We know we are outliers, and we are always ... stunned by the banality and/or drone of TV when we see it elsewhere, not to mention constant psychic hammering of urgent commercials which I, a respecter of the power of language, think are as, if not more, harmful and damaging than any leftist propaganda. And I love commercials, they are the best and only things on TV, except when they manufacture fear and as the old Firesign Theater saying went, "Creating a need and filling it!" But that's a tangent ...
I have come to the conclusion that Television itself is inherently evil. It is a narcotic. People become addicted to it just as they would to a drug. We were better people when we didn't have Liberal propaganda disguised as entertainment spewing into living rooms every day. Do you know what people do when they can't watch television? It doesn't matter, but it is always more beneficial and productive than what they do when they watch television. Television ruins us in more ways than just the normalization of propaganda. It wastes our time. Time better spent doing almost anything else.
{^) I highly recommend that everyone everywhere voluntarily give up TV/cable for one year. Just one year. They'll survive, I promise! It's a life-changing event for many.
That said, the television/radio/broadcast medium is a tool, no better or worse than the person using it, and in broadcast, consumers are the users, exercising what they think is free will.
As for evil, narcotic -- it is theater in a box, and theater is a right and good thing. Certain religious fanatics could (and probably did) say the same of music, perfectly healthy young men who should be out hunting, sitting around all day making music!
Diogenes, all I know is that I thank God daily that I'm married to someone like me (and it sounds a bit like you and Norm), who prefers life free of TV.
:^)
Without TV my downtime became far more productive and ENJOYABLE. I found new interests, Learned more useful things and have been better for the experience.
Today the only TV I see is at Dr. appts and I am repulsed. The sheer level of stupid coming off that screen boggles the mind. I don’t know how a thinking person can be entertained or informed by it.
If I want to see half naked news babes, I’ll rent a porno.
If I want to see gay men ...well I don’t so scratch that.
Agenda in every random program I have seen.
My TV is used for 2 things. As a computer monitor and video gaming. And I find, no joke, the scripted lines of a videogame show more intelligence than nost people I have encountered in the last few years. TV addicts all I’m sure.