Reality TV Didn't Waste Your Time — It Was Training You the Whole Time
You thought you were watching reality television. Reality television was watching you back — and taking notes. From the early-2000s freak show spectacle to today's algorithmic streaming slop, the genre was never mindless entertainment. It was a decades-long experiment in normalizing surveillance, humiliation, and turning human beings into content, and the audience was always the real subject. Gonzo has receipts.