奶头乐（英语：tittytainment），又译为奶头娱乐或奶嘴娱乐，是一个合成词，据德国作家Hans-Peter Martin自己声称是由美国前国家安全顾问布热津斯基创造的，特别泛指那一类能让人着迷、又低成本、能够使人满足的低俗娱乐内容。用来描述一个设想：由于生产力的不断上升，世界上的一大部分人口将会不用也无法积极参与产品和服务的生产(技術性失業)。为了安慰这些人，他们的生活应该被大量的娱乐活动（比如网络、电视和游戏）填满。社会动荡的主要因素之一是阶层之间的利益冲突。那要如何避免少数得益者与大多数的底层人民间的冲突呢？方法之一是给其“奶头”，转移其注意力和不满情绪，让他们更能接受自己的境遇。可以通过观察社会现象而窥探一二，主要表现在媒体的泛娱乐化、大众对于娱乐和游戏产业的高度关注和追随等。
转载原文：Don’t Fall Into Tittytainment Traps
The image of a mother breastfeeding a baby is beautiful.
What if inside this baby is a frustrated adult who cries whenever the world goes against his wishes? What if this giant baby instantly stops crying when fed with breasts?
Then he forgets about everything, including the reason he gets angry.
The same cycles repeats.
Sorry about the grotesque imagery. It is purely figurative to describe a phenomenon where people indulge in frequent stimulation of entertainment, and eventually losing the ability to think independently or critically.
There is actually a word for it — Tittytainment.
The word Tittytainment has two parts: Tits and Entertainment
The concept of Tittytainment was introduced in The Global Trap by Hans-Peter Martin, an Austrian journalist and former politician.
The frustrated population of the world could be kept happy with a mixture of numbing entertainment and adequate food. … The world model of the future follows the formula 20 to 80. The one-fifth society is brewing in which the excluded will be immobilized with “tittytainment” — The Global Trap
Mr. Martin discussed a 20/80 society structure where 80 percent lives on some form of welfare and “tittytainment” — a mixture of “deadeningly predictable, lowest common denominator” entertainment for the soul and body nourishment.
The word is not listed in the Oxford or Cambridge dictionary, and I found the definition in wiki-dictionary:
A form of lowest common denominator entertainment designed to appeal to the masses and refrain people from thinking.
You can also understand the word by breaking it down —
“Tits” refers to breastfeeding, which has sleeping and inerting effect. “Tainment” refers to entertainment, namely the activities that amuse people. Together, tittytainment refers to low-cost, physical and psychological means that provides instant gratification and a numbing effect that demobilize human brains.
In 1990s, examples of tittytainment include alcohol, drugs, sex, TV soap operas and high caloric food, etc, which are also the most commonly accepted forms of entertainment.
But what is the different between entertainment and tittytainment? Let’s explore Tittytainment further, before we jump into this question.
“The Global Trap” has stirred a wave of conspiracy that government uses tittytainment to control the majority of world population.
The conspiracy theory originates from the 1995 World Forum Conference held at Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. The conference invited many world leaders in politics and business, including former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, former U.S. President George W. Bush, former British Prime Minister Margaret Sachet, and Media mogul Ted Turner.
The discussions were around global trends, the emerging economies, and how to form new civil structures in societies among chaos. According to Mr. Martin, who was present with his fellow journalists, the meeting reduced the future to a number and a term: “20/80” and “Tittytainment”.
The leaders concluded that a 80/20 social structure is inevitable, because technology and productivity would improve as global trade opens up, hence intensifying global competitions. As a result, the marginalized 80% would face “great problems”.
Naturally, the next question followed — how to avoid the conflicts between different social class?
It was widely believed that Zbigniew Brzezinsk, the former principal foreign policy advisor to Jimmy Carter, proposed a solution — deploying tittytainment to satisfy the frustrated 80 percent.
By frequently stimulating frustrated people with low-cost entertainment, they will stop crying about their positions in the society — exactly the same effect of putting a pacifier to a baby’s mouth.
However, the validity of this tittytainment scheme is not well-tested. There is limited documentation of the Fairmont Conference, and perhaps that’s why you cannot find the term in Wikipedia in english version (however, French, German and Spanish version are available). I also find CNN’s news coverage, which doesn’t go into details, which possibly left Martin’s book the only detailed reference to the conference.
Personally, I don’t believe in this conspiracy theory because it is anti-humanity and in contrary to economic developments.
However, tittytainment is dangerous and happening in our life.
The boundary between entertainment and tittytainment is blurry, as low-cost entertainment are becoming more easily accessible.
Government are relaxing regulations on Alcohol , Drugs and Porn businesses.
More governments are loosening the constraints on drugs consumption since 2010, including Canada and several U.S. states. Cannabis is now a multi-billion industry with publicly traded companies, having legitimate reasons to expand even further. More countries have removed restriction on Pornography, and many of them does not treat child pornography as criminal.
The government relaxed regulation as if addiction and domestic violence issues have disappeared overnight.
Government and corporates has shown more support to entertainment during chaos. During the economy shutdown amid COVID-19, U.S. has relaxed drinking law during COVID. In Canada, most provincial governments list liquor stores as essential services and allow them to open during the economy shut down. In addition, cannabis stores resumed operation during the first stage of economic reopen in Canada.
