markrprice:

ashesaoirse:

cultofcthulhu:

I don’t watch TV

I see this a lot, in varying forms.  TV isn’t the problem.  It’s what’s ON the TV that can be the problem.  There are people who probably argue that the internet is worse than TV.  Both are just tools and outlets.

I think this is why Netflix and Amazon Prime and Hulu are starting to come into their own though, more and more people are plugged in enough to the point they can _decide_ what to watch and the network execs are still using a model from when you had three channels.

I never understood how limiting my input was supposed to free my mind. I’m capable of thinking about things I watch, even trashy things. It’s just more of the same bullshit “if you’re not with us you’re against us” black and white, no grey mentality.

I’ll free my mind however the fuck I want to free my mind cinder blocks.

What am I freeing it from? Isn’t looking at something in such an absolute way just another form of tyranny of my mind? By an accident of budget I quit watching “TV” I do _devour_ visual media however. I look at it as a glimpse into someone else’s imagination, sometimes it’s a boring glimpse, sometimes they do amazing things.

There will come a time when either “the powers that be” have managed to force us back into the old model, or something like it or the revolution isn’t televised because no one is watching anymore.

I see parallels in the publishing industry as well, but strangely have only rarely heard people suggest throwing away books will free me. I say that with a visual of a monk with an overflowing tea cup firmly in my head.

Again, screw you cinder blocks. I’ll watch what I want. More to the point, I’ll take away from it what I want. Yeah, there are people who can’t do that, but that’s not the fault of tv.

So cinder blocks, I’m not in lock step against you or with you. Same for TV. My path to freedom doesn’t need that. My path is the work of ideas. Part of that involves TV. Free my mind? It’s free enough now to hold more than one idea. Sometimes conflicting ones. All I see you from you is bad grammar and a missed period.

PS Have you ever noticed the people who seem to want to talk about tv the most are the ones that “Don’t own a TV” Free my mind indeed.

This is why we’re doing a podcast together.