The Covid Pandemic, negative political ads, Black rioting/looting, hurricanes, and more lockdowns coming. Could the news and fake news be any more damaging to the psyche of the American people? We don’t think so. Maybe it’s time for you to get the TV before it gets you.
If you watch cable news all day, please find something more important to do with your life. Everyone knows a diet of pure junk food, coffee, ice cream, and candy is dangerous to the body. But many of us take in a pure diet of mentally dangerous news four, six, maybe eight hours a day.
I know, I was a cable news junkie also. Then one day I decided to forego turning on the TV every morning. I don’t watch cable while I’m eating lunch. The TV is off in the afternoons— except for watching an old western some afternoons.
Ahhh, the good old days of John Wayne or Clint Eastwood westerns! You knew immediately who the good guys and bad guys were. No fake news back then. If someone called you a bad name, you pulled your gun and shot him. No Wild West sheriff was going to arrest you for defending your good name!
It’s pure fantasy, I know, but we love it anyway.
If I were a politician these days and someone created a TV ad spewing venom at me, I wonder how I might react. Let’s say the ad against me goes like this—
“My opponent is a dirty skunk, he’s stolen millions from orphan’s charities, he fondled my grandmother, he hates women, deplores minorities, and he eats green eggs and ham for breakfast. Don’t vote for him, vote for me. I promise to eradicate prejudice and the police. I’ll make the government pay your rent, your car notes, send your kids to college free, and put $5,000 credit on your Visa card every month.”
I think when I heard that, I might pull a gun and shoot the TV. I would definitely go over to my opponent’s house and threaten him to a duel. (Oh how we sometimes long for the Aaron Burr days of settling political disagreements.)
These days, if you dare to run for political office, you are guaranteed to have your name and reputation ruined whether you win or lose. Any wonder why Congress is so despised and untrustworthy?
Spend Your Time Wisely
How should you spend your time instead of in front of TV? My wife makes Covid masks and gives them away. I go find a pasture with tall grass on our 18 acres and I mow. Then I hit a rock, break something and spend several days fixing the John Deere mower.
Hey, it’s still more fun than TV news.
My advice to the masses— read a book, read the Bible, trace your family heritage on ancestry.com, get a subscription to The Great Courses, sign up for Apple ITunes and listen to any music you want while you piddle around pretending to be busy.
Or you could take up writing a blog like my Austinreport.com— there’s no money in it, no fame, no glory. But, writers write, always.
Sorry, I have to go now and mow. The Johnson grass is four feet high in the North pasture and I have miles to mow before I sleep…
