madwarper said:
Peter Jackson in general and his shitty ass interpretation of Tolkien's work in particular. Read the books, then see if you can stomach the films.
Mass Effect 2. There are several reasons, but the most glaring reason is fucking Thermal Clips.
TV Network Degradation. From MTV to SciFi to Cartoon Network to History Channel to Travel Channel to all other channels that add wrestling to their lineup. Is it really had to imagine why the US is falling so far behind other countries when you consider the shear amount of shit on The LEARNING Channel?
First of all, WHO loves network degradation?
You CANNOT even start a thread that even incidentally mentions SyFy without people mentioning how much they hate it now.
Secondly:
Major US Networks with wrestling in their line up: None, except NBC (maybe once a year).
Basic Cable Networks with wrestling in their line up: USA, SyFy, CW, Spike
Beyond that, there's some Lucha on Galavision, and also some Puerto Rican stuff if you get the right network. The Wrestling Channel was never available outside of Canada/GB, and no longer exists anyway.
So yeah, that basically leaves SyFy...
Also, since when was the country's average tv schedule a measure of it's status?
Last time I checked, we looked at things like literacy, infant mortality, access to health care or college graduation rates. There are many valid criticisms that could stem from any one of these statistics, but not from what people are watching on TV.
Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world, but it watches some of the crappiest dramas, and dumbest variety shows you will ever see. They LOVE Ricki Lake up in the Netherlands, and yet they're doing pretty well for themselves.
The idea that the cultural output of a country is somehow a reliable measure of it's "brain" is more than absurd, it's an intellectually dishonest opinion that relies entirely on stereotypes and what ultimately amounts to snobbery in order remain tenable. Yes, the US has it's problems like every other country, but it's not at all helpful to sit back and sneer at what one perceives to be low culture when one could instead have a serious dialogue about government policy if they really are that concerned about any sort of "decline".
