Within many different truther circles it is pretty much a given to eventually ditch your television, and there are a lot good reasons for it.
But really even if one is still inclined to believe the things that are claimed and shown on television, in the news and within shows from Hollywood, there are STILL great reasons to ditch your television all the same. Reasons that made me ditch mine a good 20 years ago.
And because television seems so omnipresent to this day, I'd thought I would list all these common sense reasons here, even if on-demand streaming has complicated things somewhat.
1 - Pick what you want to watch.
This seemed such a no-brainer to me when I decided to ditch my television, just before the internet got good with video-streaming sites like youtube and other sites where shows and movies could be streamed on demand for free.
I always disliked watching the schedule someone else had somehow fixed and laid out for me. Watching Television you are at the mercy of the program-planners because you can't watch what you want when you want, but you are strictly fed something you yourself have not picked nor shown a particular interest in. It would be like going shopping and having the boss at your local supermarket decide what you are to eat tonight and when exactly. Nobody would stand for it. Why then do we stand for it when watching TV?
2 - The absence of commercials
Similar to point one this one was so huge to me. Commercials always annoyed me to no end. Not only the stuff they promote but especially the way in which it is being promoted.
Commercials have long turned into an audacious affront and probably deserve their own article of mine because they are a culmination of the worst psychological and technical strategies in order to manipulate and steer the viewer.
Instead watch videos online with an adblocker and you'll be amazed how quickly you forget just how toxic and annoying commercials were when you happen to stumble upon one after you're out and about one day.
3 - Television is non-interactive.
One thing I always preferred about video games is that at least I was able to partake in the story on the screen. Long tv sessions or even just watching a movie would even make me feel stagnant and immobile. Get a more active relationship to your media entertainment and don't become a passive consumer of whatever someone dreamt up for you to consume. It's likely garbage anyway because it filled a high-cost spot on mass media.
4 - More reach of information and genuine diversity
If you opt to watch things like youtube channels you are likely to discover many different facets of humanity because there are countless channels of actual people doing their thing, rather than a fully planned-out Hollywood production aiming to deliver certain ideas regardless of authenticity.
Just hearing a Swede talk in English to you or have a German talk to you about his favorite dishes in the kitchen will feel so different than the mass-production-factory shows that come out of major film studios that you'll quickly become used to a more genuine level of media production.
5 - Breaking away from negative reinforcement loops
The thing that was never clear to me when I was young is that TV reinforces all sorts of false concepts, worries and narratives that are not healthy to entertain in the mind. The vast majority of TV programs aim to keep people occupied with the problems in their life that are entirely artificially created, and they convince us that the mind-hypnosis of the masses is correct and natural. Examples would be the superhero movie where so-called diseases like cancer are unhealable and automatically fatal - even for someone who survives all other sorts of outlandish body damage; the show where governmental agencies - at the end of the day - are somehow bastions of freedom and good will towards the population; or even comics where clichés and dogmas of our age are so thoroughly reinforced that the mind starts to lose its ability to be critical and discerning. Because we mix up these modern fairytales with actuality, we confuse fiction with experience and common sense.
If a lie is repeated often enough it will be believed, and I was amazed to find out that probably less than 2% of the things that are shown on the screen have any relation to actuality. The thing is, as long as your television is running you will be too bamboozled to get to a point that allows you to question things fundamentally.
If you don't believe me, great! Just take a TV break for 2 weeks, then come back and tell me you actually enjoy what you see. Chances are you won't and you will always remember how you felt during the time you detoxed your mental system of the noise and pollution that tries to influence and manipulate our minds daily.
They don't call it a weapon of mass distraction for no reason...
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