Is there a conspiracy to make us stupid? (suspect, leader, money)

[subsound]

Oh noes. Hulu.com are aliens and stealing our brains...it's a conspiracy

It's always disturbing when Seth McFarlane does Brian's voice as his normal speaking voice....

[nebulous1]

I don't watch much TV, but when I do turn it on, it really astounds me. Outside of the National Geographic Channel, Discovery, or the History channels, or the sports channels, there is some really mindless dribble out there. What is worse is the people who really discuss this stuff all day at work like it matters. The "Learning Channel", aka TLC, is horrid. I think that stuff could really affect one adversely.
Entertainment is different than idling away time on nothingness. I think some people are afraid of reality, hence they go into these shows and make them part of their life. They will get all excited about American Idle, but they won't give a darn about their elected officials stealing their rights away.
Makes you wonder.

[ulnevrwalkalone]

Originally Posted by nebulous1

I don't watch much TV, but when I do turn it on, it really astounds me. Outside of the National Geographic Channel, Discovery, or the History channels, or the sports channels, there is some really mindless dribble out there. What is worse is the people who really discuss this stuff all day at work like it matters. The "Learning Channel", aka TLC, is horrid. I think that stuff could really affect one adversely.
Entertainment is different than idling away time on nothingness. I think some people are afraid of reality, hence they go into these shows and make them part of their life. They will get all excited about American Idle, but they won't give a darn about their elected officials stealing their rights away.
Makes you wonder.

People use this pointless tv to fill the void in their relatively boring lives. nobody wants to hear the story of how you went home from work ate dinner then watched 3-4 hours of tv, but they do want to know who was kicked off idol last night!! ...

[Cliffie]

Originally Posted by nebulous1

They will get all excited about American Idle...

Now THAT is the primo Freudian slip for the whole week.

I wouldn't say there's a conspiracy to keep us stupid, but I know the media count on us being stupid. They know we'll watch no matter how stupid the content of their shows is. It's sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy; the stupider the news organs get, the stupider the viewers get, and the stupider the news organs can be and still get away with it.

I also know education has fallen prey to that "you can succeed without really working on anything" idea that has made religion and the diet industry what they are today. The schools confuse work with child torture so they kids are expected to learn to read without working on it in any way. Theys also confuse school with therapy, and the teacher's focus is the make the kid feel good about himself just because he's breathing, not make him learn the 4 Rs or anything icky like that. And now we have a generation of 20-somethings who don't know how to use the Yellow Pages or put an address on a letter. But damn, do they feel GOOD about themselves.

Even educational TV doesn't let a penny drop about the fact that they are presenting a predigested, preprocessed version of history and science that is totally open to question. They never want you to know how to find things out for yourself.

[flik_becky]

Schools are to blame for coaching students to pass state standards although they don’t truly perform at that level. Parents are responsible because they put work, consumerism and personal indulgences before their children. I mean as in, do the parents really need to roll up at the conferences in with the nicest car in the parking lot? While not always true, many times you can tell which parents are involved and which parents will fight hardest for the weak point of view of their child. They live a life that is about self and kids better not get in their way, but they will be their to make sure their children gets theirs too. My sister is this way. She actually stated, “My kids need to learn at an early age that they will not go before my job. If they are not feeling well, oh well. If they can’t go to daycare, they can go to Great-Grandma’s. My job comes first. That is how life is so they need to get used to it.”

As far as the media, another sister and my mom think that we are making our 7 year old daughter dislike certain things, such as Miley Cyrus. She overheard a conversation that my mother and I had about her. My mother was telling me it was sad that my daughter did not have good role models to look up to . I said I was proud of her for making her own decisions and not just doing what all the other girls did. I said that Disney’s girls had a way of turning into bad role models about the time children are entering their teens and experiencing the peer pressure that their role models are showing poor examples of. My daughter asked me if she was the only person who hated Miley Cyrus and I told her to go online and look it up. She came across a web page that someone had made that was an Anti-Miley site. It was a collection of photos that the girl had posted online of herself, a photo of her rear end a friend had taken and suggestive shots, including one of her and her pressed against her friends body and licking her face. It was sickening. I hear my little girl say, “Mom…I think I am too young to see this.” I did not realize that was out there, how stupidly naïve of me. I should have figured that. She says she is a disgusting girl. At least now when they ask why and try to pressure her into liking her, she has good reasons to back her up. My entire family are Idol fans. They say I should watch it and let my daughter watch it so she can learn how people with troubled lives work for fame and increase my ability to socialize with a group of people. ICK! I’ll find a different group to socialize with, thank you.

