Hoarders vs Pigs

There is a show on A & E which I used to occasionally watch called Hoarders.  I don't anymore because something happened, it transitioned from a show about people who hoard things to a show about people who are, for lack of a better word, pigs.  The original episodes concerned themselves with individuals who bought thousands and thousands of dollars worth of unnecessary items and filled their homes with this clutter:  dolls, and clothing, and purses, and knick-knacks, and most of it was boxed or in bags.  You might barely be able to walk through the stacks of clutter, but you could walk.  Those shows were interesting because there were psychologists and social workers involved, and they always ended with a blurb about the subjects, whether they were on counseling or not, and how well they were doing; if they had overcome their hoarding tendencies.

A hoarder's treasure trove

But as I said, something changed, perhaps because the producers wanted to increase their ratings, and they became increasingly about individuals who preferred living in squalor.  Hoarders tend to be collectors on steroids, there is no stop mechanism.  Pigs are too lazy to throw out the garbage.  I think the last episode I watched concerned a woman and her daughter who would eat outside in their van because there was no space in the house.  The rooms were filled with garbage rather then clutter; soft drink clans, pizza boxes, fast food bags.  The camera was showing you first hand what it was like to live in a pig sty.  When they revealed that this woman had a guinea pig sleeping in her bed and that she never cleaned up the shit and piss - that's when I realized the show had turned completely.

A pig's sty

 

In spite of what some would have you believe, this is not hoarding, this is nothing but stupid laziness.  The focus had changed direction, it was now on garbage and squalor and people who are pigs.  These people have serious mental issues.  Turning them into entertainment is rather repulsive.  None of them are going to get the help they need to pull their lives together.  No matter what friends or relatives may say, once the camera leaves they're pretty much on their own.  Unlike hoarders, they cannot change.  In no time at all they'll be pigs again.