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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 9, 2024

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Words to live by: If you're watching it, you are the target audience.

The majority of people who watched Jersey Shore did so "ironically", self-consciously. They outnumbered the people who watched the show "uncritically" by a significant margin. The show's producers were quite aware of this fact and played into it. The people who thought they were "above it all" were actually exactly in the target audience the whole time. There's ultimately no such thing as watching anything "from a distance"; you're always involved, you are always the target.

The point being that, to the extent that you have consumed the products or patronized the activities of these degenerates, you are complicit in their degeneracy. They cannot be dismissed as a mere aberration or mistake, because you are in a symbiotic relationship with them. The degenerates can proliferate because they've found a stable ecological niche; legions of people are willing to pay for their services. The strategy will persist for as long as it continues to be evolutionarily effective.

The majority of people who watched Jersey Shore did so "ironically", self-consciously. They outnumbered the people who watched the show "uncritically" by a significant margin.

Is this the case, really? The vast majority of people who watch trashy reality TV - the Kardashians, Real Housewives of X, 90 Day Fiancé - certainly don’t do so “ironically”.

Probably more accurate to say that there are levels meant to appeal to different people.

But I think the point that @Primaprimaprima made still stands. The people who are winked and nudged at are still very much part of the core audience.