'80's John Hughes villain comes alive

On Tuesday, Louise Linton, wife of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, posted a photo of herself stepping off an official government plane wearing designer labels.

I know she was wearing those labels because she hash-tagged them in the photo caption. 

Jenni Miller, a Portland, Oregon mother of three, didn't love the photo and wrote “Glad we could pay for your little getaway #deplorable.”

Linton responded by insulting Miller. Essentially, this born-into-wealth, married-into-wealth failed actress made fun of Linton for being poor. 

“Aw!!! Did you think this was a personal trip?! Adorable! Do you think the US govt paid for our honeymoon or personal travel?! Lololol. Have you given more to the economy than me and my husband? Either as an individual earner in taxes OR in self sacrifice to your country. I’m pretty sure we paid more taxes toward our day ‘trip’ than you did. Pretty sure the amount we sacrifice per year is a lot more than you’d be willing to sacrifice if the choice was yours. You’re adorably out of touch. Thanks for the passive aggressive comment.”

“Your life looks cute,” she wrote an hour later before deleting the comment and making her Instagram account private as the world saw her comments and rained scorn upon her. 

Linton is a woman who was literally born in a castle. She's a woman whose designer labels are the result of her birth and marriage. She's a woman who has always had everything that she wants and needs.

She's a woman so vacuous that hashtags the designer labels that she is wearing.  

This isn’t Linton’s first act of stupidity.

In 2016, she published a memoir about the six months she spent in Zambia in 1999 during her gap year. The people who she worked with refuted the claims she made in the book. The Zambian government criticized her for falsely characterizing the country as a "a war-torn hellhole" when it was actually at peace during her time there. 

In addition, Linton’s book featured photos of the HIV-positive children, which were used without the children’s (or their families’) permission.

The backlash was so acute that Linton pulled the book and apologized.

So yes, Louise Linton has apparently decided to embrace the image of the 1980's John Hughes female super-villain:

A snobby, condescending, pretentious, mean, wealthy woman whose fortune comes solely through birth and marriage and yet feels like this alone places her above all others.

Her last film, Cabin Fever, has the unique distinction of having a score of 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. In that film, she played a sheriff's deputy. Perhaps she's trying to present herself in a new light to prospective producers or directors.

"Look! I can do evil, stupid, rich-bitch ice queen, too."

Yes, Louise. You certainly can.

My friends are incredibly odd. Complete outliers. I couldn’t be more happy.

It occurs to me that all of my closest friends are exceptionally non-materialistic.

Not a single designer anything in the bunch. Not one name brand plastered on anything that they wear or carry. Nondescript clothing absent of labels or markers of any kind.

And with the exception of a 1960’s Corvette – which my friend spent years restoring on his own – even their cars are modest. Even though all are gainfully employed and some are doing quite well, most of them buy used cars. Boring used cars.       

In addition, four of my closest male friends are not on Facebook or any other form of social media. They also are four of the only people I know who don’t have a presence on some kind of social media platform.

Running into someone without a social media presence today is an oddity. It normally signals a troubled past or a stalker of some kind.

These four guys simply have no inclination to engage with people over a social media platform. They have no time for it. No desire to share photos of their food and pets and children and themselves with a constellation of friends, friends’ friends, acquaintances, coworkers, and relative strangers. 

This can actually be annoying sometimes – when I want them to be in the loop on something and have to email or call them separately – but there’s something great about it, too.

I’m blessed in many ways, but my friends are one of my greatest blessings. Extraordinary men who understand what is truly important in this world.