know and so-called celebrities.  I would never dream of being disrespectful towards someone I knew who was terminally ill, regardless of what I thought of them.  Whilst I wouldn't change my opinions, and I wouldn't be hypocritical enough to suddenly want to be best buddies with them, I would certainly be respectful towards them and their family.  

However, I see people in the media as being very different.  When it became known that Jade Goody had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, it didn't erase her behaviour in the past or change my opinion of her in any way.  I felt sadness that a young person was dying, especially when in her case it could probably have been prevented, but I felt no more so than I would if I had seen a random obituary in the paper about a complete stranger.  When she was alive, she chose to put herself in the public eye at every possible opportunity, and I don't see why it's no longer acceptable to say anything derogatory about her now that she is dead.  She hasn't suddenly become a saint.  SImilarly, I felt very strongly about the way the Princess of Wales behaved in the years before her death.  She was another person who courted media attention constantly, and, whatever criticism people have made about Prince Charles and his relationship with Camilla, at least he only had one affair, rather than a string of different men like Diana.  The fact that she died suddenly in such unpleasant circumstances doesn't mean that she didn't behave like a bit of a slapper when she was alive.

Dunno about being nice. I find it very difficult to be a hypocrite so if it was someone I knew then I think I would avoid them or their family/friends if poss and not be put in an awkward position. Although if it came to it then I guess I would try and find something positive but truthful to say.


I think there is a difference with celebs as Growly has said. If you live your life in the public eye, especially if fame was your aim rather than something that came your way as a result of achievements elsewhere, then I'm afraid that you can't pick and choose what is debated.

I think we should treat people however they treat us/have treated us.  If someone was an ignorant git and didn't give me the time of day when they 'weren't' terminally ill, then I wouldn't make a massive fuss of them and fawn over them if I found out they were terminally ill.  There's no reason why I should.  However, I wouldn't purposely disrepect them though. 

I didn't like Jade Goody very much when she was alive, and didn't suddenly start liking her when she died.....  but I genuinely thought it was sad when she died because she was only in her 20s and left 2 sons behind.  ANY woman/man dying in their 20s is sad, let's face it...

In contrast: with Princess Diana, John Lennon and Michael Jackson: I quite liked them all before they died, and didn't suddenly start to like them after, (which some people did.)  But I didn't sob and mourn them badly, because I didn't know them personally.  I just thought they were untimely deaths and felt a bit sad when they died.  I have been much more affected however by the deaths of people I know personally.  The deaths of celebs who died made me feel sad for a day or two, but deaths of people close to me affected me on a much deeper level. 

nope...if some one's a c*ck I don't see why you should have to make them feel better if they've been a c*ck all their lives!