Is watching (real life) gore immoral?

[noname223]

Yeah it is time again for an unpopular opinion of mine. I think some/many(?) of you watch gore. When I was a teenager I also watched gore sometimes. I know how this started. I have experienced violence and abuse as a child. When I saw someone in a movie pulling off his skin I had the thought this is exactly the same feeling/I would like to the same during my abuse. Just pulling off my skin. Ironically when I told my mom about this movie she hit me. She did he same when I told her I am suicidal. Yes she beat me due to that fact which is very sick. I have the feeling this is somewhat of a defence because I regret having watched that kind of stuff.

There are several theories why people watch gore in the first place. I am not an expert about it but I have thought and read about it. Moreover I watched a Youtube video about a gore website. I think you have to be cautious about judging other people for watching gore. I think many like me (as a teenager) use this to cope with suicidality, past traumata or in general mental illness. Though experts say gore can cause PTSD and traumata. I read about people who had the job of monitoring websites like Facebook or TikTok. They have to watch a lot of gore and other extreme cruel content. Some of them developed PTSD and are sueing now the companies. I am glad I never got severly traumatised from it. Watching gore is like playing russian roulette. At least I think I am not traumatized due to that. It is always impossible to prove it. But my sister who I think never watched gore also developed psychosis. The bigger trigger for my mental illness was a day in school when I was extremely bullied by my best friends to that time and a lot of other people. I think at that day I was for the first time paranoid. People who get psychosis have often something in common. (I think this does not count for drug induced psychosis) They felt strongly excluded from another group. For example due to bullying. I just recognize this has nothing to do with the topic. It is just as always a self-defense. For me this day was probably the start of my bipolar disorder. After that I developed a mixed manic/depressive state. And due to the suicidal thoughts this condition caused I watched gore.

It is like a chicken egg question in many cases. Do you were ill before watching gore or has gore caused the illness? I think for many the first assumption is true. But I have no proof. Another reason was I always disliked censorship and I thought the journalists also have to watch the world as cruel as it is. They see the dirty side of the world.

I have changed my opinion about gore a lot since then. I think there is often a voyeuristic component in watching gore. I don't think this is often the main incentive. But it often comes along. Many people on here wrtie they want to desensitize from death. I can understand that. But I think most people who are filmed dying don't want that. They did not give a consent. And for me this is a good argument for the hypothesis watching gore is immoral if we have to assume the other people did not want to be filmed/watched dying. I often think about the people who get sexually attracted watching someone suffering/dying painfully. I don't know how many these people are. I assume it is only a small of people who watch gore. Another point which is horrible in my opinion are the comments under those videos. (I never read them.) But many people who cited them and talked about it said they are unbelievable disgusting and evil. I hate that. I really despise it when people make fun of suffering/dying people. And this happens often in the comments of those videos.

When we hope the people are in peace I don't want that people masturbate to another human people who has his/her last seconds on earth. I absolutely don't want to say that many people do that. But if a video is watched like 10k there are also these kind of people. Furthermore it must be horrible for the families of that person to know that other people make fun about their deceased family members or friends.

But this is only my opinion feel free to disagree and I think many will do that. I am curious how much hate I will get lol.

 

[Un-]

I think that this argument falls under free speech, and freedom of expression. If it does, then there is no further discussion: regardless of how you, and I feel about the people that have access to this content, however they decide to interact with the content shouldn't be something we dictate. We can't pick and choose what we think should and shouldn't be prohibited, despite how strongly we feel. Assuming, of course, it abides by the law.

 

[Foresight]

I think we're all subject to our bodies and there is an honest curiosity about what kind of suffering and damage this body can bring. That's why I use to watch it. I wanted the full story of what it means to be in flesh and to be heading towards death. If you only think of the good things the body can bring it seems like half the story to me. There's corpse meditation in Buddhism. I'm by no means a monk, but I would say the spirit of gaining insight is why I watched. I don't do it anymore because I don't feel I'd gain anything from it. The morality of it all is beyond me to be honest. You bring up some great points. Without much thought I would say it is immoral. It never felt right to do and I wouldn't do it at this point.

 

[noname223]

I think that this argument falls under free speech, and freedom of expression. If it does, then there is no further discussion: regardless of how you, and I feel about the people that have access to this content, however they decide to interact with the content shouldn't be something we dictate. We can't pick and choose what we think should and shouldn't be prohibited, despite how strongly we feel. Assuming, of course, it abides by the law.