YES there is an amount of “conspiracy” in the media. Days after I learned that Hillary Clinton is a supporter of plan to deal with medicare funds running low, which was to encourage those who have expensive medical treatment to finish their lives comfortably in hospice, there was an article on the front page of Yahoo that talked about a "study" done that said that those treated for these expensive treatments don’t live any longer, yet live less comfortably and it encouraged people to have “the talk“ with their doctor. My mother in law passed away last year but she was given 15 more years to live because of treatment and was able to see grandbabies and great grandbabies, owning her own home in the country, and her baby getting married.

[spidermanufacturing]

if there was really great tv you wouldnt be on cd .c

[motoman]

Originally Posted by Dopo

I'd like to know your opinion about something that I've been thinking about for a long time.

Does anybody else think that the media doesn't care about educating the population and sometimes they even want people to be stupid and ignorant?

- Why does Hollywood make so many fictional movies with the exact same plot?
How many times have you been watching a movie and think to yourself "This is pretty much the same .... than every other movie I've seen"
- Why doesn't Hollywood make any movies like they used to "based on real stories" that when you come out of the cinema you feel like you learned something good or you feel like you are motivated to be a better person?

- We live in a country of 250 million people, why is it that all the media spends so many hours covering Britney Spears, the possible death (still unknown) of Holloway in Aruba, etc, etc.
I always think to myself "F...., in such a huge country, isn't there something else to talk about?"

- Why is it that when I have 200 channels (BTW, I'm an engineer) and when I try to find a show that I can learn something from, it seems like there's maybe only 2 channels: Discovery Channel, History Channel. The other 98% of channels is sports (nothing wrong with that) or shows that you don't learn anything from them.

- Why is it that the media seems to ridicule love songs that encourages people to be better people, to be nice, to care about our neighbors.
But then the media gives all kind of awards to Rock & Rap music that talks about killing people, abusing women, etc, etc, etc.

- Why is it that I almost never see anything on TV teaching people how to do a better job managing their finances, how to save money, how to help improve your community, etc.

Is there some conspiracy to keep us stupid?
BTW, politicians love it when the population is ignorant because it's easier for them to get rich.

The media gives the people what they want. There is no conspiracy.

The heart of the matter is that being intelligent takes effort. And most people have no interest in putting forth the effort to be intelligent.

If you don't believe me, trying having even a semi-intelligent conversation with someone and see how long it takes for them to respond with something along the lines of "well that's just the way it is". At that point you've reached the peak of their intelligence.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by Dopo

I'd like to know your opinion about something that I've been thinking about for a long time.

Does anybody else think that the media doesn't care about educating the population and sometimes they even want people to be stupid and ignorant?

.

You can't be a Glory Boy/Girl if you do straight reporting, anymore. They all want to be opinion jockeys because that's where the glory/fame is at. They can't educate a population at large, anymore, because they're all biased and it shows in their writing (newspapers). Sometimes it rears it's head as slanted writing and sometimes as a sin of omission (you only get part of the story) or they bury the story in the bowels of the newspaper. They don't even care that people know they're biased or that they lose money because of it. I rate journalists down there with ambulance chasing lawyers, drug dealers and politicians.

Journalism schools must really stink these days.

[motoman]

Originally Posted by LauraC

You can't be a Glory Boy/Girl if you do straight reporting, anymore. They all want to be opinion jockeys because that's where the glory/fame is at. They can't educate a population at large, anymore, because they're all biased and it shows in their writing (newspapers). Sometimes it rears it's head as slanted writing and sometimes as a sin of omission (you only get part of the story) or they bury the story in the bowels of the newspaper. They don't even care that people know they're biased or that they lose money because of it. I rate journalists down there with ambulance chasing lawyers, drug dealers and politicians.

Journalism schools must really stink these days.

This is only because sensationalism sells. And sensationalism sells because the general population is pretty ignorant. They get excited by sensationalized half-truths. It gives them something to ***** about.

[leaana]

no, too many people would rather be retarded. look at what a lot of college kids do during spring break. that's their idea of fun. lots of people like to get drunk etc which means if they are not trying to cope withl some painful issue, they are trying not to be sober or intelligent.