kill your tv and stop buying bullshit
Good idea from futurebird
"Every time you watch TV you feed the beast. You help legitimize the view of the world at it is presented on television. Television is filled with sexist imagery and messages. It's filled with racist stereotypes. Now and then when I'm visiting someone and I watch some TV, I'm always shocked at just how bad it is-- especially the sexism-- When you don't watch it every day these things jump out at you more.
So, I'm just going to make the suggestion that you give tuning out a try if you have not already. Don't let people waste your leisure time trying to sell you products so they can make a profit. This might not be so bad if they didn't insult you while they were doing it. But they do.
I mean why put up with it? It's just not worth it: when you watch TV you end up talking about the shows, you become their little promotions machine that tries to get other people to watch. It's just so invasive when you think about it.
So, I'm going to just put it out there: turn it off, screw 'em.
Any day is a good day, why not today?"
I don't think I can possibly agree more. While television can be pretty entertaining (especially the Discovery, Science, History, and National Geographic channels), advertising is rife with psychological play. Advertising execs think we're a bunch of guinea pigs who will march in lock step with what we're given on the tube. Sadly, this is mostly true. In our modern, blindly consumerist culture, we are constantly striving for something newer, better, shinier, gadgety um... er, and the like while our credit cards are maxed out and our bills aren't being paid on time (or sometimes not at all). We are told that we MUST have this new thing and that new thing, or we're just not good enough - we're not complete. Fuck that. They're full of shit. They don't want you to be complete. They want you to spend money so they can get richer. Fuck them. They shove this distorted ideal of beauty/manhood/personhood on us and have most of us convinced that we need their products to live better lives while we're probably fine with the shit we already have. Bullshit. They also try to convince us that we're bad parents because we don't buy them something every payday, or every birthday, or every Christmas. Maybe they're the bad parents for instilling rabidly consumeristic, shallow, and materialstic values in people. Maybe listening to them is why, as a nation, we're in debt up to our eyeballs with little other than useless possessions to show for it.
Ignore the advertisers. They have no idea what they're talking about. And, no, I'm not going to toss my perfectly good CRT-television for an HDTV. Not until it's broken anyway. And the screen is only *gasp* 27-inches!!! OMG THE HORROR!
I have an article that expands on the subject of being content with what you have:
Frugal Dad: How To Live More Simply and Why It's So Important
"Every time you watch TV you feed the beast. You help legitimize the view of the world at it is presented on television. Television is filled with sexist imagery and messages. It's filled with racist stereotypes. Now and then when I'm visiting someone and I watch some TV, I'm always shocked at just how bad it is-- especially the sexism-- When you don't watch it every day these things jump out at you more.
So, I'm just going to make the suggestion that you give tuning out a try if you have not already. Don't let people waste your leisure time trying to sell you products so they can make a profit. This might not be so bad if they didn't insult you while they were doing it. But they do.
I mean why put up with it? It's just not worth it: when you watch TV you end up talking about the shows, you become their little promotions machine that tries to get other people to watch. It's just so invasive when you think about it.
So, I'm going to just put it out there: turn it off, screw 'em.
Any day is a good day, why not today?"
I don't think I can possibly agree more. While television can be pretty entertaining (especially the Discovery, Science, History, and National Geographic channels), advertising is rife with psychological play. Advertising execs think we're a bunch of guinea pigs who will march in lock step with what we're given on the tube. Sadly, this is mostly true. In our modern, blindly consumerist culture, we are constantly striving for something newer, better, shinier, gadgety um... er, and the like while our credit cards are maxed out and our bills aren't being paid on time (or sometimes not at all). We are told that we MUST have this new thing and that new thing, or we're just not good enough - we're not complete. Fuck that. They're full of shit. They don't want you to be complete. They want you to spend money so they can get richer. Fuck them. They shove this distorted ideal of beauty/manhood/personhood on us and have most of us convinced that we need their products to live better lives while we're probably fine with the shit we already have. Bullshit. They also try to convince us that we're bad parents because we don't buy them something every payday, or every birthday, or every Christmas. Maybe they're the bad parents for instilling rabidly consumeristic, shallow, and materialstic values in people. Maybe listening to them is why, as a nation, we're in debt up to our eyeballs with little other than useless possessions to show for it.
Ignore the advertisers. They have no idea what they're talking about. And, no, I'm not going to toss my perfectly good CRT-television for an HDTV. Not until it's broken anyway. And the screen is only *gasp* 27-inches!!! OMG THE HORROR!
I have an article that expands on the subject of being content with what you have:
Frugal Dad: How To Live More Simply and Why It's So Important