6 Disastrous Ways Pop Culture Influences The Real World
Cinema and literature can change our lives in noble and profound ways. They can, but usually don't. For every Uncle Tom's Cabin that can take credit for a net benefit to the human race, you have a Jaws, which made a generation of Americans afraid to even climb into their swimming pools for fear a great white was hiding in there.
Think we're exaggerating? Trust us, some of Hollywood's effects on the world are far stupider than that. Such as....
#6.
The CSI Effect
Seen in: CSI
Impact on real life: Murderers are being set loose on the streets.
To put it simply, some experts believe that the growing popularity of the CSI franchise has created unrealistic expectations among juries, who see on TV that a single skin cell is all you need to create a 3D hologram of the suspect's face, and assume that if you don't have that, then he must not have done it, right? Therefore you have jurors who think they need to vote "not guilty" in every case that doesn't have 100 percent indisputable DNA evidence (which it turns out is pretty much all of them all of them).
Take Robert Blake, a man accused of murdering his wife: Over 70 witnesses testified against him, including a few Blake had approached and offered money to kill his wife. The only thing the prosecution didn't have was forensic evidence, but there was no way a jury would acquit a man based on such stupid reasons like "there was no black-light semen."
Poor girl: Raped by an entire circus.
But of course, because we here at Cracked don't tell you about reasonable reactions and logical responses, that is exactly what they did. Robert Blake walked free, probably ticking off a mental note: You can get away with murder as long as you don't jerk off all over it.
Similar fuckery occurred in the case of Robert Durst, whose lawyer got him acquitted by convincing the jury that Durst dismembered his neighbor in self-defense. Forensic evidence on the head would totally prove it, too. If only somebody could find it...
"Me? No, no I don't remember what I did with it. I was too busy bathing in his bl- uh... defending myself."
#5.
Fad Animals
Seen in: Finding Nemo, 101 Dalmations, Babe, basically any movie starring an adorable animal
Impact on real life: Roving packs of neglected, occasionally furious predators.
Whenever a movie with a bunch of cute critters hits the theaters, there is an immediate, sharp spike of adoptions for that breed... because some people impulse buy Slim Jims because the display stand has titties on it, and some people impulse buy baby elephants because Operation Dumbo Drop: The Origin was freakin' awesome! Different strokes for different folks and all that.
Do not dismiss them lightly, for it takes Diff'rent Strokes to rule the world...
It happened when 101 Dalmatians premiered, it happened after Beverly Hills Chihuahua, it even happened during the Teenage Mutant Nina Turtles craze (although only one of those trends resulted in hilarious impromptu turtle-dojos).
Of course, when the realization inevitably hit that your new pup actually requires work and can neither spout cutting one-liners nor surf, they usually end up in the pound or on the streets. That's depressing and all; that adorable animals have to pay because you can't tell the difference between fiction and reality or your head and your asshole. But still, can you imagine how much more nightmarish this scenario would be if the dogs could fly and had razor sharp claws they could sink deep into the throats of their oppressors?
ALL THAT LIVES IS THE OPPRESSOR.
That seems like an oddly specific hypothetical scenario, doesn't it? Well, that's because it actually happened in England. They wound up with huge flocks of abandoned and starving snow owls after kids saw Harry Potter use one instead of e-mail. An entire wildlife sanctuary had to be built to contain these forsaken flying ninjas, allowing them to congregate and probably plot against us.
Oh, you think owls are cute too? Here's what they do when you don't have an on-set trainer and the blood of precocious English child-wizards to sate them:
#4.
Stupid Medical Interns
Seen in: ER, Chicago Hope, Rescue 911; every single other medical show in history.
Impact on real life: Endangering the lives of hospital patients.
Multiple hospitals have been reporting that their residents and medical students are screwing up "life-saving procedures" after seeing them performed incorrectly on TV.
No dude, I saw this on Grey's Anatomy; we have to do it in sync, though, or it won't work!"
As we pointed out earlier, taking medical advice from Hollywood is like taking investment advice from the guy peeing on you on the train. Believe it or not, there's quite a bit of difference between what you do with an actual sick person versus an extra merely pretending to be one; the techniques you see them use on TV were developed purely so they can appear to wedge tubes into the orifices of an actor without actually doing it.
For instance, the procedure most interns are failing at is the insertion of breathing tubes--most often used when your airways close up and you start suffocating to death--but hey, take solace in the fact that the oxygen deprivation will most likely get you so high you won't care that the new season of House just killed you.
Like we said when the show first came on: "One day, that man will kill us all."
mfw the Fukushima reactor proves nuclear power is an unreliable and potentially deadly mistake.
ReplyPutting it on a fault line was the mistake, dipshit.
As for the "CSI Effect," it seems there are at least two, and they more or less cancel each other out. For every jury that refuses to convict because the forensic evidence isn't up to television standards, there's another that does convict because it places too much trust in the accuracy of forensic evidence.
ReplyFrankly, though, I don't see how juries being more reluctant to convict in the absence of physical evidence could possibly be a bad thing. See the Troy Davis case.