I think it is a huge difference about something being illegal and something which is morally wrong. In most countries you can go to prison if you buy N with which you want to have a peaceful death. In my opinion this is far away from being immoral but still illegal.
To cheat on your wife and being emotionally abusive is in most cases not illegal. Still I think it is immoral.
And I think it is important to make this distinction between morality and legality.

 

[Hirokami]

I think there are a lot of people who watch gore because they feel empty inside and want to experience some sort of emotion, even if it's disgust or shock. In those cases, I could understand and even empathize. There are also people who watch gore out of sheer curiosity which wouldn't be immoral, either. So no, I don't think watching gore is inherently bad, though I do find it rather depressing how such imagery and websites exist in the first place.

 

[noname223]

I think there are a lot of people who watch gore because they feel empty inside and want to experience some sort of emotion, even if it's disgust or shock. In those cases, I could understand and even empathize. There are also people who watch gore out of sheer curiosity which wouldn't be immoral, either. So no, I don't think watching gore is inherently bad, though I do find it rather depressing how such imagery and websites exist in the first place.

And how do you deal with the fact the people are mostly involuntarily on these websites? I would extremely hate it if I knew my (brutal) suicide/death is then watched by people I don't know. Sometimes even leaving dumb comments. I want to have privacy in my last seconds. And if you die in a car accident or some hospital staff making pictures of you you then you have no influence on this decision. (Which happened in real life I made a thread about a trans-person who self-immolated and a member of the hospital posted images of the body on social media.)

If there is no consent in recording the death/suicide I think it is a valid argument for me that it might be immoral.

Though on the other hand you are right maybe the intention plays a big role.
People have to identify the person for example or journalists have to watch it to confirm that it is true and not fake.

 

[Smart No More]

Law and morality are far from synonymous. Legal doesn't imply moral or visa vera. In fact immorality is high amongst most if not all legal systems and it's punters. I guess its quite high amongst humans in general.
As far as gore goes, I think there are many motives for watching it. Curiosity is probably the most common reason and many that view it will never do so again. The return viewers probably represent a smaller bracket of types that view it. It is still wider than many appear to assume. The truth is, those types exist with or without gore vid consumption. Creating gore vids is where the highest focus should be. Though i guess that goes without saying. Your reaction to gore vids is the biggest indicator of your 'type' and 'morality' and none of us can really know the true scope of others reaction and the numbers of which are predominant. There is some innocent people that will find it facinating even when disturbed by it and there are those that will enjoy it for all the wrong reasons. Those that claim to have viewed and been negatively effected in the long term, I find hard to comprehend. Mainly because I don't see why you would view it repeatedly if it is so disturbing to you. Unless of cause you lack self awareness in some manner and perhaps have an obsessive disorder which makes it hard for you to forget or compartmentalise something you saw briefly. I guess in those cases you would very much regret having been curious in the first place. I certainly don't think anyone can reasonably blame gore videos for committing heinous acts. That's a cop out in my view but I'm no a psychologist so who am I to say. That's judt my instinctual opinion. One thing is for certain, there are many facets surrounding the phenomenon and it's more complex than any one of us could quantify.

 

[Kristicide]

Yeah it is time again for an unpopular opinion of mine. I think some/many(?) of you watch gore. When I was a teenager I also watched gore sometimes. I know how this started. I have experienced violence and abuse as a child. When I saw someone in a movie pulling off his skin I had the thought this is exactly the same feeling/I would like to the same during my abuse. Just pulling off my skin. Ironically when I told my mom about this movie she hit me. She did he same when I told her I am suicidal. Yes she beat me due to that fact which is very sick. I have the feeling this is somewhat of a defence because I regret having watched that kind of stuff.

There are several theories why people watch gore in the first place. I am not an expert about it but I have thought and read about it. Moreover I watched a Youtube video about a gore website. I think you have to be cautious about judging other people for watching gore. I think many like me (as a teenager) use this to cope with suicidality, past traumata or in general mental illness. Though experts say gore can cause PTSD and traumata. I read about people who had the job of monitoring websites like Facebook or TikTok. They have to watch a lot of gore and other extreme cruel content. Some of them developed PTSD and are sueing now the companies. I am glad I never got severly traumatised from it. Watching gore is like playing russian roulette. At least I think I am not traumatized due to that. It is always impossible to prove it. But my sister who I think never watched gore also developed psychosis. The bigger trigger for my mental illness was a day in school when I was extremely bullied by my best friends to that time and a lot of other people. I think at that day I was for the first time paranoid. People who get psychosis have often something in common. (I think this does not count for drug induced psychosis) They felt strongly excluded from another group. For example due to bullying. I just recognize this has nothing to do with the topic. It is just as always a self-defense. For me this day was probably the start of my bipolar disorder. After that I developed a mixed manic/depressive state. And due to the suicidal thoughts this condition caused I watched gore.

