It's an interesting notion that while television was commercially available since the late 1920s, it wasn't marketed on any scale until after World War II. It's also interesting to note the different cultures represented by that gap in time.
The "roaring 20s" were infamous for partiers, flappers, illegal hootch, driving too fast, and rampant individualism. On the other hand, the 40s and 50s were known for lockstep conformity (Having a different cut of suit could cost you your job, or at least stunt your career, as you were considered to either be a radical or "putting on airs".).
Now, while there were other factors that explain the delay (the depression, WWII), which of those two cultures was more susceptable to programming? Hell, to this day, there are people who think that if it wasn't true, they couldn't air it. Anyone who pays attention knows better, of course, especially given Fox News having established in court that they are free to just make shit up and call it reporting.
I mean, why pound square pegs into triangular holes, when you can have a population of people that are not only happy to be triangles, but also demand that everone else be triangular? After a while, of course, people were born and raised in the right shape, given that their principle source of information was the TV.
And it's not just the news...We ALL know THEY lie. It's the programming in general. The X-Files and Lost were both intentionally designed to be one cliff hanger after another, mostly so that people would keep watching - hoping for the payoff that deliberately never arrived - so they could see more commercials for drugs to make their dicks hard.
Children's television is a masterpiece of conditioning. Anyone remember that piece of shit program Captain Planet? Kids were taught from age 5 on that pollution was caused by eco-terrorists who wanted to pollute just to be evil. It wasn't cars, refineries, industrial processes, etc...It was a group of bad guys who apparently made toxic waste just to throw around, muhaha. This show - and others like it - were designed to get people to think of the problem as a small core group of bad guys, not 6.87 billion monkeys all doing their little part to make the planet uninhabitable.
Funny thing is, later on, they're told that they can save the world by recycling aluminum and newspaper. Also useless, but now the monkey is very, very confused. Confused monkeys do one of two things: They go looking for easy answers ("Climate Change is a liberal myth" (denial) or "Shut civilization down" (unworkable)), or they shut the problem out of their mind forever.
Now ask yourself...Why are the (very few) corporations that control TV programming so interested in abolishing "net neutrality"? It isn't so they can bill you more (though that's a nice payoff), it's so they can control the content you receive there, too. For radio, there are about three nation-wide providers. For television, there's less than a dozen, once you follow the stock. There's NOBODY for the internet, but that won't last forever.
One other contrast...On the internet, you can control how much information you receive, and of what type. Television, on the other hand, is deliberately geared to flood you with volumes of information designed to induce stress (ie, mostly shit you can't do anything about) and self-loathing (Why aren't you beautiful like these people...Oh, yeah, because you're FAT, because you spend all day in front of the TV).
This information stress means you need more filters...Which they are happy to provide, either with Sean Hannity's Two Minute Hate, or with an endless array of pills. These pills make you chemically dumber and lazier, so you watch more TV.
Now, while there are a few people furthering this agenda (talking to you, Roger Ailes), most of the Conspiracy is unaware of what they're doing...As Philo Drummond said, it's a vast conspiracy of dunces and rubes, not evil masterminds.
The best part of all of this is, it's a conspiracy you can defeat (at least on a personal level) simply by turning the damn television off. All you have to do to overcome 66 years of programming experience (longer, if you count the radio) is turn the fucking thing off. Don't throw it away, it's still good for movies and video games, but for fuck's sake, ask yourself what the hell you're watching, and whether or not you actually feel different - or feel ANYTHING - after losing an evening watching the damn thing...Other than, of course, feeling that "You're Loving It", and really wanting some horrible fast food shit/pills/beer.
Just kill it.
Or Kill Me.
