Simple test for sociopathy

[lady_*nix]

Ask a person what they think of this TV show.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scare_Tactics

Normal answers include, "Wow that's fucked up", "WTF that sounds cruel", and "How did they not get sued."

Sociopathic answers include "LOL this sounds like fun", "The victims totally deserved it", and "LMAO this is cool, you need to lighten up a bit."

The show did in fact get sued BTW. Several times, including once before the first episode was even broadcast. But that didn't stop it from running for 5 seasons in total, which should tell you something about the nature of mass entertainment in the US.

[lady_*nix]

BTW I know I'm being kind of glib here, but from what I've seen a lot of abusive people actually will flub basic boundary tests like this. Instead of lying about how they feel, they'll just put it out there, and try to bully or manipulate other people into letting it slide.

Like Maya Angelou put it, when someone shows us who they are, we should believe them the first time.

[SciFiFisher]

My daughters watched the show for a couple of seasons. I think the appeal to them was that they love horror movies. They love the idea of the "jump scare". They like being scared almost as much as they like scaring other people. Don't ask. I really did try to raise them normally with duct tape and dark closets.

But, the premise that they seemed to assume and that I was also assuming is that those episodes were scripted. i.e. the "victims" actually knew what was going on and they pretended to be totally clueless. If that was not the case then it may have been a bit crueler than I was giving it credit for.

Frankly, I thought the show was fairly lame. I am not a real fan of horror movies unless you are talking really good ones like "The Last Man on Earth" with Vincent Price. It was the inspiration for "The Omega Man" with Charleton Heston and "I am Legend" with Will Smith.

[lady_*nix]

Yeah I saw ads for it one SyFy for a long time. Always thought it seemed super tasteless and fucked up, but also assumed it would have to be staged for legal reasons. Guess not.

Mind, that was when I was young and naive enough to think US contract law was just, and justly enforced.

Re horror movies. I love horror fiction, but generally don't like movies. Both the jump scares and omnipresent sexism play hell on my CPTSD.