It is like a chicken egg question in many cases. Do you were ill before watching gore or has gore caused the illness? I think for many the first assumption is true. But I have no proof. Another reason was I always disliked censorship and I thought the journalists also have to watch the world as cruel as it is. They see the dirty side of the world.

I have changed my opinion about gore a lot since then. I think there is often a voyeuristic component in watching gore. I don't think this is often the main incentive. But it often comes along. Many people on here wrtie they want to desensitize from death. I can understand that. But I think most people who are filmed dying don't want that. They did not give a consent. And for me this is a good argument for the hypothesis watching gore is immoral if we have to assume the other people did not want to be filmed/watched dying. I often think about the people who get sexually attracted watching someone suffering/dying painfully. I don't know how many these people are. I assume it is only a small of people who watch gore. Another point which is horrible in my opinion are the comments under those videos. (I never read them.) But many people who cited them and talked about it said they are unbelievable disgusting and evil. I hate that. I really despise it when people make fun of suffering/dying people. And this happens often in the comments of those videos.

When we hope the people are in peace I don't want that people masturbate to another human people who has his/her last seconds on earth. I absolutely don't want to say that many people do that. But if a video is watched like 10k there are also these kind of people. Furthermore it must be horrible for the families of that person to know that other people make fun about their deceased family members or friends.

But this is only my opinion feel free to disagree and I think many will do that. I am curious how much hate I will get lol.

I don't think it's immoral. I like watching it myself and think it's just human curiosity to want to see something that's normally hidden from public media for multiple reasons. Personally I'm not watching it to laugh at it or because I want to do this to anyone or have it done to me. I want to see moments of tragic events where people may die just to have an understanding of those final moments. I prefer watching accidental deaths rather than criminal or violence. I'm wondering if the victim is aware of their last moments, what they are feeling. Many times they seem to be in such a state of shock that they aren't crying or screaming in pain but rather calm. It might be them slipping into unconsciousness. Unless of course it's an instate death where they must not feel a thing because of the sudden impact. I take no pleasure in their misfortune. I think of it like how a doctor must contain their emotions and just focus on the anatomy or medical side.

 

[FuneralCry]

I just find it disturbing that whole sites exist that are dedicated to gore. I would be traumatised if I ever saw one. There is so much pain and suffering that must have been experienced in order to make the content on there. This world is very depressing.

 

[whatevs]

The problem isn't that I want to watch gore, but that there is gore to begin with. I want to watch it because I want to know the truth about human nature and the world we live in.

Deaths, torture, accidents, these things are relevant and will tell you more about life in a few seconds than many books and conversations could. It's logical to want to know about them, although I agree that a heightened interest in them seems pathological.

 

[Hirokami]

And how do you deal with the fact the people are mostly involuntarily on these websites? I would extremely hate it if I knew my (brutal) suicide/death is then watched by people I don't know. Sometimes even leaving dumb comments. I want to have privacy in my last seconds. And if you die in a car accident or some hospital staff making pictures of you you then you have no influence on this decision. (Which happened in real life I made a thread about a trans-person who self-immolated and a member of the hospital posted images of the body on social media.)

If there is no consent in recording the death/suicide I think it is a valid argument for me that it might be immoral.

Though on the other hand you are right maybe the intention plays a big role.
People have to identify the person for example or journalists have to watch it to confirm that it is true and not fake.

Consent is a fair point, considering how death is very personal and not everyone wants their passing away broadcasted. Not to mention, unless someone knew they were going to die, they wouldn't be able to give said consent. I was more so thinking on intent. However even if the viewer's intent isn't malicious that, as a matter of fact, wouldn't give someone the right to see one's last moments. If we're putting consent into the equation, then viewing real-life gore is questionable at best regardless of intent and abhorent at worst if the person is watching said content for cruel reasons.

 

[Un-]

I think it is a huge difference about something being illegal and something which is morally wrong. In most countries you can go to prison if you buy N with which you want to have a peaceful death. In my opinion this is far away from being immoral but still illegal.
To cheat on your wife and being emotionally abusive is in most cases not illegal. Still I think it is immoral.
And I think it is important to make this distinction between morality and legality.

