just when i thought that lawyer commercials preying on the weakest and most vulnerable among us were the worst thing on television (far beneath the lowest infomercial), the return of the tv has brought the cultural influence of the cathode ray tube (and lcd and plasma and so on) to a new low...
"what you need to know" is the latest catch-line for fox news... "what you need to know" is if you do not understand the psychological manipulation such ploys are designed to do then you are probably already sucked in to the culture of violence, shock, and awe - living vicariously through voyeurism and campfire stories - adrenaline junkies and moralists and judges so detached from the real that any distraction will do to let you pretend you are good and have it more together than the losers splashed across your tv screen...
"what you need to know" is joe down the road killed his family last night and sarah the high school teacher was sleeping with one of her students and betty sue must have killed her kid because the kid disappeared and she didn't cry just right and ralph the count commissioner was sleeping with the sixteen year old son of the preacher of the church where the corrupt industrialist who bribed him to look away from the inferior carcinogenic materials that are silently killing thousands who overpaid for the condominiums and houses he built on what once was a bird sanctuary and sacred indian burial grounds...
"what you need to know" is there are rapists and pedophiles and murderers and thieves and everything and anything that could possibly scare you right outside your door so "what you need to know" is you need to keep watching the news on tv where you are safer and can feel more alive than anywhere else in your life... what you need to know is the world is full of cheaters and liars and users and manipulators and the only one you can trust is the attractive talking head smiling just after telling you how cruel and disgusting people or nature can be...
"what you need to know" is how to get excited about violence and sex, how to become an avid fan of the soap opera that the news media written from watching and digging up information about the worst sorrows and pathos of human life, how to become addicted to the news of tragedies and challenges, wars and accidents and crimes and corruption and public ridicule and disasters and fear and the need to know...
what you need to know"...
be careful rubber necking, because your neck is not really made of rubber...
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