I don’t care so much that it’s completely gone 'round to caring enough to post how much I don’t care.
In other words, its all about
Me! Me! Meeeeeeeeee!
Oh, did I tell you how much I don’t care?
Well, in the particular case of the Jackson drama, all the attention, scrutiny, paparazzi, etc. is at least a large part of the problem. People chime in with opinions like “Poor kids!” but don’t realize that they are – however minutely and indirectly – contributing to that problem. The paparazzi wouldn’t be hounding the kids and amplifying their private/personal dramas if people would just mind their own business and focus their attention on more important stuff that actually *is *their business.
So, in a way, criticism of the discussion that contributes to the Jackson family attention-surplus – and the resulting drama – IS on topic in regard to the problems the Jacksons are going through.
Well played, sir.
*sir meaning Autolycus. Tapatalk fail, sorry.
I was once admonished by a mod because my pit thread wasn’t worthy enough.
Paraphrased
Someone people read every thread in the forum and you thread wastes their time.
The irony of that just made my head spin for so long I could never reply to it.
Funnily enough, this very same thing just happened to me in real lifea couple of days ago. My wife was watching TV, showing interest in the news about the Jackson family squabbles, while at the same time expressing exasperation that such a silly thing should take the place of valuable broadcast time (over, say, events in Syria).
Because she grew up a Michael Jackson fan, and I did not, I made some dismissive comment to the effect of, “well, you should be happy they’re wasting airtime on such dumb stuff!”. She got very angry at me. I guess I was trying to convey that “if even an MJ fan like *you *doesn’t want to hear this stuff, then the TV news people really are making a mistake in talking about it”…
…but let’s face it, that wasn’t it. Truth was, she was angry because I was being elitist. I was trying to convey that she was an idiot for ever having been interested in such a low-class mass entertainer in the first place, when she should have been listening to Bud Powell or Bartok.
So, I felt bad, and apologized, and pointed out to her that she had helped me to appreciate the man’s role in the music world (which I do, up to and including* Off the Wall* - oops, I did it again!)…
Anyway, I’m not really addressing the OP’s question about people who comment on a thread just to say “who gives a fig?”, but I think my experience is relevant, in that (as another poster noted) a prime motivation really is, in many cases (I’m pretty sure), to show the other posters (and the OP) how dumb they are for caring about dumb stuff…and so, by implication, how smart *they *are for caring about smart stuff.
This post isn’t really a valuable addition to our thread. Pipe down, Zebra!
Or they’re stupid because they are interested in the wrong things.
Roddy
I was one of the posters accused of shitting in that thread. I dunno, I guess I was, but that wasn’t what I was intending to do.
I went into the thread expecting a line or two about “guess what they’ve done now?!?!111”, and was surprised to see a fairly elaborately composed and lengthy explanation of the current kerfuffle, complete with background information, links and insights. I guess it just struck me as way more effort than the situation warranted (not to come down on Diosa). In my post I quoted the initial comment for emphasis, but also to express a lack of understanding why the loopy behavior of this odd family continues to fascinate and demand the attention of the world, not specifically to slam the people participating in the thread.
Sorry if anyone felt insulted by that. But, c’mon, you’re Dopers. You have thick skins. 
This may be my favorite explanation so far. It absolutely makes sense to me to join a conversation to express this sentiment, although I think the answer to why it continues to fascinate people is a whole 'nother thread on its own as the subject matter becomes “Individuals who read TMZ: What compels them?” which could seriously derail a thread in no time.
Off-topic for this thread, but if you’re interested in a single data point I read TMZ for a couple of reasons: 1) nothing exceptionally dramatic or exciting usually happens in my own little life and 2) I’m very interested in the experiences of others, celebrity or not which would explain why I spend so much time reading about other Dopers lives on this board as well! 