Some of you are going to hate me for this, but here's the thing - all those elimination shows like "The Apprentice", "America's Top Model", "Greatest Loser" etc. are toxic, fake, and virulent, and spill over into popular culture, politics, and the econ...

[mloxton@med-mastodon.com]

Some of you are going to hate me for this, but here's the thing - all those elimination shows like "The Apprentice", "America's Top Model", "Greatest Loser" etc. are toxic, fake, and virulent, and spill over into popular culture, politics, and the economy in corrosive and evil ways.

They encourage cynicism, bullying, abuse, and narcissistic bullshittery, and are founded on the idea of public humiliation and degradation as entertainment. They make money by damaging the contestant and the viewer

[carolee@mastodon.scot]

@mloxton

I find Bake-Off (Great British Baking Show) an antidote for this, with humor, kindness, and joy in every episode, even though it’s an elimination competition show. If you walked in at the end of an episode, you’d be hard-pressed to identify who won and who lost that week by the hugs and support all around.

Do you feel like that’s less damaging, or is it the premise of the elimination show itself that is toxic, in your opinion? Curious whether nicer makes a difference.

[mloxton@med-mastodon.com]

@Carolee
I LOVE the Bake-Off, and if you contrast it to Top Chef, you can see exactly what you say. I would exclude TBO because of the enormous fun element and the fact that you sometimes really don't know who "won".

The elimination is part of the evil - like why not make it about how much progress people can make?, but the bigger evil is when they use competitiveness in a context of meanness to make it about degrading someone

[mastodonmigration@mastodon.online]

@mloxton @Carolee

The fact that there is no money invovled is also a big part of why Bake-Off works. Also bakers just seem to be nicer people.