ARTelevision

Television is the most successful and powerful tool for psychological manipulation ever devised. Does it have another purpose?

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Fallon

Generally, my T.V. is on either History Channel or Discovery. I rarely watch any of the crap that's on now though, although I will watch an occassional Law & Order.

My fiancee and I were commenting on how much of what is on Nickeloden sucks now. It's garbage compared to what they used to have. The only thing kids learn from these shows now is absolutely nothing. Well, maybe they do learn how to ignore everything around them. We were eating at the dinner table the other night and her brothers were watching the TV, and they could not take their eyes off of it at all. We kept on trying to get them to engage in a conversation or at least pay attention to their food and they couldn't. One of her brothers was trying to put some food on his plate and he was scraping his plate, not the food dish he was trying to get stuff from. After dinner, we found out that they had already seen the damn show also. When I was little, I couldn't stand watching the same thing more then once or twice unless it was really good.

Fremen

Yup. It keeps children, cons, couch potatoes, and mental patients entertained.

I love television.

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MSD

I find that as long as I recognize the attempts at manipulation, they do very little. This is why I always talk about the "news" and listen to what others have to say to avoid missing points of view about something. Combine this with a vast number of sources, and I feel prety well informed. Feel the bias from all directoins and whittle it down to the bare facts. Then assume that the facts are either hyped up or watered down, and you'll have a sense of what is really happening.

Rdr4evr

Am I allowed to be an asshole too if I feel like it, or would that give me a one way ticket to ban land?

Bentley Little

You have to wonder that if this is true. I mean, either that or these Amish people are very weak-spined and have no conviction in their values and religion. I mean, cmon, don't the Amish have a thing to swear off any new invention, etc, blah blah. You know what I mean.

Were these people tricked? Are they actors? Or was the promise of money money money just too good to pass up, even over their supposedly strong desire to adhere to the Amish values?

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That is my 2 cents.

Hwed

Television is poop. My wife watches it, and I put a ziplock baggie under her head to catch the brains as they liquefy and dribble out of her ears.

Bentley Little

Shit, that quote made my day!

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That is my 2 cents.

tropple

Hehe. I remember when there were decent programs. Something for everyone. Mission Impossible, Man from U.N.C.L.E., Wild, Wild West, Peyton Place, Combat, Jack Paar, Mannix, McHale's Navy. Hell, even the Lucille Ball show was miles ahead of anything that's on now. Let's not forget Ed Sullivan, and yes, Mr. Bubbles, Lawrence Welk. Mitch Miller. Rawhide, the Rory Calhoun Show, Have Gun Will Travel. Perhaps not all stellar gems, but certainly better than the pap we are given now.

TV was once a valid means of entertainment.

Currently, the situational comedy, while sometimes funny, relies almost entirely on sexual inuendo, "out of character" and sadly precousious children, or negative ethnic sterotypes for laughs.

The recent fad to show us reality misses a most very important fact: Observing reality changes reality. Then it's no longer reality, but a group of people acting to the camera.

Not to mention that the producers are scrapping the bottom of the barrel. Come on, "Growing up Gotti? As if we really want to listen some vacuous bimbo playing up to the camera? Or more especially, who really wants to see the antics of those two animals she's responsible for raising?

I spend most of my TV viewing time flipping between discovery channels, history, the learning channel, and food tv. And such bullshit there, too. designer challenge, landscaper challenge, how to have a party, what not to wear. team building projects, surprise designing projects. The whole genre is nothing but warmed over gameshow bullshit. Here's a fucking challenge: Provide some original, decent programming. Teach us something, show us something original, not warmed over from some other show.


What I hate about you, survivor, blind date... I'd as soon suck on a piece of strycnine. Local TV channels... Garbage. Ethnic sterotyped humor lost its glitter in the 70's. Now its appeal is to the poor ill-educated mannerless people who have so lost their way in life that they have to model themselves on the rantings of some semi-educated actor who's only talent lies in punching up negative sterotypes.

Local channels are no bargain. They're more worthless shit than even Bravo and A&E. I remember when A&E actually had programming that was arts and entertainment. Poor bastards.



The only thing I can honestly say I enjoy is the Western Channel. If I could cut my cable down to the Western Channel and the Weather Channel, I'd dump the rest of the crap.

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unoaman

As usual, I don't know for sure what I'm talking about, but this is what anitra told me. The Amish send their young people somewhere different than where they were raised, learned, and I presume, gained their values. I don't know how long they are gone for, but it is supposed to show them the cruel world the rest of us live in. Perhaps it's to see if they will be tempted to leave the community...perhaps thats all a pile of bull crap.

Different subject that the thread started, but perhaps, good or bad the upcomming program, isn't as rediculous as it first seemed.

Trisk

The Amish have this thing where at a certain age (17?) they send their kids off...I thought it was only for a year but maybe I was wrong...anyway...their kids go out and travel and see the world - use electronics etc etc etc....then at the end of their time they come back home and they have to decide whether they want to stay a part of their Amish community or if they want to leave and go out into the real world. If they decide to leave, their family basically disowns them and they can never see or talk to their families and friends again. Most people decide to stay.

Anyway...this show probably takes a bunch of kids during the time when they're out in the world and films them...they're probably going to go back to being Amish after the filming of this (which means, they're probably living in their Amish communities right now).

Bentley Little

Tropple, your words are eloquent. I whole-heartedly agree. What made me think is your comment about how the programming on even TLC, the Food Channel, etc., is just a pimped up version of gameshows. I used to love watching TLC and Discovery because they actually had programs that I could learn something from. But now, you are right, it is exactly crap; what to wear, how to design a room on $1000...

Although I do enjoy some of these shows because it doesn't cater to negative stereotypical slurs and/or scrape the bottom of the barrel, it does in a way make me yearn for a once forgotten way of tv. And it makes me think how even those programs have been dumbed down for my entertainment. So now a dilema, turn off the tv for good? I mean now that I think about it, nothing on tv really has any real value anymore.

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That is my 2 cents.

powerclown

I like the caps here; i picture john mchlaughlin haughtily yelling at everybody on his show hehe.

TV gave us The Three Stooges.
TV is harmless. People think for themselves.

Bentley Little

Do you really think that is true powerclown? I agree that tv does not have the influence so many "scholars" and "researchers" but for those with lower IQs, like so many dumbass Americans today, these dumbed-down shows influence in subtle ways.

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That is my 2 cents.

powerclown

I think once people leave the house and leave their tv sets, instincts take over and people act naturally.
People are more than the sum of their tv-watching habits.

I could be wrong; just one person's opinion.

snoop

TV, in my humble opinion, is the cause for the degredation of society as a whole and soley responsible for the society's crumbling social standards . . . I recall sitting down as a child on a sunday evening watching Walt Disney (even being excited about it coming on), but now its simpsons, reality tv and other crap . . . . .

Burn your TV now . . .

S

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Bentley Little

Crap, and I just bought a really expensive new flat screen too. Oh well.

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That is my 2 cents.

Stompy

TV needs less "reality" shows and more swearing/sex.

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unoaman

See there Stompy...there is one we can agree on!

unoaman

Believe it or not, I actually saw that show on TV last night...or saw the first part of it anyway. Have no idea what network it was on, one of the upper ones that has tractor pulls and wrestling.

Anyway, anitra, and trisk were right...they go away for a while, and get a taste of life on the "outside", then decide if they want to be fucked up like everybody else in the world, or go home and be fucked up there.

Flyguy

I am seriously thinking of killing my digital cable. I barely watch it anymore. Nothing but pure shit on these days.