Rant #2,935: Mr. Roboto

I’m back!
 
And boy, there really isn’t any better place to be than my regular perch after yesterday morning’s drudgery at the car service station, especially after the door jamb fiasco of late last week.
 
I spent a good three-and-a-half hours at the service station yesterday, and I ended up spending roughly $271 an hour there, so you can imagine what a grind it was.
 
Now the car is ready for the long drive we have planned for our vacation, but at what cost?
 
It literally took all my cash on hand, and then some, but at least the car is ready to go, and it will be a safe drive.
 
Better to get this stuff done here in the neighborhood than in “God’s country” somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
 
And other than cringe during my three-and-a-half hour trek, what else did I do with my time at the service station on Monday?
 
I read the newspaper, looked at my phone, did work that I could do there …
 
And I watched television, or what they call television in today’s world.
 
I was kind of a captive audience watching what was on, because I was there and the TV was on in the waiting area, so what else was I supposed to do?
 
The TV is there to help you get through the long wait, but all it did was make me more infuriated.
 
Why?
 
Well, both on Friday and Monday, the car places had on the morning news shows, if you want to call these shows N-E-W-S, but the stuff that I watched was nothing but pap for people who have lost the ability to think for themselves.
 
I know that a lot of the allure of these shows is their mixing of news and entertainment, but let me tell you, there was way more entertainment stuff on these shows than the news stuff, and even the news coverage was really geared to people without a brain in their heads.
 
And that is what infuriates me the most … that for millions of Americans, this is their only news source of the day, so they are not getting anything that allows them to think and make their own decisions.
 
The major news story surrounding that moron of a basketball player who is now in detention in Russia for packing away drug products in her valise is case in point.
 
Watching “Good Morning America,” you would think that this woman is a conquering hero, taking it on the chin from the so-bad Russians, and while they are bad, didn’t this insipid human being ever learn that when you travel, you “do as the Romans do” and follow every rule and law that the host country has—yes, even the so-bad Russians—when you are in that country?
 
But no, ABC broadcasts WNBA games—nobody watches these games, but it is an extension of their NBA contract, so they have to carry these games—and being that ABC, Disney, the NBA and WNBA are all in bed together, GMA just had to give a positive spin on this idiot’s plight, by presenting viewers with about half a story related to her detention in Russia.
 
They showed how gallant the league was in backing her plight, by announcing during the league’s All-Star Game that her name would be placed in the starting lineup by proxy, and that all players would wear her number 42 on their backs in solidarity … which was a slap to a true sports pioneer that these fools have probably never heard of, baseball’s Jackie Robinson, who wore the same number 42 for the Brooklyn Dodgers when he broke the color barrier in sports in the 1940s.
 
And again, this WNBA player brought drug paraphernalia into a country that has less than zero tolerance for such things … not too bright, but that was never mentioned during the supposed newscast.
 
After watching this and some other supposed news reports, I wrote this on Facebook out of total frustration—and I was happy to see that a lot of people agreed with me about the content of these morning “news” shows:
 
“I have been forced to watch the morning "news" shows since I have had my car in the shop the past two weekday mornings, and I have waited for the car to get fixed.
 
Let me say right off the bat that I can't believe people actually watch these shows ... and I assume actually get their news off of these shows. Nothing but one-sided nonsense--much worse than the nightly news shows--but perfect for those who have completely lost the ability or the desire to think and use their own brains.

And the guests on these shows ... I have never seen more vacuous, self absorbed, mentally ill, personal problem inventing people in my entire life. How anybody can give any credence to these people really shows where "news" has fallen to.
 
It is sad that this tripe is being sold to the American public, but you get what you pay for, and what you are willing to accept, I guess.”
 
We are in a time period that personal thinking is clearly at a premium. We are told what to do and when to do it, and we follow these “rules” like obedient puppets.
 
Have we lost our critical thinking ability?
 
I think we have, and that is sadder than the pricey bill I had to pay yesterday.
 
Once you lose the power of personal thought, you become a robot … and that is not what the human experience is supposed to be all about.