I am now a traitor to the American way...

...of spending thousands of hours on my fat, bloated ass watching mindless pablum and being spoon-fed the propaganda of what passes for modern media.

No I haven't gone strange or paranoid, I have just given up TV.

Actually I gave it up a while ago, but recently I learned that I'm not missing a gorram thing.

News? The news isn't so bad, if you don't mind the fact that objective journalism has mutated into a ratings pissing contest with each other trying to get some exclusive news out there that will make the American Population tune into them for it. I personally just love how they can announce that "SO AND SO IS THE RAPIST AND KILLER OF THAT 14 YEAR OLD GIRL" on one day and the next after the police report that they were just questioning him to eliminate him as a suspect (and thanks to airtight alibis, they have done so), report a retraction something to the effect of "Ok, so he wasn't the rapist killer, our bad.".


Next thing I learned is that the "reality tv" show has taken over. It's gotten to the point where I watch one of these things and I can tell you what is going to happen next and at what time it will happen. Example, the show where Gordon Ramsey helps a struggling restaurant get back on its feet. It's gotten to the point where you can tell which one of the three types of shows this is going to be.

Show one. Owner of restaurant is a real douchebag, spouse wants to do what Ramsey wants. Up until the last 5 minutes, douchebag fights and digs heels in to keep the changes from being made. Then in the last 5 minuts, there is a yelling contest and the douchebag is cowed by Ramsey and starts doing it right and is amazed that things are going so well. Follow-up, they mostly do things Ramsey's way after he's gone, adding a few touches that doesn't sabotage his ideas and the business is going strong.

Show two. Owner is a douchebag, spouse is likewise, they butt heads with Ramsey, the restaurant eventually does what Ramsey wants, makes a boat load of cash, then after he's gone changes everything back to the way it was. Follow-up is that the restaurant isn't in business anymore, and is owned by "someone else" under a new name. Which is interesting since I know of one restaurant that they did. It always was the "new name" and only became the "show name" for the show.

Show three. Owner is a goody. Too good for his or her own damn good and the staff is running the place to the ground by their laziness and piss poor performance. Finally Ramsey threatens to have them fired and they finally snap to and do their job. They are also surprised that "Gee Willikers!" they're now making money in tips. Follow-up is that the business is a success and they may or may not have replaced some if not all of the staff.

It's always like this. 10 minutes into it and you know the outcome.

Or this is one thing I love about TV. Going back to the the original business model of having many cable channels to address the interests of various groups. You'd have channels like Sci-Fi channel for Science Fiction fans, MTV for music videos (yes I'm so old that I remember MTV doing that), The Learning Channel for people who want to learn stuff (and not the all "John and Kate Plus 8" or the other fully-automatic baby-makers out there), and other channels for other groups. In spite of that, they are now all going to being channels that have to pander to all demographics at some point in the day...with the notable exception of the one demographic they were created to pander to. SyFy comes to mind. Watched that sucker and didn't see anything that could be remotely construed as Science Fiction.

So we now have 200+ channels that all show the same goram thing. I can flip to 20 channels and watch House, CSI (in all flavors), and NCIS.

Or my latest gripe. After getting sick to death of  all the other channels, I thought I'd fall back on my old standby. TruTV (Not reality, Actuality). I was hoping to see some dumbass criminals get pwned on COPS, or some dumbass morons try to bullshit their way out of a ticket on Speeders, or even better than that is the shows about the vacation hotspots where people get drunk and do stupid stuff. What could be better for a guy than watching some young, nubile college-aged hottie getting so tanked that she's gearing down and getting arrested for indecent exposure. Sure it's pixelated, but you usually get to see them in a bikini or in panties and a bra first.

But no longer. I scrolled though the whole list for the day and TruTV didn't have anything police, court, or stupid dumbass related for the entire day.

So, after seeing TV, I decided that I really am not missing anything. And if there is anything I really want to see on TV, I can just wait a year and catch the DVD or Blu-Ray release of it. Plus I don't have to deal with the insipid commercials, the political ads where candidate-one tells the world that candidate-two eats babies followed up by the add where candidate-two responds with "Oh yeah? Well candidate-one whips puppies with live rattlesnakes."

So, with the American way now including watching TV and being turned into a mindless sheep, I am now a traitor to that plan. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to play a little Warcraft, lie down and knock off a few chapters of my book and go to bed.