Jon and Kate Plus Hate

Continuing on with my unsympathetic theme from the previous post, I set my sights on the family dynamic surrounding Jon and Kate Gosselin of reality TV fame. Last night was the new season premiere and first on-air goings on since reports of Jon cheating on Kate surfaced. It was painful to watch, even for someone like me who likes seeing awkward moments. But then again, I tuned in to watch this episode knowing full well it would be chock full of these. Previously, the show didn't interest me much. TLC loves putting shows on the air detailing couples with way too many kids (18 Kids and Counting, Table For 12, Jon and Kate Plus 8), and seeing the stress of running an overstuffed household doesn't really interest me. Watching a marriage on the verge of collapse has a better ring to it. I'm betting TLC got some incredible ratings for Jon and Kate last night, and it has nothing to do with the fact that their sextuplets were celebrating their 5th birthday. During the interview segments of the episode, which usually show Jon and Kate together, the couple spoke separately and bitterly.

Kate had more of these segments and I have to say I am not fooled by her bullshit. She constantly spoke out against the papparazzi following her and her children. In fact, she took the kids shopping alone and told the TLC crew how she hated the papparazzi. Upon hearing this word, the kids chimed in and asked, "Mommy, what's papparazzi?" Despite having just said this word out loud to the crew, she got upset when her kids spoke it back to her out of curiosity. Her pleas for sympathy lasted the entire hour. Her extreme naivety made me want to throw something at my television screen. She whined along, saying all she signed up for a few years back was a show detailing her 8 kids. She didn't think anything would ever go wrong, because she's living in a fantasy world. She must have been too busy with the kids to see what happened after Newlyweds and Hogan Knows Best ended their runs. She whined some more about how her kids had started calling her by their babysitter's name, the reason being she chose to go out on a national book tour while leaving Jon and a babysitter at home. So, in summation, she hates media attention, cameras, and controversy but chose a money grubbing media tour over her kids with a marriage on the ropes. This in addition to the good money they are making just by signing on with TLC in the first place. The cameras aren't following you around because you are so interesting. You signed up your kids while they were too young to object, hungry for fame and greedy for money, but now you don't like having your dirty laundry aired out. Should have thought about that before your arrogance and refusal to consider the consequences took control of you. Take the good with the bad. You had no problem ordering your husband around while things looked bright and rosy, but maybe you did it too much and drove him to this destination. He's cheating on you because there are women who aren't complete bitches 24 hours a day like you are.

No Sympathy for the Feeble Minded

There's a great show on cable called American Greed, which details money making schemes on large scales. Most of the episodes I have seen have centered around Ponzi schemes. While I'm not a financial wizard by any stretch, the concept seems simple enough in scope but doomed nonetheless: greedy person starts what seems to be a legitimate investment company; greedy person starts promising investors incredible returns on potential investments to get the ball rolling; greedy person then delivers on those promises by using investments from one person to pay off another while keeping any leftovers. The cycle continues with more and more investors until finally the government finds out or the company goes bankrupt due to no actual revenue being generated. The show's intended theme is to make the viewer dislike the greedy schemers as much as the people they have victimized. It works for the most part. I mean, there's no reason to feel bad for the schemers who have pocketed unearned cash from hard working regular folks. Fair enough. They're doing bad stuff and they eventually get jail time for it.

But the victims this show tries to paint such sympathetic pictures of are who I focus on more than the schemers themselves. They come on there saying stuff like, "Well (Schemer's name here) was promising to double my investment, so I sent in $5,000 just as a tester to see what would happen and sure enough I got a check for $10,000 a month later." Inevitably, the investors then start pouring in huge amounts of money as in life savings, retirement funds, mortgage payments, and trust funds. We, the viewers, are supposed to feel bad for them as they look into the camera and sniffle along. "That was my life, everything I had, and now I have nothing." Then they say stuff like, "That man's greed ruined my life, my family's life, and everything I worked so hard for." Yeah and I'm supposed to feel bad for you. Actually, dumbass, it was your own greed that ruined your life. You're just pissed because you got taken for a fool. You saw a return on an investment that was made on blind faith. You didn't do your homework on the company, you didn't bother to find out what the source of income was on that company, and you didn't ask any questions. You saw the money once and never looked back. Explain to me why I should feel bad for you for taking out your life savings and dumping it into an investment you have no knowledge of. The only difference between you and the guy who schemed you out of everything you had is he's doing jail time and you're not. The level of greed is exactly the same in my eyes, you just don't have the brains to concoct such a grand plan. So, no, I don't feel bad for you. Do your homework next time and quit having so much faith in the good of mankind. More often than not, mankind is trying to take its brethren for the proverbial ride.