| Closely related to Lets just turn our children into burbling idiots, except on a much broader scale. Since adults are generally somewhat more mature than 14 year old teeny boppers, the degree of which the people in question are transformed into a bunch of blabbering morons is less, but significant anyways.
If you look at the same magazine rack mentioned in Lets just turn our children into burbling idiots, what do you see in the section for women's magazines? The same type of idiotic headlines as the ones seen in Seventeen. Here are some samples (I pilfered this copy of Cosmopolitan from the men's bathroom):
The Hottest Thing You Can Do With a Man (When you only have 10 minutes)
"He used the Web to Ruin My Life"
Tantric Sex!!
I find the one about the internet extremely hilarious, all facts considered. Compare those headlines to these ones stolen from the Seventeen site:
Cruising with Hanson: The "MMMBop" boys get down and dirty!
Are You In Love? 50 Ways to Tell!
Not too much difference to me. Not exactly quality literature. Bored housewives and teeny boppers, respectively. It worked on my little sisters. Distracted them from the real world for a whole two years. They actually believed that all teenage girls in the USA has had sex by the age of 13, wears a ton of makeup, and are boy crazy. Extend it 20 years, you have valium addicts sitting at home, watching Dynasty and wishing they were there. Same principle.
See also Talk shows are for idiots and soap opera. Do things in soap operas really happen in real life? Not too likely. What about talk shows? How many people do you know who has wild sex fantasies about midgets? Who gives a shit if someone does? Not me. Only the most bored person would find soap operas and talk shows interesting or amusing. Other than the violence in Jerry Springer of course, the fights are excellent.
Those magazines and TV shows all serve to dull the mind-numbingly boring lives that many of these people have, distract them from reality, and to provide them with a fantasy dream world for them to daydream about when they return to their routine. Hooray for the entertainment industry!!!!
JustSomeGuy: I'm assuming that there is still some semblance of intelligence in Middlesville America. :)
And besides, who came up with the whole vicious cycle in the first place? The entertainment industry lowers its standards, the people get dumber. So they lower it more. And so on. | 
