General Discussion
Showing Original Post only (View all)The History Channel - the Fox News of the Social Sciences for terminal dumb asses [View all]
For a few days I have been switching to the History Channel hoping to find some sort of history documentary even if from a pop culture version of history. All I found were programs like that silly show about a pawn shop in Las Vegas or spinoffs from that show. Or I have found shows about truckers in Alaska or spinoffs shows about truck drivers in Alaska. Tonight I had a moment of hope when I saw that the programming was not about pawn shops, Alaskan truck drivers, swamp people or lumber jacks. What I found instead was show after show speculating preposterous and downright loony conspiracy theories about UFOs, Atlantis and Nazi experiments with time travel. Now, I am all for unconventional theories. But this crap did not even come close to presenting any case for alternative world views. It had no more intellectual content than any crackpot theory you might find on the back of some cheap dime store magazine of yesteryear.
How could this happen? I know that the so-called History Channel has no golden age of the past when they offered anything resembling a true critical and intellectual interpretation of history. It has always offered pop culture versions of history similar to what many of us learned in elementary school. But the direction it has now taken is simply ridiculous and frankly it embarrasses America as this network reaches around the whole world. The very fact that this cultural and intellectual depravation ino doubt is a response to ratings and an effort to please the masses in order to sell advertisement space is sad. What is happening?