My very best friend in the whole world is a sucker for some kinds of New Age woo-woo crap, especially self-help psychobabble, including some strains of astrology. I love her, I love her mind, I respect her intellect in general, and I can’t understand this about her.
This. In fact, if I’m remembering your posting history correctly, it might be the one thing about which we agree. And I agree so strongly, I’m willing to overlook all the other stuff and buy you a beer for it. 
No offense intended, but not only does that not help, it’s exactly what I find so horrifying about the show. My girlfriend is a huge, huge fan, and has insisted that I watch it with her. I find myself biting my tongue (though occasionally some snark slips out); for the most recent hour we watched together, I chose to put my head in her lap and take a snooze rather than risk spouting off some sarcastic and hurtfully judgmental comment.
The whole atmosphere of the show is nauseatingly predatory. Cowell sits there, eyeballing the contestants, and you can see it in his eyes and all over his face, the only thing he’s thinking is, “How can I make money off this entity?” Not a human being, merely a product to be wrung of its earning potential and then discarded. Similarly, the wider audience drools hungrily as each new prospect is introduced and navigates the obstacle course toward the finale; viewers’ eyes gleam at the thought of the contestant flailing and crashing and being sent away a weeping, sodden wreck. Make no mistake, the majority of the faces featured are there solely to be mocked, vilified, humiliated, crushed, and finally ignored.
Yes, these people are offering themselves to the soul-devouring machine of their own free will, but that doesn’t excuse the horror; in fact, it heightens it, providing an object lesson in how perverse our culture has become, and how people will deliberately impale themselves on the fangs of the publicity beast, exposing themselves to ridicule or worse, because of the tissue-thin hope that they will be the one who after being digested still retains some tiny scrap of identity or dignity. The multitudes beyond that handful, by contrast, are regarded as disposable, and this goes almost completely unremarked in the public discourse. They are not disposable. They are human beings. And the whole revolting spectacle makes my skin crawl.
I mean, no offense or anything.
You + Charlotte = beer
I mean honestly, this is how I feel about 99% of people I meet or observe online. It seems like there are no aficionados anymore when it comes to any forms of media - your average person is always going to have uninformed and undeveloped poo-poo taste, but even people that are “into (reading, movies, whatever)” seem to be so cookie-cutter these days and default to whatever mediocre, middle-of-the-road, unchallenging fare has become the default for their medium.
Well, you know, people used to wander down to the big tree at the local crossroads to watch hangings for entertainment. Then there’s the Roman gladiators. Each era has it’s own version. 
Like NDP, people’s tastes in entertainment usually don’t bug me. My friends and I tend to differ in taste, musically (I listen to a lot of hip hop; they don’t / I can’t stand Fleet Foxes; they love them), and it’s no big deal. Likewise, my more pretentious friends roll their eyes at my love of America’s Next Top Model and Sex and the City.
But holy shit, you should have seen me when I found out my roommate watches Crossing Over with John Edwards. And not ironically, either.
I accepted a while ago that my roommate is instantly sucked into whatever nonsense woo-woo fad they stick on Lifetime or, especially, Oprah (“The universe has a plan for us all. You do know that, right?”). Frankly, I don’t like the guy and I think he’s kind of stupid to begin with. But Crossing Over?? That, in my mind, crosses the line between “dumb” and actually harmful.
My mom actually watched a couple episodes of it when it first started up, because, “Who knows? Maybe he really has powers!” :rolleyes:
But thankfully she’s smart enough to ditch that stuff after too long. My roommate can watch John Edwards (and still dumb but fun stuff like Ghost Hunters and its ilk) allll day. And has.
You’re not wrong. When you get right down to it, it’s not the show itself that turns my stomach; rather, my revulsion is really rooted in the “we haven’t changed at all over thousands of years, we’re still one step above apes no matter how shiny our iPods might be” thing.
I am horrified at this as well. What disturbs me more is that they are being flaunted as having “Family Values,” (because they contain no sex) when they actually glorify a deeply unhealthy relationship.
Someone I know and otherwise respect loves Jean Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear series.
Thinking there must be something to these books, based upon this woman’s otherwise really good judgment and taste, I read one.
They’re crap.
But I did learn one thing. I had no idea that cave men (meaning the male of the species) were so sensitive and in touch with their feelings.
Daytime soap operas. That phrase about my skin trying to crawl off my body hits the nail on the head. The music, the way the actors talk, the dim lighting, aaargh!
Basically all reality TV. The only one I like is Ace of Cakes, which is awesome, because they make cake for a living and have fun. One of my roommates watches a LOT of the Top _____ shows, and good GOD they’re nauseating. Part if it just depressing, part of it is actually sickening - watching people in pain, even emotional pain, sucks. Actually, make that especially emotional pain.
Oh, I don’t know. The fact that we’re butchering people emotionally, as opposed to physically, seems like quite a step forward, to me. Another two thousand years, we might finally get past that, as well.
While I’m not a children’s librarian (I’m a CD/DVD/Video Game Librarian), I would say yes. Kids read a lot of books and kids read a huge variety of books.
“The death of the book” and “children/teenagers don’t read” are wholly invented memes that some hack writer comes up with when he/she is on a deadline and needs a quick rant piece.
My father loves Velveeta cheese, canned mushrooms, and Brussels sprouts cooked until they stink of sulfur.
American Idol love, for sure. When I went to see my aunts a couple of years ago I had to suffer through a ton of Indian Idol. When I heard my flight was delayed I wanted to cry. Yuck!
Mooshy-gooshy romantic films, especially if they think I should be watching them just because I am female. Um, they meet, they fall in love. Who the hell cares?
Anything that involves VH1 attempting to get pathetic 80’s music stars laid under the pretenses of love. Actually, revise that to say anything that’s on VH1 ever. If you watch those things, you are actually legally retarded.
Also people who get excited watching Deal or No Deal.
I feel the same way about supernatural romance in general. As far as I’m familiar it seems like bad fanfiction, where the author drains a villain (or in this case, a type of villain) of everything that makes him interesting so she can have her author avatar latch onto him. Twilight is just a bad example of a bad genre.
Speaking of bad fanfiction, I find it hard to respect people who like and defend stories that only function because the characters have had their personalities removed.
None taken. Actually, lots of us cringe when the judges are cruel. As for the contestants themselves, well, if someone wants to dress up in a chicken costume and squall a Celine Dion song on TV, I’m going to laugh at them. However, if I met them in real life, I’d do anything to keep from hurting their feelings.
Later in the season, after the freak show episodes are over, the criticisms become far deeper, technical, and more insightful, to wit: “Why would anyone sing a Celine Dion song, ever? She sucks.”
I’m at a 4 year university. Last quarter I was taking a basic upper-division English class; we spent the whole quarter analyzing The Sound and the Fury. One day I arrived to class a little early, and listened to some of my classmates talk about Twilight. And every single one–that spoke up, anyway–was gushing over it. English majors. Loving Twilight. :mad:
Hmm…given your stated location, if I am ever in your underpants, I’ll take you up on that beer…