Because a lot of people love a "gotcha", and an extended "criminals are so duuuumb" tease, and feeling morally superior to grown men who make appointments to fuck 14 year olds, and of course, it allows the viewer with a context to get a sick thrill of imagining grown men fucking 14 year olds with the excuse of "oh, it's such an awful thing, plz give me more details about how he wants to lick her whatnots", and they get to imagine that by exposing the men who (er, allegedly) make appointments to fuck 14 year olds, they're stopping other men from fucking 14 year olds. And people have a sick, deeply rooted sense of schadenfreude and a desire to publicly humiliate those who transgress their societies standards.
I have no idea if it works, but it's really not my cup of tea, and I think it appeals to the worst parts of people's self-righteousness. But I think there are plenty of reasons why it's popular, and ratings are king.
You'll get no arguments about that from me, but then I find most reality entertainment (which is the category I put this in) various shades of deeply wrong. Hell, I can't even stand the original Candid Camera. And frankly, I think it's a serious enough pursuit (because I think that grown men who pursue sex w/ underage girls deserve to be caught and punished, and I believe most right thinking people would agree) that it should be left to professionals, and not to fucking TV producers.
Nevermind that it encourages baby-raper-hysteria vigilantism. Child abuse, men who want to fuck minors of any stripe, all that, obviously is serious business, but (as evidenced by some of the recent LJ flaps) there's a certain mindset out there, I think, that uses the 'everyone obviously agrees fucking kids is seriously wrong' thing as justification for a certain sort of self-righteous vigilantism. Like, OH LOOK AT HOW AWESOME A WHITE KNIGHT I AM FOR GOING AFTER BABY RAPERS AND IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH MY METHODS FOR GOING AFTER BABY RAPERS THEN YOU ARE IN FAVOR OF BABY RAPING, YOU SICK FUCK. And that because the evildoers they are pursuing are SO evil, they have the right to do anything and everything they can think of to go after them, regardless of how effective it is, whether it interferes w/ the authorities pursuit of the same, and whether it's anywhere near constitutional (and therefore, resulting in possible prosecution).
And I get that a question of "entrapment" is kind of silly, in some respects, because DUDE, I don't care if she was asking for it. I don't care if some fifteen year old walks up to you and grabs your weiner and asks if she can suck it, or if she's flirting with you on IM, the fact (and the law, and the RIGHT THING) is that as the adult, you not only don't pursue it, or encourage it, you don't do it. Period. And there may be some reasonably strong biological programing in human males to desire nubile young things.
But we're not animals, we're expected to control destructive/unhealthy urges, and we live in a society of laws that protect *everyone*. And some of those laws are pretty darn specific about things like "entrapment". And if you don't obey those laws when you try taking down transgressors like assholes who go around trying to fuck underage girls, then the law can't do its thing, and those assholes go free.
Annnd, I'm going to stop ranting about this because we're obviously on the same page, and I've got to get back to work. :P
I know my brother and his girlfriend watches it all the time, he says he likes watching guys like that busted. I never could understand how a man who has had so much trouble with the police over the years could stand to watch hours of reality shows about cops arresting people. (his tv pretty much stays on TruTV.)
Can people have anti-taste? negative taste? A black hole of taste.
The answer to that of course is yes. People have gotten so conditioned to watch whatever tripe is placed in front of them, they drool over the prospect anymore. Most people's ideas are so fucking suburban that if it came down to actually thinking about the content they're watching, they'd end up going completely spastic and lose their ever-lovin' minds.
i don't know that i'd agree with "most people's", but otoh one could successfully argue this is a case of Roman Mob Feedback Loop Syndrome. you give them smoke and mirrors because you're hiding the fact that you don't have what you should really be giving them and then it causes a feedback loop that eventually leads you to animals eating peoples in the Circus Maximus.
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sforzinda
My guess is
Date: 2008-06-26 07:17 pm (UTC)I have no idea if it works, but it's really not my cup of tea, and I think it appeals to the worst parts of people's self-righteousness. But I think there are plenty of reasons why it's popular, and ratings are king.
Re: My guess is
Date: 2008-06-26 08:42 pm (UTC)Re: My guess is
Date: 2008-06-26 08:49 pm (UTC)Re: My guess is
Date: 2008-06-26 09:05 pm (UTC)and were i the po-po's, if i'd gotten that call from a producer my response would be, "have you read the Constitution?"
Re: My guess is
Date: 2008-06-26 09:24 pm (UTC)And I get that a question of "entrapment" is kind of silly, in some respects, because DUDE, I don't care if she was asking for it. I don't care if some fifteen year old walks up to you and grabs your weiner and asks if she can suck it, or if she's flirting with you on IM, the fact (and the law, and the RIGHT THING) is that as the adult, you not only don't pursue it, or encourage it, you don't do it. Period. And there may be some reasonably strong biological programing in human males to desire nubile young things.
But we're not animals, we're expected to control destructive/unhealthy urges, and we live in a society of laws that protect *everyone*. And some of those laws are pretty darn specific about things like "entrapment". And if you don't obey those laws when you try taking down transgressors like assholes who go around trying to fuck underage girls, then the law can't do its thing, and those assholes go free.
Annnd, I'm going to stop ranting about this because we're obviously on the same page, and I've got to get back to work. :P
no subject
Date: 2008-06-26 07:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-26 10:10 pm (UTC)As for viewing it...Poor taste isn't anywhere near strong enough a term.
Can people have anti-taste? negative taste? A black hole of taste.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-26 11:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-26 11:22 pm (UTC)The answer to that of course is yes. People have gotten so conditioned to watch whatever tripe is placed in front of them, they drool over the prospect anymore. Most people's ideas are so fucking suburban that if it came down to actually thinking about the content they're watching, they'd end up going completely spastic and lose their ever-lovin' minds.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-26 11:28 pm (UTC)