Because You Didn't Ask: Jon Jones, The Lottery, & Southpark's Britney's New Look Episode

A few years ago there was a Southpark episode which cleverly paralleled American culture's sadistic joy in watching the elite crash and burn in real time. It satirized Britney Spears' crack-up on social and celebrity media and ends with the alluding to Miley Cyrus as the next sacrifice.

It's a clever satire which borrows from the American short story, "The Lottery" which hopefully you read in an American literature or short story fiction class.

Let me get the disclaimers out of the way:
1) I don't condone illegal behavior

2) I think the wealthy often get away with egregious behavior and it underscores one of many disparities in a system fraught with inequality.

3) I do believe our justice system criminalizes addiction and related behavior(s) rather than treating it/them as an illness.

4) We have a system which is unfairly influenced by dogmatic adherence to statistically ineffective punishment methods (including a clear lack of rehabilitation efforts), and undue influence from those who stand to profit from privatizing the criminal justice system by incarcerating rather than rehabilitating members of our society.

5) His notoriety is a blessing and a curse and like it or not, being in the public eye will garner more scrutiny. 

That being said, let's look at some assertions/speculation:
Jon Jones had weed with him.
Okay.
What percentage of our population has smoked weed? How many others continue to do so successfully/not getting caught?

Jon Jones was busted for cocaine.
Okay.

Again, a sizable portion of our population has tried the schedule 1 substance.
Now, you may begin to say "well, I only tried it...." and that's where the rationalization begins.
If you tell yourself weed isn't a drug the way cocaine is...again....you're rationalizing.
If you smoke weed regularly, but look down on Jon Jones for using cocaine, depending on the state in which you live...you're either a criminal or totally within your rights.

There's a number of rationalizations or inner narrative deal-making methods when people publicly voice their outrage about Jon Jones' alleged behavior.

Ted Kennedy drove his car off a bridge while drunk and left a woman to drown to death in it.
This I don't say to mitigate his behavior but to then point out the ensuing justice system basically white washing Kennedy's behavior and giving him a pass. There will always be apologists and I am not one for Jon Jones.
I am, however, depressingly unsurprised to see the faux outrage by many people who have plenty of skeletons in their own closet, there's just aren't publicly known.
I say this also to point out that the majority of those crowing the loudest didn't like Jon Jones to begin with.
We often resent those more successful than us.

We love to resent those we feel are more smug and successful than us.

Remember all the TMZ style MMA coverage when it was alleged GSP has gotten some girl pregnant?
What are we? High school girls in the locker room? 

Ultimately, what was likely a youthful indiscretion (the cocaine positive test) has become a full blown problem. 

It's hard to convince someone who's the undisputed best in the world at something that they are not in control (of an addiction for example). 

It's likewise hard to convince someone like Mayweather he has a problem beating women as long as he makes a ton of money, has sycophants in his ear(s) and largely gets a pass for it. 

I write all this not because I think Jon Jones needs this punishment or that punishment, I write it because much of the outrage is simply rationalized hypocrisy on display. 

You can believe he should be held accountable without the vitriolic, emotionally charged tirades you see being thrown around by people who've likely at some point done similar behavior or others along the same lines. All the moral grand standing is just sad, self-justified hypocrisy.