I noticed when I watched cable TV I was always angry.
Not just a little angry —REALLY angry. And chronically. I wondered, “Is this HEALTHY..?” It seemed not to be. It seemed like the conservative flip-side of being a Global Warmist.
I was treating it like I didn’t have a choice. Why not simply NOT watch TV..? Hey, yeah...
I quit in about 2001, or so. Immediately I felt better, a feeling that grew as time went onl
I once heard Chris Rock joke, “Ya know what n**gers LOVE ta say..? ‘I DON’T KNOW.’ Hey, whats the capitol of Nigeria, bro..? I don’t know...And they’re proud of it...!”
At the time I didn’t understand the psychology at all and I thought his observation insulting. But at least insofaras TV was concerned, that in time is exactly how I, too, became.
NOT knowing anything about TV trivia —actors, titles, show plotlines, new networks— all of it became stuff I took a guilty pleasure in NOT knowing.
Some more years passed and before I’d go through supermarket checkout I would silently charted my TV Ignorance Progress:
I was often unable to recognize starlet photos splashed across pulp journal covers stacked near the cashier.
I’d go to foreign countries and find many non-Americans knew Hollywood trivia much better than me.
Friends, Melrose Place, Seinfeld, MANY others:
I never saw a single episode of any of them and I felt great.
I felt that way In Australia, recently.
I had no idea what people were talking about when they were discussing American pop culture.