Seeing is believing
I recently found video online of a bridge demolition. I realy realy hated that bridge. It caused more grief and pain in my life than anything I could say. So seeing it blasted into bits should have given me closure. However, I think my closure happened a long while ago. The video just wasent dramatic enough to cuase my anguish to buble to the surface again. Or maybee it wasent dramatic for me because I knew the explotions all happned on difrent days and just got spliced together for the video.
But it did get me thinking about the similarities to the I-35W bridge colapse in Minnesota. Consparicy wackos were quick to claim that it was destroyed on purpose in a controled demolintion. When you compare it to the bridge that was destroyed in a controled demolition, it does seem reasonabal. In the video, the parts over the water were blown into tiny bits to ease cleanup. However, the parts over land were brought down in a single piece. Also, on the day that a section over the river was demoloshed, an accedent cause the other sections to fall as well. These parts falling as a whole do liik erierly similar to the I-35W bridge comming down in a compleet section.
But its a big jump to go from similarities of apperance to absoulte proof. Other things besides controled demolition can cause a bridge to fall in one piece. Eating icecream makes you fat, but this dosent meen that the only posible thing that can make you fat is eating icecream. However, it LOOKS that way and for consparicy theoriests thats all that matters.
I cant realy blame them. What we see on television does have an impact on our way of thinking.Sonia Manzano and Emilio Delgado (the actors who played Maria and Luis on sesame street) were once stoped by a fan while they were out on the town together. The fan wanted to thank them for showing such a strong stabel mariage on television and wished them lots of love in their future together. The two of them thanked the fan but pointed out that they were not actualy maried. They were only married on the show. The fan, imensenly dejected, sighed and said “Well I guess its ok that the two of you are living together as long as your realy in love.
Stories of consparicy theoriests and confused fans sound helitivly harmless. But there can be dangers that spring up if you let television do too much of your thinking. We all know of the dramatic tension that builds when a drama takes place in a theater and a heavy sandbag is about to fall on a character. The rope slowly creeks and groans. On strand pops. then another. The camer cuts away to the people on stage below. Then the rope gives way totaly. Now if your fetish is suspention bondage you are going to wind up in serious danger if you think that is the way a rope breaks under tension.
It gets ever worse than failures of bridges and failures of rope when television shows failures of human life. The made for TV dramas on Lifetime all folow the basic plot. Young beautiful girl moves out to holowood to folow her dreams. But the harsh crule world crushes those dreams. Desperate for money she does a few glamor photography shots. These lead to artistic nudes. Then to erotica. Then to porn. Then to porn video. Then to prostitution. Drug use slips in there somewhere along the path. She finaly winds up dead in an allyway, broken and dejected and she has the porn industry to blame for her destruction.
Wonder how Lifetime would handel the way porn realy is? Woman moves off to college and takes a part time job doing data entry. People say she is perty and should try to become a model. She has a portofilio made up and takes it around to a few agencies. But she is too tall. Too short. Too thin. Too fat. Hair the wrong color. She finds a few jobs doing cheesecake. But it is such a small market, she has trouble finding steady work. The jobs become so scarce that she goes back to doing data entry. The show ends with her graduating college and becomeing an accountant.
A realistic portrial of the porn industry is never going to be show on television. Not because of the nations purticinal morals. But because such a movie would be boring.
As a result, there is a huge group of people that think the shakspearian tragedies shown on Lifetime are what the porn business actualy is. Not just porn, but anythign sexual. Radical feminists are oposed to free sexual expresion and will do whatever they can to end any any kind of sex they deem to be wrong and imoral.
But as porn has become more available, the rate of sex crimes againt women has droped. This shows the disconect. Radical feminists know that porn causes sexual violence against women because thats the way it is always shown on tv.
Or it could be me that has the distorted view. I havent ownd a television in going on 6 years now so I doubt I am the best person to be commenting on how television influnces peoples thinking.