War porn - Fucked up or not?

[ScottMcGowan]

I suppose I see this from two different perspectives...

First, I kind of like the idea of regular folks (i.e. non-veterans, non-journalists, non-natives to a war zone) seeing the horrors of war. People have too long labored under the delusion that war is somehow glorious or romantic. The god-awful things we see on television, though playing to our morbid curiosities, help us realize that there really is no glamour in killing or being killed, especially when the conflict in question may or may not be justified. We won't get into that, however.

On the other hand, I don't particularly like the idea of profiteering from suffereing either, which is exactly what everyone from major news outlets to penny-ante websites have been doing. If anything, I find it as repulsive and horrifying as the images of beheadings and charred bodies themselves.