Don’t Blame Trump, Blame MTV

Don’t Blame Trump, Blame MTV

There is a lot of bad behavior in this country. People seem to feel entitled to say anything. Derogatory comments about females?? Ok. Racist rants? Why not? Threats of violence against strangers and celebrities and the media? For sure. It seems a great many people have lost any filter they may have ever had and thoughts that used to remain locked inside of primitive, hateful minds now seem to spill out openly. This behavior is splashed all over the web on a daily basis. Now a lot of people want to blame our President for this trend, but it’s really not his fault. He’s not the cause. He’s the effect. Don’t blame Trump. Blame MTV. That’s right, the cesspool of hate-filled rhetoric that this county has sunken to can be traced back to May 21, 1992. That’s when MTV decided to bring seven young, attractive people from different backgrounds together and film their every move. Oh yeah, I’m talking about The Real World: New York, season one.
At this point you might be asking: what does The Real World have to do with any of this? Looking back on it, those seven are very tame by today’s standards. But that’s where it started. Much to the chagrin of the critics, The Real World, season one, became a hit. So season two was born, which led to 25 more seasons.
Now follow me here.
Reality TV exploded in the 90’s, rolling right in to the new century. Survivor begat American Idol which begat Big Brother which begat countless other competition shows (oh yeah, I’m begatting more than the Bible here). Bad behavior was rewarded. People started becoming famous just for being famous, which led to a Hilton heir leaking a sex tape and getting her own reality show, which led to a Kardashian (a what?) leaking a sex tape and that led to an empire. Which led to more bad behavior. People had to be rude and outlandish to even get noticed. Being horrible for the entire world to see was everyone’s goal. People wanted to be famous and they would do anything to get there! And people who were already famous? They wanted to be more famous. Which led to The Apprentice which led to millions of Twitter followers which led to false statements and thinly vailed racism against President Obama in the form of tweets, which led to a following among racists and hate groups which led to a following among the Alt right (oh wait, I’m being redundant) and that led to a presidential bid which led to Trump actually getting the Republican nomination which led to the rest of Republican party selling out which led to him getting elected the 45th president of The United States, which brings us to where we’re at now.
So you see, that’s why we can’t blame Trump. He’s not the cause. He’s the result. He’s not the two packs a day. He’s the lung cancer. He’s not the climate change. He’s the melting of the polar caps. It’s not his fault. lt all started with “the true story of seven strangers living in a loft” and it spread from there. This world of online comments, and fringe hate groups given legitimacy, and racism being expressed out loud at every turn and “trumping that bitch” and “grabbing them by their…” well, you get the idea. This is the world we live in now. In 2018, this is the real world.