The sideways handgun grip wasn't created by Hollywood; it's an artifact of drive-by shootings. The point of holding the weapon sideways is to minimize the distance the window needs to be rolled down, thereby minimizing the likelihood of cartridge cases being ejected out of the vehicle.
ReplyThank you, this was always a low-grade irritation in the back of my mind.
that owl video is the scariest thing i ever seen...
ReplyWhat kind of medical school are the dumbasses in #4 going to?
ReplyI'm thinking Sacred Heart.
To be fair, nuclear power is only slightly less short-sighted than fossil fuels.
ReplyWhy the downvotes? He's right.
Get off the Internet and go bomb some innocent civilians, you goddamn Republicans.
Anybody who is scared by nuclear power because of The Simpsons should not be left unsupervised.
Replyif u liked #1 check out defictionalization on tvtropes
ReplyI remember the Harry Potter owl thing - someone came into my school to talk to us about safety protocols if we stumbled across one. I was maybe 12/13 years old and though I wasn't too keen on Harry Potter, I totally wanted an owl. Kids are always going to want cool pets they see on television - what kind of crazy parent would indulge them?? Most children aren't allowed pets until they can prove some dedication/ responsibility because they're notoriously fickle, so unless the adults also wanted and thought they could take care of a huge dangerous undomesticated animal I really just can't imagine what they were thinking.
ReplyThat's what I was thinking. What kind of parent would let their kids adopt an OWL (not that they aren't freaking awesome animals of course).
Or maybe it was just dumb people, I don't know but it's sad really. So is that CSI: effect.
How is gangstas missing their targets a disastrous pop culture influence?
ReplyBecause gangstas shoot a OTHER gangstas.
Similar to giving clean needles to addicts, the police should teach gangstas how to shoot. Passersby are all too often the unintended victim. The safest person to be in a drive-by is the person being shot at:)
While I can understand why the author included the "#3 Nuclear Distrust" a full year before the Fukushima Disaster in March of 2011. With the common belief that Nuclear Energy is the solution to the worlds energy problems.
Reply Hide All See All 5 RepliesBut, in light of the Fukushima Disaster, I'm wondering how all the Nuclear radioactive material from Fukushima that has, and still is, contaminating Japan's atmosphere and the Pacific ocean is effecting the author of this article (who appears to also live in Japan) and how the people of Japan are dealing with the Fukushima radioactive nuclear disaster.
I know that the Fukushima Disaster has been rated a #7 Event by officials which is on par with the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.
And, that level 5 event is an "accident with wider consequences." A level 6 event is a "serious accident," and a level 7 event is a "major accident." But, if you really do the math, Fukushima should be a level 28 event because there are four reactors each at level seven (4x7 = 28). Chernobyl only had one reactor, and it stored far less fuel than any one of the Fukushima reactors. Experts have estimated at least 500,000 eventual deaths worldwide due to the Fukushima Disaster alone.
It's unfortunate for this author, and everyone else that Japan decided to go with a Nuclear energy nation in order to be energy independent, due to the island of Japan's lack of natural resources. However, due to Japan's frequent earthquakes, it makes you wonder, "What the Hell were they thinking?" Good Luck.
If im not wrong, that reactor was old, and is point is that the new technology is so safe that its nothing to be afraid of.
And the reason Chernobyl has probaly affected more people, is because they did a way better job on keeping cooling down and keeping it from spreading to much.
And correct me if im wrong here, but wasnt it triggered by an earthquake? there is a lot of places that you can build reactors, without having risk (or atleast a extremly low) of earthquakes.
The fact that you are assuming an event of a level seven should really be 28 because it was 4 reactors and you simply multiply just proves nothing else you wrote is worth reading. I agree, The Simpsons are not the main opposition to nuclear power gaining widespread acceptance; people like you are the reason. People who believe that reading a few news articles and googling a bit allows the layperson to understand a complex, technical subject.
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the nuclear experts took into account the four reactors. Out of all the Nuclear power experts looking into the disaster, I'm sure that somebody factored that into the equation.
They factored in the four reactors to their rating. Did you honestly think that you, some random jackass from the internet, would see something so obvious, while EXPERTS would completely overlook it? That's like saying "Well, it says three beers for five dollars, but there's three beers, so I guess it's 15."
Even then your logic is completely fallacious, as you're assuming that the scale is linear and such basic math could be applied.
The problem isn't nuclear power, per se. It's just that when you live on an island on the Ring of Fire, riddled by natural disasters, you just can't have nice things.
" We conclude that there is little support for the gravest of the CSI Effects, which is that jurors who watch CSI are wrongfully acquitting in cases lacking forensic evidence or that they are wrongfully convicting based on an unrealistic belief in the infallibility of forensic science...Finally, we discuss one of the most interesting, from a legal point of view, aspects of the CSI Effect, the claim that it has altered the burden of proof. We will argue that courts have correctly concluded that there is no legal merit to this argument..."
Reply Hide All See All 3 RepliesThis is from the abstract of the paper you reference in #6, which seems to completely refute your position. What did you do, just read the title and think, "Oh, that'll work?"
Shoddy research, even for a comedy site.
