Justin Bieber ‘Brainwashed’ Selena Gomez, Probably With Swag

Justin Bieber, a version 2.0 pop/R&B Rasputin, has brainwashed Selena Gomez into a witless, non-challenging state in which she helplessly submits to his thrall.

Too much? We went overboard on the purple prose, to draw attention to what appears to be a bit of a theme from one gossip site.

The “Justin Bieber ‘brainwashed’ Selena Gomez, ‘She’s a completely different person‘” story comes just four days after Radar Online’s last item, in which the tabloid site claimed a well-connected Gomez-source said the actress singer was “ready to date an older man.”

Noticeably in that April 14 report, the 21-year-old starlet was presented as intelligent, mature, sentient, and “tired of Justin’s attention-grabbing antics. A permanent breakup between the two could even be confirmed as early as mid-July.”

Sadly for Radar, their collective countdown to Jelena’s fateful D-month stopped the moment TMZ posted two photographs of Gomez gazing happily at the one-year younger Bieber at the Coachella Festival this past weekend.

In an instant, the “older man” story was exposed as fiction.

To online media virgins — whether readers or new content-producers — it may come as a shock to learn that a significant proportion of what gets churned through the internet, print or broadcast media isn’t based in fact. This is especially true in the entertainment realm, which is generally perceived as less serious and ethical than hard news.

And it’s not just in Bieber and Gomez alleged sizzurp, cheating, sex-tape, he said/she-said, joint tour reports that that truism can be seen. It’s endemic.

The best kept secret in the pulsing, 24/7 entertainment news cycle? Possibly over 50% of gossip site ‘sources‘ are dreamed up by the outlets reporting the original claim, and even when they are real they are not always credible and sometimes can be actively misleading.

But, back to poor old “brainwashed” Selena.

In Radar’s new story, the starlet is drawn with a different color to the “older man” story. No longer the intelligent, older woman looking at Bieber and biding her time before ageing up with a new partner, Gomez is now portrayed as a village idiot.

“Selena is now acting a little brainwashed and not challenging a thing Justin says. There was a time not long ago where they were fighting and arguing about their relationship,” a ‘pal’ is said to have told the site.

“But now she’s like a robot and completely in his thrall,” the alleged insider adds.

It’s claimed the “Come and Get It” singer lost all her willpower in the face of $10,000 worth of flowers which Bieber reportedly sent her after this year’s Academy Awards.

“Whatever he did to keep her from moving on from the relationship worked a little bit too well, because it’s like she’s a completely different person,” the purported source notes.

Notice the chosen language of force, coercion, subtle violence.

It doesn’t appear to have occurred to Radar that Bieber and Gomez probably have very few illusions about each other after three years of dating on and off in the public eye, and an up-close look at the paparazzi underbelly.

But their weekend in McAllen, Texas, rendezvouz in Miami, Coachella, and now togetherness in Los Angeles suggests feelings between the pair are stronger than ever.

That these two young people still have passion for each other — as seen in the dance videos Bieber posted then deleted — and are willing to try again despite the reported objections of Selena’s former manager parents and over-invested opinions of strangers, says something about the Jelena relationship.

Mystifying as this concept may be to any gossip site or those that visit them, but Bieber and Gomez are very likely genuinely “in love.”

And it’s indicative of what we tolerate in our media and natures that some can’t — and won’t — let them enjoy it.

(Photo: Bieber Instagram,)