My apologies. My original post didn't differentiate between ethics, or law, and morality. I was looking at the question presented with more emphasis on the law aspect. Yes, you are correct to make that distinction.

With that in mind, the morality of watching gore depends on the intent behind it, as the following users have pointed out:

As far as gore goes, I think there are many motives for watching it. Curiosity is probably the most common reason and many that view it will never do so again. The return viewers probably represent a smaller bracket of types that view it. It is still wider than many appear to assume. The truth is, those types exist with or without gore vid consumption. Creating gore vids is where the highest focus should be. Though i guess that goes without saying. Your reaction to gore vids is the biggest indicator of your 'type' and 'morality' and none of us can really know the true scope of others reaction and the numbers of which are predominant. There is some innocent people that will find it facinating even when disturbed by it and there are those that will enjoy it for all the wrong reasons.

I think there are a lot of people who watch gore because they feel empty inside and want to experience some sort of emotion, even if it's disgust or shock. In those cases, I could understand and even empathize. There are also people who watch gore out of sheer curiosity which wouldn't be immoral, either. So no, I don't think watching gore is inherently bad, though I do find it rather depressing how such imagery and websites exist in the first place.

I want to watch it because I want to know the truth about human nature and the world we live in.

Deaths, torture, accidents, these things are relevant and will tell you more about life in a few seconds than many books and conversations could. It's logical to want to know about them, although I agree that a heightened interest in them seems pathological.

My honest opinion on gore, however, will be considered distasteful. I recognise that I have sociopathic, psychopathic, or antisocial behaviour, and I hate that about myself. Ironically, the movie The House That Jack Built almost encapsulates how I feel:
"Imagine a man walking down a street underneath the street lamps. Right under a light his shadow is the densest but also the tiniest. Then when he starts to move his shadow grows in front of him. The shadow becomes bigger and bigger while it thins out and the shadow behind him from the next lamppost emerges and becomes shorter and shorter until it reaches its ultimate density as the man stands directly underneath the light. Let's say that the man standing underneath the first lamppost is me when I've just committed a murder. I feel strong and content. I start to walk and the shadow in front of me grows bigger like my pleasure, but at the same time pain is on its way, represented by the shadow behind me from the next lamppost and at the midpoint between the lampposts the pain is so great it outweighs my pleasure. And with every step forward pleasure dissolves and pain intensifies behind me. Finally the pain is so unbearably intense that I have to act, so when I reach the point with the next lamp in zenith I will kill again."

Replace the killing, and murdering with watching gore videos - although I suppose the effect remains the same. I don't gain pleasure from watching those videos, but I am drawn to them, and I even find myself seeing the comedy behind the comments below the video. It is not lost on me that I'm a morally corrupt man; I refuse to let myself down a path of becoming a serial killer, too.

I don't think my post added any additional information that wasn't known or discussed already, but hopefully it helped provide a better understanding of the "other" .

 

[Mashedout]

Why is a human life worth more than any other? We've each been responsible for the death of thousands on lifeforms in our time here in order to keep existing. If morality exists, watching some gore will be the least of our crimes.

 

[Arrow]

I don't think it's immoral to watch it. Could be bad for you in the long run if you had a really bad reaction to what you saw, though. I wouldn't say watching any of the disturbing or frightening stuff you could find on the internet is inherently bad.
But if you were buying gore videos that's probably immoral. Because then you're incentivizing its creation, and...well, we all know what that would mean.

 

[veryhappyhuman]

People all around the world rubberneck at real life fatal accidents (that are mostly gory) all the time. I don't think it is a question of morality. Morbid curiosity just seems to be a natural human trait to me. The victim might very well have done it themselves in past.

IMO it's also the reason we have entire movie franchises like Saw, Hostel etc that have little in the way of plot but focus solely on gore that's as realistic as possible. If humans were naturally averse to gore, these movies wouldn't make hundreds of millions.

As for people watching, commenting on my death, I don't care tbh. I hate myself enough that I'd even encourage them to do it.

 

[Messgram]

It's neither immoral nor moral, it's nothing. The dead don't care, because they are dead. Seeing it or not, the video will still be there and it wasn't even me who posted it.

 

[noname223]

Why is a human life worth more than any other? We've each been responsible for the death of thousands on lifeforms in our time here in order to keep existing. If morality exists, watching some gore will be the least of our crimes.

I think also watching evil torture of animals (for fun) is immoral.

It's neither immoral nor moral, it's nothing. The dead don't care, because they are dead. Seeing it or not, the video will still be there and it wasn't even me who posted it.

