Why Do You Think They Call It "Programming"? (Part 1)

[Don Coyote]

This is why I am glad I spent most of my childhood not watching TV, mostly because we would frequently be unable to afford cable and we didn't really llike the hassle of getting the antena to work properly.

Really odd thing, on the date I had on leave, the chick I took back to my hotel room was baffled when I didn't turn on the tv right away, or at all.

Did she get all Don Sutherland on you, pointing at you and howling?

Because that would have been hot as fuck.

No because I quickly removed her clothes and fade to black.

[Whatever]

This makes me feel much better about refusing to get cable.  

[Planeswalker]

It's been about eight years now since I just got up, turned off the damn thing and put it out on the street.
That bullshit reeked! I could see it oozing out from inside the glowing box. It simply had to go and I never looked back.

Lately, when I go visit friends I often can't help but ask: "hey, how about we turn that damn thing off for a while?" These fullHighDumbinition widescreen monsters feel like probes drilling into my head when tuned into yetanotherangledbullshitprogramme; and how often have I noticed people in a conversation slowly getting their focus lured back into the shiny void of shit? More than once I just left when it became clear that the droning must continue...

While the agenda seems so similar within all types of media I think television takes the top in terms of nasty effectiveness.
I do like your point about the fading net-neutrality and the control of content. I wonder who will win this one.

[Adios]

It's been about eight years now since I just got up, turned off the damn thing and put it out on the street.
That bullshit reeked! I could see it oozing out from inside the glowing box. It simply had to go and I never looked back.

Lately, when I go visit friends I often can't help but ask: "hey, how about we turn that damn thing off for a while?" These fullHighDumbinition widescreen monsters feel like probes drilling into my head when tuned into yetanotherangledbullshitprogramme; and how often have I noticed people in a conversation slowly getting their focus lured back into the shiny void of shit? More than once I just left when it became clear that the droning must continue...

While the agenda seems so similar within all types of media I think television takes the top in terms of nasty effectiveness.
I do like your point about the fading net-neutrality and the control of content. I wonder who will win this one.

I turn mine off when company comes over, I think it is rude not to.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

It's been about eight years now since I just got up, turned off the damn thing and put it out on the street.
That bullshit reeked! I could see it oozing out from inside the glowing box. It simply had to go and I never looked back.

Lately, when I go visit friends I often can't help but ask: "hey, how about we turn that damn thing off for a while?" These fullHighDumbinition widescreen monsters feel like probes drilling into my head when tuned into yetanotherangledbullshitprogramme; and how often have I noticed people in a conversation slowly getting their focus lured back into the shiny void of shit? More than once I just left when it became clear that the droning must continue...

While the agenda seems so similar within all types of media I think television takes the top in terms of nasty effectiveness.
I do like your point about the fading net-neutrality and the control of content. I wonder who will win this one.

[Jasper]

Living without television has been liberating.  It frees you.  I can't stand television.  I can't bear to face the reality that there are people who watch commercials.

[Cramulus]

Roger!

I've been without cable for over a year now and I haven't regretted it a BIT - I can watch the Daily Show / Colbert Report on the net; the rest of the channels were only good for making myself angry or trancing out for entire evenings at a time. Now if I want to waste a whole evening I have to be CREATIVE.

I was having an angry political conversation in the bagel store the other day, this random stranger got involved, it was a fucking gas. And the one thing we all agreed on was that Real Change is not coming until shit gets so bad that people's basic cable gets affected.

Part of the reasons why people watch TV is because it makes them feel like they're a part of something. Glenn Beck has built his career on the ability to generate rage and then make people feel like they're not alone in that rage. In the old days if I was feeling lonely I'd watch the late show, and then at least I felt like I had my finger on the pulse of what a million people are thinking about.

It's just like your warning about the occult - it makes you FEEL like you're doing something, even though that energy could be better spent achieving your goals in more tangible ways. I think TV is of the same bird, it lets people feel this outrage and they feel like they don't need to act on it because Keith Olbermann is screaming into the camera on their behalf.

FUCK

THAT

NOISE

[Captain Utopia]

I can't bear to face the reality that there are people who watch commercials.

I've known a few people who said that the commercials are the best part about watching television.  People who see pressing mute during adverts not as a compromise, but an act of war.  True horrormirth.

[Adios]

I can't bear to face the reality that there are people who watch commercials.

I've known a few people who said that the commercials are the best part about watching television.  People who see pressing mute during adverts not as a compromise, but an act of war.  True horrormirth.

I hit mute as an act of peace. And quiet.

[Jasper]

I can't bear to face the reality that there are people who watch commercials.

I've known a few people who said that the commercials are the best part about watching television.  People who see pressing mute during adverts not as a compromise, but an act of war.  True horrormirth.

This is me, staring in disbelief, agape.  Dismayed, mystified, and sad: 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I was having an angry political conversation in the bagel store the other day, this random stranger got involved, it was a fucking gas. And the one thing we all agreed on was that Real Change is not coming until shit gets so bad that people's basic cable gets affected.

Way back in 2004, I said "The revolution will not be televised, therefore there will be no revolution.", and "There will be no rebellion as long as the TV works."

So, yeah.

[Cramulus]

yeah, mittens! a bunch of angry people in a bagel store agree 169%

[The Good Reverend Roger]

The reason for that, of course, is that people are afraid to revolt, because then they might miss watching the revolt on TV.

And the TV isn't telling them what's really going on (obviously), and nothing is real until it's on TV.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

yeah, mittens! a bunch of angry people in a bagel store agree 169%

Did they grab pitchforks and man the barricades?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

The Teabaggers tried, but wussed out when they were told they couldn't throw their tea bags on the ground.  So they dipped them in water to "make a statement".

What that statement SAID, of course, was "I want to be on TV as a daring radical, but I don't want to go to jail."

That's when I started hating them.  Until then, I was pulling for them in the same way I'd pull for a Down's Syndrome victim trying to solve Fermat's Last Theorem.