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That's why I stopped watching it entirely, and so can you. My hypothesis as to why most TV is misery porn goes beyond just that people can relate to misery. I think it's the combination of misery and violence, whether it's physical or verbal. The modern world is so tightly controlled that the average person knows that they can't commit much if any violence in real life, for any reason, good or bad, without either facing penalties or extreme misunderstandings. Sure, there's mentally unstable individuals who attack every now and then, but the law can't do anything about them and we just shrug and think "that's just what they do," more or less. Secretly, or subconsciously, part of many everyday people wants to be the character who puts people in their place, or stabs people, or cooks meth, or shoots people, or beats the ever living shit out of people, and so on. Even if they have a moral compass of some kind, and don't even have the balls to do any of that, they've got some brain cells that gets excited from seeing people do things they know they could never even think of doing. Even if it's not physical violence, people clearly like the fake or instigated drama on reality and cooking shows. They've all wanted to say "fuck you" to their boss at some point, but only by living vicariously through fiction can they picture it happening. Of course, these nefarious characters in media must be miserable somehow, or the world around them had to make them who they are in some way, else the illusion can't work. |