There's Still Hope For Bieber, So Quit Hating

Let me preface this by saying that I am not, by any means, a "Belieber". And now that that's out of the way, let's talking about Rolling Stone 's latest cover story about Justin Bieber and how the world needs to quit ragging on the Biebz. We get it, Bieber's behavior has been incredibly bad over the past few months — disappointing his legions of devoted fans and United States citizens alike — and we're not asking you to forgive and forget. But it's definitely time to look for the light at the end of his tunnel rather than continuing the pointless crusade to get him deported.

But anyway, back to RollingStone, which seems intent on keeping the Bieber-hating fire alive and burning wildly. The magazine posted a photo of it's new issue, out Friday, Feb. 28, on its site along with the "five most shocking revelations" about the Biebz' latest antics. (RollingStone, there's nothing shocking about reprinting information we learned two months ago — just saying.) The cover features a shirtless, tattooed Bieber and teases the feature story with "Bad Boy: Why Justin Bieber Just Won't Behave". We get it, this cover is going to sell magazines because every hater in America wants to read about how Justin Bieber is going to have an epic meltdown and disappear from the face of the Earth. See it here:

Bieber's downward spiral is news (or rather, was news, for some of us) and thousands of Americans are still shaking their heads that President Obama didn't acknowledge their petition to have the "Boyfriend" singer deported. So we get why RollingStone would keep the ball rolling by publishing a cover story that rehashes all of his bad behavior. But, really, why are we so obsessed with his decline? Will RollingStone include a paragraph in their article about Bieber writing and recording a song with his mother earlier this week? Probably not — because "bad boys" don't do that and Bieber is a bad kid, right?

Like our former obsession with Amanda Bynes' very public mental breakdown, we're obsessed with Bieber hitting rock bottom — and it's not just us, celebrities are in on it too. And just like Bynes, gawkers and news outlets have their eyes peeled for the next outrageous and unacceptable act Bieber commits so they can offer their commentary on how he's been parented and what his camp should do. He's a 19 year-old kid, going through his rebellious phase on an international scale with a unlimited bank roll. Acknowledging that isn't making an excuse for his behavior, it's stating a fact. He's a kid, for god's sake, regardless of his financial and professional situation — if we had that attitude towards every kid that made a huge mistake, our society would be in a terrible place.

I'm the first to admit that Bieber can be arrogant as hell and that there's no excuse for his bad and dangerous behavior, but the more I hear and see people continuously rag on him, the more I'm inclined to come to his defense. Why? Because there's a light at the end of his "breakdown" tunnel, even if the world and the Biebz himself can't see it right now. It's disappointing that more people want him to crash and burn than want him to learn from his mistakes and clean up his act. And for what reason — to be able to say, "I told you that Bieber was a bad kid"? Where is your satisfaction in predicting the downfall of another human being?

Instead of making cruel jokes and spending our time anxiously waiting for Bieber's next slip-up and hoping he gets sentenced to jail time because you "don't like his music," you could try thinking of him as a human being. Again, he's only 19 — Bieber's got a lot of years ahead of him, which means there's still hope that he can turn this all around. He made a big mistake that he's hopefully learned from, but he can't grow and change if we and the media keep telling him he's a bad kid. Think about that the next time you want to make a joke at his expense.