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Dec. 29th, 2009 07:37 pmYou know I've been considering for a while now writing a rather lengthy rant regarding the intense annoyance I've felt regarding the fact that I can pretty much no longer watch the History Channel or National Geographic Channel. Thankfully I still have History International, but the fact that I pretty much have to avoid two channels I used to quite enjoy because they've gone all...Jesus-y makes me very annoyed.
Then I read this post by Doghouse Riley and realized he'd already said it far better than I could:
I don't know if you've noticed, or care, but The History Channel is now The Jesus and Nostradamus Network, and, worse yet, peer pressure is starting to get to the National Geographic Channel. One afternoon last weekend NGS was running Secrets of the Shroud of Turin; dissatisfied viewers could switch to History for History's Mysteries: The Shroud of Turin. The former promised to investigate the forensic and evidence [sic] connected to the mysterious Shroud of Turin, which is like tuning in the Science Channel to find they're trying to get to the bottom of this Earth revolves around the Sun business.
Similarly, PBS promised the show included, and I quote, "New Testament theologians, archaeologists and historians who serve as both critics and storytellers", which, as seasoned observers understand, means they couldn't even start the thing without fudge, omitting "Biblical" before that "archaeologists", which leads us to suspect, correctly, as it turns out, that they've left it off "historians" as well. Now, I had an hour of mind-but-not-knee-numbing exercise ahead of me, and if television isn't there to get you through that sort of thing it's there for nothing. And I made twenty-three minutes. (On the bike I lasted the full hour, thanks for asking.)
And maybe I'll go back for some of the rest of it, but look: if you can't win without stacking the deck, then at least have the courtesy to try to stack the deck without anyone noticing. To begin with, if nothing is known of any historical Jesus, and nothing is, don't say "virtually nothing". "Virtually nothing" means "something". If Josephus never so much as casts an eye in Jesus' direction, you should be a little sheepish, if you'll pardon the expression, when you suggest his mentioning John the Baptist grounds everything after in historical fact. If you have to start the thing off with the same disclaimer they used on that old Leonard Nimoy show, then clue your collection of professional Metaphysicians, Sinecures, and Table Knockers that they're not lecturing a bunch of home-schooled Freshmen who've already signaled their willingness to believe absolutely anything Absolute, and have 'em can the wink wink Of Course This Doesn't Quite Jibe With the Historical Record, You Know wink wink winkedy wink routines. Because to many of the rest of us, "doesn't quite jibe" means "making shit up".
Maybe it's the fact that I spent two years of my life working on a history degree that makes me such a snob when it comes to this kind of nonsense. But there's roughly the same amount of actual historical data to back up the Bible as there is for any other religion/mythos and it's infuriating to those of us who know better to see this kind of pseudo history. It'd be like the Discovery Channel doing an in depth "scientific" program on the Tooth Fairy.
I'm doing my best to not launch into my Dan Brown/Da Vinci Code rant because it's fundamentally the same argument.
Really.
I apologize to the locals who've been subjected to it in the past, but half the time I just want to scream, "Read a book!" Because, yeah, I'm really sick of these shows making shit up and passing it off as "history". It's the same basic process as the rightwing take over of the news, passing off misinformation as "facts". This up-is-downism is infecting every part of our society and at the heart of our overall dumbing down as a nation.
Then I read this post by Doghouse Riley and realized he'd already said it far better than I could:
I don't know if you've noticed, or care, but The History Channel is now The Jesus and Nostradamus Network, and, worse yet, peer pressure is starting to get to the National Geographic Channel. One afternoon last weekend NGS was running Secrets of the Shroud of Turin; dissatisfied viewers could switch to History for History's Mysteries: The Shroud of Turin. The former promised to investigate the forensic and evidence [sic] connected to the mysterious Shroud of Turin, which is like tuning in the Science Channel to find they're trying to get to the bottom of this Earth revolves around the Sun business.
Similarly, PBS promised the show included, and I quote, "New Testament theologians, archaeologists and historians who serve as both critics and storytellers", which, as seasoned observers understand, means they couldn't even start the thing without fudge, omitting "Biblical" before that "archaeologists", which leads us to suspect, correctly, as it turns out, that they've left it off "historians" as well. Now, I had an hour of mind-but-not-knee-numbing exercise ahead of me, and if television isn't there to get you through that sort of thing it's there for nothing. And I made twenty-three minutes. (On the bike I lasted the full hour, thanks for asking.)
And maybe I'll go back for some of the rest of it, but look: if you can't win without stacking the deck, then at least have the courtesy to try to stack the deck without anyone noticing. To begin with, if nothing is known of any historical Jesus, and nothing is, don't say "virtually nothing". "Virtually nothing" means "something". If Josephus never so much as casts an eye in Jesus' direction, you should be a little sheepish, if you'll pardon the expression, when you suggest his mentioning John the Baptist grounds everything after in historical fact. If you have to start the thing off with the same disclaimer they used on that old Leonard Nimoy show, then clue your collection of professional Metaphysicians, Sinecures, and Table Knockers that they're not lecturing a bunch of home-schooled Freshmen who've already signaled their willingness to believe absolutely anything Absolute, and have 'em can the wink wink Of Course This Doesn't Quite Jibe With the Historical Record, You Know wink wink winkedy wink routines. Because to many of the rest of us, "doesn't quite jibe" means "making shit up".
Maybe it's the fact that I spent two years of my life working on a history degree that makes me such a snob when it comes to this kind of nonsense. But there's roughly the same amount of actual historical data to back up the Bible as there is for any other religion/mythos and it's infuriating to those of us who know better to see this kind of pseudo history. It'd be like the Discovery Channel doing an in depth "scientific" program on the Tooth Fairy.
I'm doing my best to not launch into my Dan Brown/Da Vinci Code rant because it's fundamentally the same argument.
Really.
I apologize to the locals who've been subjected to it in the past, but half the time I just want to scream, "Read a book!" Because, yeah, I'm really sick of these shows making shit up and passing it off as "history". It's the same basic process as the rightwing take over of the news, passing off misinformation as "facts". This up-is-downism is infecting every part of our society and at the heart of our overall dumbing down as a nation.
