Football season in Korea used to mean getting up at 2 or 3 in the morning (depending on Daylight Savings Time) and going on base to see a favorite team play. Interrupting one’s sleep is a young man’s game for sure, but I’m an early riser anyway, so an extra hour or two wasn’t too hard.
Thankfully, AFN (Armed Forces Network) came out with an app that allows qualified users the ability to watch games (or whatever’s on) on our TVs at home. I love this technology.
With one main reservation: it also exposes me to what our military members are watching overseas. Other than the typical PSAs that you have to tolerate during commercial breaks, AFN advertises its other programs — the current stateside shows that they run on their other channels (AFN Sports only plays sports shows) — and without fail, nearly every commercial break includes an advert for some kind of “reality” TV.
I just can’t wrap my mind around it, really. Yes, I’m old. I get that. But I can’t understand how younger people can be entertained by such…well, “trash” is a weak word for it. The kind of material you get from programs of this ilk is reminiscent of high school gossip at its most lurid, and I can’t understand why AFN panders to that crowd. If that’s truly what our fighting forces want to see, I think we’re in worse shape mentally than I ever thought.
There’s a place for lightheartedness and “entertainment” that can be uplifting and meaningful, even if it is just fiction. But to pass something so blatantly meaningless and puerile off as “reality” does us a great disservice and weakens the minds of people whom we depend upon to be our defenders. The TikTok Chinese Op is nothing compared to what we’re doing to ourselves.
Are we really that stupid?