I have always been shocked by how common it seems to be for people to watch things like „knockout compilations“, beheadings etc.
In my school, we had a group of 4 kids that showed such content to everyone at the age of like 14. At this age it may be excused by edgy teenage behavior, but it’s not just them. There are many people that watch some of the most gruesome acts imaginable for their own „entertainment“. This is how they choose to spend their time.
How can this be? What psychological phenomena are behind this? I was never able to understand this
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I listened to a Dan Carlin (Hardcore History podcast) on Torture.
Something that stands out strongly is that for much of civilised history it has been a form of entertainment for the populace as well as a stick to discourage certain behaviours.
People watched the gladiatorial games like Americans watch superbowl, they watched drawing and quartering like European football and they watched beheading right up into the 2nd half of the 20th century like we watch horror films.
It seems like its partially disassociated entertainment (you are no longer one of us once you have transgressed so badly and seeing you trampled is like watching Nature channel), partly escapism from mundane lives, partly a party (there was often picnics and almost always drinking), and as another comment notes, basal sadism comes into it too.
If you are an audio person and have a stomach for it, the episode I mentioned above really is very illuminating,if frightful!
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