As I'm reading this I ask myself, who cares? No one. So I figured I'd make it even more of a waste of time and contribute this ridiculous post.

Fie on your house for even printing this non-event.

...To wonder, first, why I started reading it, and second, why I read to the end, and third, why I am now commenting on it.

Basically, to make sure I'm getting this, we're instructed to admire her for her most likely unconscious "perspective," despite the fact that she's a turbo bitch? Should I hope that my own daughter, roughly Kristin's age, is able to shit on everyone around her and celebrate her personal cruelty, but, hey, not sweat the small stuff?

Sounds, uh, great.

The day we look to a "reality" show vixen for moral guidance for our youth is a sad day indeed. Yet is even sadder when we then read such fluff as this....

i watch "laguna beach," and other reality programming, with curious obsession in order to confirm that there are people vain and shallow enough to offer themselves on television as sacrificial lambs in the dim hope of achieving celebrity. they allow themselves to be caricatured, and so, when bad things happen to them, i howl with mean-spirited laughter at these caricatures. real people, my ass; once you're on mtv, you become a character and i have power over you. (pretty fucked up, huh?)

which is why i find lauren so frustrating. i mean, you're absolutely right, she seems to be the strongest person on the show, entirely in control of her identity. i can roll my eyes when i hear that godawful accent, but it just doesn't take the place of a backbreaking guffaw brought by the the tearful, alcohol-induced breakups that i've come to hate and love simulatenously. really shows confirm my disappointment in humanity--curse you, lauren, for denying me satisfaction!

I know everything about Laguna Beach because it is written about here, in Gawker, and has the prime ten PM slot on MTV, meaning it is skip over turf on the way to watch westerns on AMC.

Yeah, these Californians seem so stupid, with their cancer tans and their good weather.

I've never watched a full episode but I pride myself on reading women writers make fools of themselves in publications writing about pointlessness just to explain their need to have visual stimulation.

They are like raccoons or birds, but with emptier brains. Every shiny object they must lust after. They are the backbone of our retail consumer service economy and must be fed brain candy to keep them charging and buying stupid overpriced things. Then they can compare with other shoppers and indulge their idiocy in public.

They will accept no advice so none may ever be given.

Yeah, that's you, KLO, and you, jfredkno.

The thing I dislike most about Salon are it's pretentious readers who are constantly whining about the "fluff" in Salon when people are dying, etc. Jesus, shut up. Or better yet: bookmark War Room and skip the rest of it, so your delicate sensibilities won't be wounded. Then stay at home and finger your prayer beads in front of your altar to Al Gore, and leave the rest of us, who actually engage in popular culture, alone.

And oh yeah: I liked this article. Kristin rules!

Really, I do. That's why when I lived in Hollywood I'd catch the red line to Downtown and spend the day in the many different communities LA has to offer while you watch this garbage on TV. This crap might be considered culture, but it's one of the worst parts of it. The article loves to blab on about how wise Kristin seems to know that high school's bullshit, guess what, she ain't alone. What you call Kristin wise for knowing is what every working class kid in the poorer schools knows, however they're not total assholes about it. See unlike Kristin, most of them work because they have to to help out with the bills or at the least pay for themselves. You won't see them sweating over some guy or some girl or worrying about the next test, they've got way more important things on their mind like "I hope we have enough money to eat tonight."

Kristin reminds me of the middle class white girls who'd come to our school on occasion. Most of them would come in thinking their shit don't stink only to have a run in with a sista or chica and be put in their place. Then within a few months, they're coming in smelling of cold sweat from their new found crystal addiction, or at worst, they have a BDSM thing going on with a guy in his 40s. Ohhh there's something for all you middle class folk, get MTV to follow around students at a high school like Fairfax High, not too slummy, but not wealthy either.

Let me know when that comes on, until then I'll keep hoping parts of Rome's culture starts to wear off.

Perhaps her behavior is appropriate for school, but what are the odds that she'll still act that way in the wider world, when it's not? Yes, most kids take stuff too seriously, but it's good training for when things are serious.

I feel curiously ambivalent about Kristin. On the one hand, she appears to be shallow, provincial, materialistic, and domineering. On the other hand, my feminist side loves her. Her one saving grace lies in her attitudes towards and interactions with the young men of Laguna Beach. Unlike almost all other women on TV today, young or old, she doesn't appear to need approval from or a relationship with men to obtain validation and to feel complete. That's rare and that's admirable and I wish young women had more role models like her.

I too have a fascination with this minx.

Sure, reality tv is a total fahrenheit 451 type thing (the identification when you're alienated); however, it's our art and our abyss as well. I love seeing my fellow humans.

I don't personally own a telly (too much distraction/addiction);however, when I'm near one and this show is on - I can't look away. I once watched a marathon of laguna beach. It was fascinating... all the things.

As if adults don't yearn over the same things. Come on. School is always in session.