EminenceGris,
You make a good point. *However, the last time I was called to jury duty the prosecution make a point of explaining to us that this was not an episode of CSI. They were not going to bring out any fancy computer equipment or even any DNA evidence. They clearly seemed to believe that they had a hurdle to overcome.*
* I realize that anecdotes do not equal data. I offer up this experience as 'Food for Thought' only.
@Mo_Dee
I prefer a sandwich.
"the gravest of"
Seems you may have overlooked a few words in your copypasta.
Beyond nuclear power being a non-renewable resource (which is a big duh, but so everything else that isn't science fiction) and the nuclear waste awkward to dispose of, I have yet to hear any real tangible arguments against nuclear power. Statistically, it's got a helluva better safety record than any other power source. God knows it's far more regulated than anything else (9/11...anyone?).
Reply Hide All See All 4 RepliesSeriously, beyond the typical liberal-hippy-treehugger nonsense, what are the biggest arguments against it?
People are afraid of what they don't fully understand.
People don't fully understand traditional forms of energy. either. People assume they SHOULD understand and get up in arms when told they won't. People have a very poor understanding of the actual risks of nuclear power but as soon as there is some problem they feel they do and freak out. Guarantee living next to a carbon fuel based power plant is a larger health risk than a nuclear one but people *feel* the understand the risk of carbon fuels so they are more OK with it.
People are also afraid of things they understand all too well.
Make a space elevator and send the waste into outer space!
The owls didn't seem angry to me. More 'Back off, bitch!' cause whoever was filming was purposely backing them into corners (to try and make them angry, obvs.) It's also not just movies that do this, holidays do it too. Though you don't get so many people acquiring black cats around Halloween, Easter is prime time for bunnies and baby chicks.
ReplyNot to mention it was daytime. Owls do NOT like sunlight.
The shelter I help out at was really trying to plug black/ black and white cats at Halloween, mostly because they're overlooked every other day of the year, but by putting lucky black cat facts all over the place they managed to draw attention away from the crowd-pleasing tabbies, gingers and torties. Good example of using that sort of silly hype for the animals' benefit =) and yeah, not angry, more defensive. But if you found them in your shed or garage, you'd still be scared shitless xD
Although there may be some truth to number three, issues with nuclear energy generation go beyond that, even the safety part of it. The nuclear waste generated through the process requires something like a quarter of a million years in order to be stable enough to be evaluated as somewhat safe. This means the waste needs to be kept separate from humans.
Reply Hide All See All 5 RepliesAlso, the energy crisis is based around the fact that much of our energy comes from non-renewable sources such as coal and oil. Nuclear energy does not come from nowhere, it requires the finite resources of unstable isotopes of elements such as uranium. Nuclear energy is not the solution, although if we effectively and responsibly use it it can buy us sometime to find the answer.
tl;dr - Nuclear waste is a b***h to deal with.
However, nuclear energy is derived from a non-renewable natural resource, as if everything else. Bashing nuclear energy for that is the same as bashing every other energy source...
Considering that there is enough uranium to run all existing plants for at least 100,000 years, I would not give too much concern to its nonrenewable nature.
The moon can make a very good nuclear waste dump. Hell we'll put it on the dark side and nobody will ever know the difference. Or I heard dolphins love the stuff, either one.
You're overlooking the obvious solution to massive amounts of nuclear waste--that is, loading it into a giant cannon aimed directly at the sun.
I agree with mjcabooseblu . . . that thing runs off radiation anyways, right?
WTF is wrong with medical schools if RESIDENTS are doing things like they saw them on TV? Why not show the clip and ask the students "ok, what was inaccurate about this?"
ReplyUh, the residents are a product of their culture and society? It's not the medical school's job to change the sociology of a country, dude.
@SeanYamasaki
Uh, aren't the residents the product of a medical education?
#2 The Sideways Grip just proves that Negroes are stupid.
Reply Hide All See All 5 RepliesYo Tea-bagging Smith, these days, gangsta from every culture do that, you racist-fuck...
^ Frankly, I've only seen that crap in movies featuring black gangsters.
Wow, wasn't expecting a comment like that...
Don't feed the troll.
...but...
*stares agonizingly at Troll's huge, darling, hateful eyes*
...but he's SO CUTE!!
Ankle monitors and Tasers would have eventually been invented. How many people have been successfully arrested, rather than killed, since they came out? If police officers have been too quick to use tasers at times, it's because they're human.
ReplyAs for the ankle monitors, they're used to track people already convicted of crimes while serving their sentences. Or they could be jammed into overcrowded prisons.
What's your point, exactly?
That there might be more dead and/or imprisoned people without these inventions?
I think you should read why the jurors really failed to convict robert blake. a long parade of witnesses sound s impressive but ot if they have nothing much to say. the whole case was built around two witnesses, both drug addicts. The defense convinced the jury they were unreliable at best. There was no physical evidence at all, tis true just some poor circumstantial stuff. prosecution had no good case.
ReplyAlso don't see why taser and monitoring ankle bracelets are such a bad deal. the alternative before them was jail instead of house arrest and being shot or beaten with clubs. Not as if the police said oh, we don't have tasers, never mind then - move along.
Don't Tom A. Swift's Electric me bro!
Reply