In U.S., Alcoholic beverage sales shot up 55% in the third week of March compared to the same time a year ago, according to Nielsen. In B.C., Canada, since economic shutdown on March 18, the alcohol consumption spiked, with revenue climbed 21.5% compared to same period in 2018. (FYI, the B.C. provincial government is the owner of the biggest liquor chain)
Large corporates are also creative. Pornhub, one of the biggest pornographic sites, was offering free membership during quarantine, and saw the biggest spike in views. German sex toy brand Womanizer said its sales shot up 50% above forecast.
But who is responsible for those marginalized ones that suffer mental and physical damage from indulging in those low-cost entertainment and arguably, tittytainment? Who cares about the unprivileged ones who cannot afford healthy hobbies but cheap means of entertainment?
According to a 2019 research on government mental health spending, North America countries have the least spending per capita on mental, neurological, and substance use disorders, and self-harm.
Lancet Public Health 2019; 4: e89–96
But drug, sex and alcohol is just a tip of iceberg. There is something more damaging around our life.
We are buried in a universe of low-cost entertainment that could mute our critical thinking.
Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash
Retailers use mass-marketing tactics to tout products, splattering waves of materialism, instead of humanity values.
Social media companies are hiring “influencers” to share their products to the audience who can only see the price tags but not value.
Entertainment industry is producing exaggerating content that make the gullible ones more gullible, losing the ability to question or fact check. One example is the reality tv-shows (Mr. Trump should thank the Apprentice).
Facebook is dominating the news media, allowing false information without taking legal responsibilities. People are venting through the internet, defamation, rumors, violence, to spread their emotion but not facts, because this is a more instant method of being heard.
Phone manufactures, in alliance with social media and software developers, are constantly feeding people with information passively.
Video streaming companies provide the content they wish people to see, and the built-in auto-play next episode invents a new fashion of binge-watching, lying on the bed all day nothing in the head.
What would happen if entertainment becomes a microchip inside your head?
Here’s the 2019 google top searches in U.S. (Up) and Canada (Down).
Observations?
Entertainment news occupy the most searches in both U.S. and Canada. Majority Internet users’ interests are on entertainment topics, not science, literature, or most fundamental questions that keep humanity evolving — what, why, and how.
I believe and I hope, you — an intellectually curious Medium users, will not lose your questioning mindsets. But please go through the below check lists of early warnings signs of tittytainment traps.
What’s the last time you question the validity of news, articles, or videos shared by your close friends or family? What’s the last time you browse a newspaper and read those interests you, instead of reading the push-up notifications from an all-in newspaper? What’s the last time you watch movies on Netflix? Have you thought about finding content else where?
When you bought something last time, was it driven by needs, or the pop-up ads on the webpage, or the “influencers”?
How many time do you spend on reading Hollywood news?How much screen time do you have each day? How many times do you pick up the phone?
If we fall into tittytainment traps, how can we prevent our future generations from the same traps?
Teenagers are growing up in a horizon made of screens.
Here’s results of 2019 study report by Common Sense Media, a non-for profit company that advocates safe technology and media for children. Teens (aged 13 to 18) spend an average of 7 hours and 22 minutes on the screen media a day, (not including school work), and tweens (aged 8-12) — not far behind, at 4 hours and 44 minutes daily. The screen use are dominated by watching videos and television shows, playing games and using social media.
THE COMMON SENSE CENSUS: MEDIA USE BY TWEENS AND TEENS, 2019
Here’s what teens and tweens “enjoy a lot” on the screen — Online videos, gaming, social media are among the top list. Less than 10% tweens and teens says they enjoy “a lot” creating content and creativity work; by comparison, 67% of tweens and 58% of teens enjoy watching online videos “a lot.”
THE COMMON SENSE CENSUS: MEDIA USE BY TWEENS AND TEENS, 2019
Another finding stand out — there is substantial differences in the amount of screen media young people use based on socioeconomic status. Kids born in low-income family are more likely to spend extra time with screen.
THE COMMON SENSE CENSUS: MEDIA USE BY TWEENS AND TEENS, 2019
The boundary between tittytainment and entertainment is blurry
Remember the question I asked you before? What is the difference between tittytainment and entertainment?
Is marijuana entertainment or tittytainment? Is live streaming videos entertainment or tittytainment? What about TV dramas? Instagrams?
I don’t know the answer. Ask your head, it knows all.
How does it feel? Do they talk to you any more? Do they ask questions? Do they like reading words and numbers? Do they yell at you when you watch episode one after another?
Here are some warnings signs of you falling into Tittytainment traps.
- Passive information absorption, rather than active thinking
- Superficiality rather than humanity value
- Entertainment becomes an instinct rather than a choice.
It’s true that 20% of population controls 80% of the world resources. But what if some day, the top 20 controls the 80 percent of minds?
I am worried that we and our future generation would lose the abilities to think critically, to make good decisions, to stand up and ask questions.
We are constantly talking about income equality, social injustice — of course they are huge social problems. But how can we solve these problems if we lose the ability to think independently?
Who do you expect to will stand up for us and address and resolve the social problems, the top 20%?
