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" Perhaps the terrorists have already won, America.  After all, if we live in a world in which a popular singer/actor/frequently naked person like Adam Levine can dare to utter an anti-American diatribe and keep his &amp;quot;job&amp;quot; as a singing-competition show judge, we&amp;#039;ll basically have ceded the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave to roving hordes of communists, socialists, terrorists, and probably cannibals \u2014 or at least that&amp;#039;s what the mature, reasonable denizens of the Internet would have you believe.  If you (smartly) avoided watching The Voice this past Tuesday, allow me to explain: Viewers voted two of Levine&amp;#039;s chosen singers off the show. As this happened, Captain Maroon 5, thinking his microphone wasn&amp;#039;t live, casually deadpanned: &amp;quot;I hate this country.&amp;quot; After that, he presumably retired to a loveseat made of money and fell asleep in his champagne shower, and thought nothing more of it. The Internet \u2014 and more specifically the all-knowing Sauron&amp;#039;s eye of pop-culture gaffes we call Twitter \u2014 was incensed, and exploded into action soon afterward, demanding apologies and much, much more.       &amp;quot;U should leave America immediately. You&amp;#039;re a communist &amp;amp;amp; should live in a communist country,&amp;quot; wrote one user. &amp;quot;[C]an we send Seal Team 6 after him?&amp;quot; helpfully inquired another. One future travel agent advised: &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re free to leave. Try Syria. I hear it&amp;#039;s nice this time of year.&amp;quot; Now, it&amp;#039;s pretty obvious that Levine was tossing off a casual, thoughtless joke in what amounted to the heat of the proverbial moment. It was a silly thing to say, but even the most hardened conspiracy theorist will probably admit that Levine, who has arguably benefitted from America&amp;#039;s embrace more than any other human save the immortal William Hung, likely does not harbor a deep hatred for freedom or Thomas Jefferson or anything.  The reaction was so impassioned, though, that Levine himself leapt down from handsome mountain to release a contrite statement of explanation and apology. &amp;quot;I obviously love my country very much,&amp;quot; he promised. &amp;quot;My comments last night were made purely out of frustration. Being a part of The Voice, I am passionately invested in my team and want to see my artists succeed. Last night&amp;#039;s elimination of Judith and Sarah was confusing and downright emotional for me and my comments were made based on my personal dissatisfaction with the results.&amp;quot; Levine&amp;#039;s doing just fine, with or without people on Twitter annoyed at him. It&amp;#039;s more than a little disconcerting, though, that anyone somehow took him seriously. Of course, it&amp;#039;s important to note that one of the most important, most wonderful things about being an American is very fact that we have the right to screech near-threats at famous people, or whatever other thoughts that may enter our heads after a riveting evening of reality television or a Special Victims Unit marathon. One can&amp;#039;t help but wonder, though, if perhaps we&amp;#039;ve gone a little overboard in rushing to (figuratively) crucify celebrities for even the most obviously harmless candid remark. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a22856/adam-levine-anti-american/>