The families and friends still live. In this youtube video they showed a young man who loved watching gore himself. Though one day a good friend of him ctb and the video went viral. Then he was disgusted about that video has been shared and commented on.
I think for many it is a big difference whether you know the victim or not. If it is your mom or best friend most would change their opinion. But you should always keep in mind. The most people you see dying had family and friends who care about them.

 

[Messgram]

The families and friends still live. In this youtube video they showed a young man who loved watching gore himself. Though one day a good friend of him ctb and the video went viral. Then he was disgusted about that video has been shared and commented on.
I think for many it is a big difference whether you know the victim or not. If it is your mom or best friend most would change their opinion. But you should always keep in mind. The most people you see dying had family and friends who care about them.

Families and friends are also unaware that I'm watching, so they don't care either. Put the blame on whoever posted and filmed, because my absence in the number of views won't change anything.

 

[olkf]

I never really questioned myself but I would not want any gore of my friends and family spreading at all.

 

[NeverGoBack94]

I can read any horrifying content or listen o it and be unfazed but I don't like gore at all and I avoid it.

Yet I don't know whether I'd like it or not. I have 0 empathy towards other people and can listen or read any content without any reaction.

I have watched some gory tapes (like Funkytown) and I didn't get any emotional reaction from them either.

Autistic psychopathy is real.

 

[SuicidallyCurious]

I'd argue if you paid for it then yes. Otherwise I don't see why - you didn't make it

 

[FogFilledLife]

Why should you care if it's immoral? Most my stress in life has been about trying to be good or wondering if I'm good, it was only when I mostly stopped caring that I was finally able to breath.

Life isn't black and white, but shades of gray. Serial killers can save people, activists can rape people.

Stop caring about morality and start caring about yourself. If you don't like it, why not? Ponder on it and discover more about who you are as a person.

Clinging to society's views will get none of us anywhere.

 

[Gustav Hartmann]

Moral means for me to follow the Golden Rule: Do not treat others in ways that you would not like to be treated. I my opinion I don´t break this rule when I watch gore videos. Unless things don´t happen if the are not filmed but this seems to be only true for snuff videos.
I only watch hanging videos, the rest bores me soon.

 

[akana]

I don't think there's anything wrong with watching it - if anything the issue is the fact it's accessible and the debate should lie more around how easy it is to access that in the first place. And if so, why? That's the part that's harder to answer

 

[Jrmull1993]

I don't think there's anything wrong with watching it - if anything the issue is the fact it's accessible and the debate should lie more around how easy it is to access that in the first place. And if so, why? That's the part that's harder to answer

Unless something is being done against someone's will, I don't see how the accessibility of it is a problem.

 

[woknows]

I am not sure about the morality of it. For sure it is not healthy and is probably a warning sign of underlying mental issues.

 

[rainwillneverstop]

The real question is asking why they watch it, what does it give them, what does it make them feel.

I don't know how to answer if it's immoral or not, but to me it probably is not. And if someone in my life watched it, I would be very curious as to the reason behind.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Realised I didn't actually know what gore was. It's not something I would seek out, as I'm terribly squemish.

Having said that, I am fascinating by awful disaster documentaries like Chernobyl, Bhopal, the Boeing Max etc. I don't think that can be healthy. I guess they just re-affirm my shock and disgust over how big corporations put profits over lives. The engineering side of it also interests me.

I think I watch them to feel something extreme though. I guess people sometimes watch gore for the same reasons- From what I've read- is it footage of people dying? I guess we're morbidly fascinated with what can potentially happen to us.

Initially, I thought gore might be people inflicting violence on others which scares me a whole lot more as I can see that there could be a link between extremely violent film and crime. Ted Bundy himself said he moved from very violent pornography to SA and murder when the porn no longer sated him. It's not to say that the spark isn't already there in some people but I think media can feed it and both desensitise a person but make their desire grow also.

It's difficult to say if the same thing is going on in gore- it doesn't sound like it's the fantasy of inflicting pain on others- although I suppose it could be if the viewer gets off on it. It does seem morally dubious if the person being filmed hasn't consented though- at the very least, their suffering is being exploited.

 

[jermainet]

I don't like watching people get hurt (except for myself).

I've always veered clear of anything like this, but it's a harsh reality of this life.

Lately I have found myself becoming more morbidly interested in things like aircraft disaster blackbox recordings, just so I at least have some idea what that line between life and death is really like. Before I get the courage to cross it myself, and depart quietly from this world.