Is the golden rule dead?

I haven't wrote much in the last few weeks.  My personal life has taken up a lot of my time and focus. However a new article caught my eye and this thought had been bothering me for a while now.

Why is it when you insult a person that is wildly popular you are destroyed but if you say something equally, or in some case less, disgusting about a person that people don't like it is okay?  Shouldn't it be wrong either way?

Here is what made me think about it.  Recently a reporter from the New York Times called the current First Lady a hooker.  From what I can tell it wasn't that he said she dressed like a hooker but that she was a hooker.  This is wrong for several reasons.

1. To say this about ANY woman, unless her profession is to "a woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money; whore; harlot." (that is the definition of Prostitute which I got from the hooker page on websters.com) is disgusting and wrong.  If it is done in jest it should be clear that it was and not to 3rd parties
2. In an environment already highly charged the last thing that one should do is make these kind of jokes in any kind of public forum
3. Have I mentioned calling a woman a hooker is wrong?

Here is the thing though...as far as I can tell no one cares.  No one cares that this woman, whose only "crime" is she married a man people don't like, was called a horrible name.  However when people made the accusation and observation that First Lady Obama was "Manly" people lost their shit!  

So what is the difference?  The difference is that people don't like First Lady Melania while they loved First Lady Michelle.  However your opinion of a person doesn't change if something is right or wrong.  

Here is what makes it worse.  This unnamed reporter still has a job and basically only got a slap on the wrist.  The Times said in a statement that editors had spoken to the reporter in question about the remark. “The comment was not intended to be public, but it was nonetheless completely inappropriate and should not have occurred,” the statement said.

This comes out around the same time an ESPN reporter was fired for saying gorilla instead of guerilla when talking about one of the Williams Sisters and how they play tennis.  

But then again you have race and gender against you there.  I guess the lesson is that you can insult race or you can insult gender but if you insult both...you are fucked!

Sadly I'm not joking with that comment.  Race seems to be the difference between the two if you take out personal feelings.  I'm not going to step into the quagmire that is race.

My point is that this entire thing has shown that either side of the isle is disgusting and a lot of people need to look in the mirror and ask an important question.  "Would I want to be treated the way I am treating these people." and "Would I want my children to treat people this way".  If you are acting in a way that you'd want to be treated and that you'd want your child to treat people then keep doing what you're doing, saying what you're saying and posting what you're posting.  HOWEVER, if any of that is not true I think this quote from Jim Ross says it all:

"Don't you think, that it's about time in your life, where you look squarely in the mirror, and accepted the personal responsibility for who you are?"

Don't blame Donald Trump or Barack Obama or Bill Clinton.  Don't blame anyone but yourself because it is YOUR choice to behave the way you do.  It isn't because Mommy and Daddy didn't hug you.  It isn't because President Obama gave health care to everyone.  It isn't because Donald Trump tried to ban Muslims.