how much do we really want to know?

I’m cleaning out my drafts folder, so … apropos of nothing:

Christopher Beam explains something that I’ve previously referred to as “going there”—the place where no detail is spared and where infotainment takes on a truly vulgar cast [e.a.]:

It’s okay for a candidate to admit he sins multiple times a day in the abstract. But the moment the sins become concrete, he’s pummeled for it. “Sin” covers everything from eating too many fries to murder. That’s why it’s such an easy question to ask and to answer. It sets up the faux-humble “forgive me, I’m human” rhetoric we hear on the campaign trail. But when things get specific—think Jimmy Carter admitting “I have lusted in my heart”—people get squeamish. When things get too specific—I have lusted in a Radisson hotel—that’s when the punishment begins.