Got that right, Rig. TV is the great lobotomizer. I've seen the mental rot setting in from it ever since I was a kid. The mere fact that we had no TV in the house till I was 17 or 18 was one of the key factors in my growing up to be:

1. an avid reader
2. a social radical
3. someone who doesn't believe in the prevailing $ySSTem or consider it "normal" or healthy in the least
4. someone who detests commercial messages and will avoid any medium that is chock full of them (meaning commercial TV networks and commercial radio stations)

I do not take for granted what most North Americans do, and that includes the ReDemocrapublicant Party (the ruling Duopoly in the USA).