So beginith the rant:
If you know me you know that I have a raw seething hatred of all things "reality TV" I have a hard time watching the Ultimate Fighter on SPIKE even though I have been an avid MMA fan for years (thanks God for allowing us to have the brainpower to invent the DVR allowing me to pre-record the whole show and fast forward to the actual fights... Really who wants to see grown men bickering over who stole their stickers and who said whose butt was fat... Or whatever they talk about between the fights.) Back on topic. For some reason this reality crap continues to grow and mouth breathers continue to watch it allowing for a parade of stupidity to overrun my airways. Even the most educational of television stations have fallen prey to this disease of stupidity.
Starting with Discovery, and their deadliest catch, but I don't mind it. Not because I enjoy the show but it falls under the scope of documentary with Mike Roe narrating the story and filling in the situations with facts. Yes, the show has leaned toward the obvious "drama" but still holds to the, "see what happens when people risk their lives on the frozen sea to yank crab from the mud on the bottom" premise.
But the station that has fallen farthest from grace is History "H". I used to have this station trained on all the time. One could do a brief run through the tripe being peddled on the other stations and find their dials on H and know that they would be educated. Either by how the stuff we have came about with Modern Marvels. Or, you could get the opportunity to get a in depth view of a classic battle from WW2 or some ancient civilization. My personal favorite was the Gunny's Mail Call that told me about obscure weapons used in past and present warfare. You could even find some shows about the Bible and some were even well done showing the historical context of some of the more common known stories.
Now, the stations is held together with Pawn Stars, Ice Road Truckers, not one, not two, but three logging shows, and a show called American Pickers about two junk peddlers digging through hillbilly hoarder's trash piles. How did that become history? How is that educational?
When did the people at the station go:
"Well ladies and gentlemen. We have had a good run with shows with educational value. Yes, I know we have thrown in some weird stuff about Roswell and UFO's in the world wars, but even those obscure shows feature some historical context. But now we are going in a new direction. We are going to make shows that feature nothing educational. In fact most of these shows will rob people of intellect, possibly undoing years of our programmings good work. Why? you may ask. Money. More people want to stay dumb than learn stuff. More people want to watch people bleep cussing out of conversations and react to normal daily situations... Well scripted normal daily situations. I know. I know. It seems like we are selling our soul here, but we can't put all our eggs in that "people who actually like quality educational informative programs to learn new stuff" basket. All in favor?.... I see the I's have it."?
But I'm not here to talk about H's dive to the dark side of reality TV. No, I'm here to point out the ripple effect that crap programming has. As the mind numbing garbage of reality spread to more time slots more and more "stupid" people... Wait why did I use parenthesis for stupid there? I'm not one to try not to offend. If you watch reality TV you like stupid TV. And unfortunately you are part of a demographic of people with sub par scholastic goals. No, I'm not calling you stupid, but if you were to gather with your peers who also enjoy those shows you would call them stupid. If not.. then you are too stupid to know and you probably gave up reading this when you saw the words.
Dang it... back on task. The other shows had to watered down to make the other not crap reality time slots appealing for this demographic of trash eaters. Which I'm sure is how we got the programming gold that was "Ancient Aliens".
This show went about "proving" or "offering" that the greatest achievements of man were in fact the work of aliens. A professor from a college that I was too bored to remember, the moral of the story is this jackass is teaching people for a living, was convinced that the great pyramid was a power plant that turned hydrogen to a focused beam of microwaves that could charge up the batteries of passing mother ships... Just let that sink in for a minute.... An f'n pyramid with no moving parts... made of rock...
The next and what I think was the creme de la creme (or is it crem de la crem... who cares) was the three educated men, doctors, professors who all agreed that he Ancient of Days (AKA GOD) who delivered manna from heaven was in fact a nuclear powered algae refining machine that used water vapor from the morning air to start the process of cultivating and producing a high protean green algae that could sustain an entire nation of people while roaming the desert of the middle east. (turns out NASA lets astronauts eat green algae, and it work as a super food... kind of like soilent green only less peopley) No the ancient Hebrews didn't come up with the machine on their own. Some nice aliens dropped it off for them. Wait there is more. These "experts" also came to the conclusion that the ark of the covenant was probably the nuclear reactor core of the device which is why those who touched it, came close to it, and opened it died. In case the question of "How did an ancient people handle nuclear materials let alone a reactor core?" was the wrench keeping the cogs of this idea from spinning in your mind.
I have come to terms with people trying to use science to explain some of the great mysteries of God's powered chronicled in the old and new testaments. Even though I see this a fools errand because at best they are just describing the "how" not the, "how could that happen at just the right moment?" I also understand that intellectuals are terrified of God because His existence makes them just people, and they must be more important than that.
Sadly, that show went on the air. Which means money was spent to make it. Which means that the idea was pitched to investors. Which means that people with means saw this subject matter as valid and in need of dissemination. Or even worse that these morons received grant money from a government or used university money to produce this.
Why does this crawl in my craw?
Because it makes a mockery of my God?
Because it proves that those who can't teach?
Because I fear my tax dollars made it?
No, because this show was allowed to exists and FIREFLY was canceled. The only way I sleep at night in a world like this is with the knowledge that there is a just and loving God who will right the wrongs of this world... Or beep and whip me up an algae smoothie.
So Endith the rant:
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