Soap Box Shouting

 The incessant shallow consumerism which accosts me ebbs and flows.  The offers on our home were not unreasonable.  They were above the county's tax assessment, and someone in dire straits may be tempted to accept one of their "cash" offers.  Would they come through?  Would they actually do as Mark Spain says and pay you cash for your home with no realtor's fee or closing costs?  Would one of these companies actually follow through on their offer and come up with the money?  If it sounds too good to be true, usually it is.  I have no qualms with these firms who call wanting to purchase your home.  It is up to the homeowner to know the value of his property and make decisions accordingly.  Most won't.  The approach they are using which is similar to television infomercials suggests these companies have authority.  A bank that holds the mortgage to your home does have authority, but second party vendors do not.  They feign authority, and this approach now is common in many scams.  Spectrum is insistent on trying to garner me as a customer, but I have no interest in their products.  We were Spectrum consumers, both with Roadrunner internet and cable television, but their profit supplanted their product.  Their price continued to rise, and the quality of their cable television  declined.  This was for various reasons spanning the scope of visual media.  One was the competition of and conversion to streaming services via the internet.  Currently visual media is a mishmash of services, and it is a headache.  I prefer the original television product with three major networks, a quality competitive nightly line up of shows, and a handful of public informative networks.  It was easier.  Turn the big dial to switch channels.  There was wisdom in AM radio, and it audio rendering was stimulating and easy to hear.  The acoustics of the world have been sacrificed, but that is another blog entry.  Even with five hundred channels I only watched five.  Usually they were movie channels for which you had to pay extra.  The consumer can choose if the product is worth its price, and television no longer is.  Instead it is continual propaganda.  I have over-the-air digital television, and in off peak hours there is some quality entertainment.  The continual infomercial with dialog over trite music is noise, and in many depictions of the future huge screens blast this propaganda at citizens 24/7.  It is wrong.  It is mind-numbing brain washing, and the FCC needs to regulate its content.  Government deregulation as a whole was a mistake, because quickly corporate America oversteps its bounds.  I have realized the influence of television in America's daily lives, and once it was important.  Escapism or seeing far away places with beautiful music, and scripted plots with talented actors provides a backdrop for our lives that no longer exists.  This was the original magic of television when it had integrity.  Like so many other tenets of the American economy, television has sold out.  On "Free TV" ninety-five percent of what I hear is false, and it should be monitored and regulated by a robust and active ratings system.  The spaghetti network of video media is out of control, and it is hurting American solidarity.  I had no intention of criticizing television, but my distaste for what it has become will not tempt be back to Spectrum.  The chasm created from lack of cable television is vast and subtle.  We use it as a backdrop for out lives, but that has become too great a temptation.  Now it is being manipulated to manipulate our thinking.  The cinematic examples of a future dystopian society are plentiful and depressing.  It is imperative America figures herself out quickly, because without a conceptual vision of our future, authoritarianism is imminent.  Donald Trump would like be become our new dictator.