“Keeping Up With the Kardashians can make you less sympathetic to the plight of the poor.
The researchers found that even 60 seconds of exposure to materialistic media ― content that “glamorizes fame, luxury, and wealth” ― was enough to significantly increase anti-welfare beliefs.”
This concern with the poor is new. This is a significant change in our cultural belief systems. I survived the 80s and the 90s when cash was king. It didn’t matter how you got the cash, those who had cash were revered and admired. You may have been an officer in a drug cartel, your drugs may have caused thousands of deaths, yet still, you were admired because of your access to cash.
This is not a subtle change. This is a huge change. Perhaps, though it is a huge change, it has not been embraced by the mainstream yet?
Why isn’t anyone noticing that we are finally getting to what is important for humanity? The care and concern for others? Having disdain and negative beliefs for those that have less is nothing more than an attempt to justify one’s own position in the world. There is NO reason that some people should have none and some people should have all. There is just no justifiable reason for America to be this way: loving the rich while abusing the poor.
This is an important moment for America. The moment we begin understanding what it is that makes us a “bad person” that is a moment when we are better. That is a moment when America can move forward and become a humane world leader.
