When Did Americans Become Rotten Souless Voyeurs?

Take a look at these two recent YouTube clips and tell me something's not rotting at the core of our culture.

The first clip is a man being confronted by police at a Carl's Jr. restaurant.  He repeatedly refuses to cooperate, shrugs off the taser, then moves to swing a metal tool of some kind at one of the officers and is shot dead.

Someone gets shot ten times right in front of you and you giggle hysterically?  Really?

The second clip shows an elderly woman driving in the median of the highway.  Apparently she was having some sort of medical issue which caused her to be confused.

"I wanna see what happens when they get to the bridge! Ha ha ha!"

Now both clips are breathtaking to watch, and I'm not suggesting that people shouldn't watch YouTube, but when did it become commonplace for Americans to laugh at people who are suffering?

I weep for the future.

Comments

[Jay Rinsen Weik]

I wonder if it doesn't have something to do with growing up playing video games that feature endless gun violence and car crashes being pumped into the subconscious? Really, there are lots of peole walking around today who've been immersed in that for as long as they can remember and maybe it leads to a desensitization to these things. Perhaps a piece of the puzzle anyhow...

[Woody]

Hmm... maybe that's part of it, but I used to play Doom and Unreal myself, blowing my digital opponents into bloody chunks, and if I'd have been at that restaurant I would have been dumbfounded and shocked, not giggling like a sadistic freak.