What Would You Do?

Unpopular opinion of the day: few shows bother me more than “What Would You Do?” on ABC, the hidden camera show that professes to reveal how your average person reacts when exposed to a given situation in a public place. On its surface it’s a nice, wholesome show that shows plenty of Average Joe’s protecting the weak, minding the innocent, and doing right by all.

 I call foul.

Sometimes the situations are clear cut, say someone drops their wallet in a shopping mall, a man is beaten, a woman is verbally assaulted or a child is left seemingly unattended. These are ‘duh’ situations and devoid of ambiguity. Too often, however, there is an agenda at play. Underneath the benign surface the show is a bully pulpit enforcing the media’s idea of what’s right – aka, what’s Left – and using the power of television to force any and all objections to the side. It’s horribly slanted to portray X as righteous and any objection to X as wrong. Likewise it works to label anyone with an objection as misguided and ignorant , someone who would only act and behave ‘better’ if educated by the host  John Quiñones 

Legitimate objections?  Intellectual disagreements? A conscience?

“Blech, there’s no such thing!”, sayeth ABC.

Here’s the deal. I do think it’s in poor taste for a woman to breast feed her five year old in the middle of a restaurant. Yup, I do. I do not think illegal immigrants should be idealized and pitied, any more than I think they should be demonized and hated. I do not think any couple, regardless of race or gender, should make out in the booth next to me, unless that booth is situated in a strip club. I do not think it is any of your damn business if and when a parent decides to ‘force’ his kid to eat something on their plate, punishes them (without violence) or make them get a haircut and I question why you are perfectly ok with someone butting in during those private moments. If someone forces their child to steal from me because that family is hungry, I will not coddle them and say “that’s OK Bunkie”. If you had asked, I might have bought you some groceries; I have done so before. But if you steal and plead hunger, I call foul. Get food stamps. Go to a soup kitchen. Visit the food pantry. And don’t you dare call me ‘ignorant’ – I’ve had plenty of rough times, and I know what it’s like to stand in line for government cheese, thank you kindly.

So in summary: do not pretend you are the arbiter of good taste or conscience, and don’t confuse “politically correct” with “correct”. Your show is a sham, and I do not like it sam I am. I do not.

Here endeth my rant.