End of an Era

There was a show on the Discovery Channel called Gold Rush. It was about average people going to Alaska to find gold. I watched it when it first came on. It was interesting. However, at some point Discovery decided to add a fellow named Tony Beets as one of the gold miners. He was a professional miner, which went against the entire purpose of the show. He also swore constantly(bleeped out) and treated people like garbage just because he could. His behavior was disgusting, and having him on the show was bad television. Basically, they tried to cast a villain as a hero. Epic fail. That was when I started taping it and watching it later so I could fast forward through everything with Tony in it as well as the sponsors' commercials. How is watching someone treat people like trash considered entertainment? How degraded is American culture that it's even tolerated?

Gold Rush is no more. The main miner, Todd Hoffman, has left the show. There's no more reason to watch. It sounds like Discovery is going to try to keep it going next season, since it's so profitable. It will be without me. I'm surprised it lasted this long. So much of it was contrived.

There was a massive bit of irony to the show that boggles the mind. Back in the 80s, environmentalists went to war trying to stop strip mining. Strip mining is when a mining corporation goes to a piece of land and bulldozes all the trees and grass and topsoil and animal habitat away. They keep bulldozing until everything is gone. Sometimes they bulldoze all the way down to bedrock.

In Gold Rush they always went down to bedrock and scraped everything they could off of it. Picture the irony. In the 80s that show would have been impossible, because of environmentalists. Today, the most popular show on Discovery is a show about strip miners completely destroying as much ground as they possibly can in the quest for gold. After the mining is done, they're supposed to bulldoze some dirt in and plant some trees. However, it's not the same as it was before. Topsoil can take over 500 years to form one inch. Where are the environmentalists? Adding to the ratings, I'm sure. My, how times change. Not only can environmentalists be defeated, they can be trained to cheer for the thing they hate. No offense if you're an environmentalist. I like clean air, too. I think diesels should be banned from using drive-throughs. I really do.

Have a great weekend.