Adam Johnson’s piece on the Washington Post‘s “emotional pornography” (12/20/15) was reprinted by Common Dreams (12/21/15):
Much like the popular “homeless guy does the right thing” viral “prank” videos, these PR stunts are fundamentally based on two flawed, rather vulgar premises: 1) that the poor are somehow expected to not be altruistic (otherwise, why not run this experiment at a private boarding school?) and 2) the cheap emotional pornography and shallow moralism these videos offer the average social media consumer outweighs the inherently cruel act of making poor children “choose” between obtaining material possessions they can’t normally have or stripping their parents of the same. The fact that the marketing firm behind the experiment ends up giving the child both gifts is supposed to make it OK, but it doesn’t. This last-minute paternalistic gesture doesn’t justify the voyeuristic act of watching a poor child suffer through such a task for no objectively worthwhile reason.
