Grownups do it. Mindlessly we automatically imitate and follow the leader. Athletes will watch videos depicting images of excellent moves to increase their own proficiency. Anything we notice and process gets put into the information programs in our minds and memories. One is the behavioral sequence, how, for instance, to go about setting fire to a vagrant sleeping on a park bench.
Taboos lose their inhibitory force.
And if good guys are doing horrible things in order to fight the bad guys, then the behavior is all the more permissible. Recently I was mulling over this question and meditating on possible nonviolent campaigns or applications of Saul Alinsky's tactics. I began to wonder whether Catholics couldn't be organized in order to collectively boycott the offending media and thereby exert social pressure. We used to loathe and despise being commanded to stand up in church and repeat an oath not to go to immoral movies. Eventually I mustered enough courage to endure the torture of social nonconformity and remained seated in protest.