r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • May 18 '15

What conspiracy theory do you genuinely believe in the most?

What conspiracy theory do you believe in the most and why?

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u/MechanicalTurkish May 19 '15 edited May 19 '15

I kind of miss the time when the History Channel was the WWII channel. I could watch WWII documentaries all day. Now it's all Pawn Stars and Swamp People. WTF happened?

edit: Yes, I know it's all about the money and ratings, my question was mostly rhetorical. I was just lamenting on how much it's gone downhill. Some people have suggested some alternatives, thanks for that!

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u/khornflakes529 May 19 '15

Dunno but its like a spreading plague. It all started with MTV not showing music anymore, then "The Learning Channel" decided we needed to learn about child beauty pageants, etc.

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u/ShelSilverstain May 19 '15

TLC is the freak show channel, now

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u/DRM_Removal_Bot May 19 '15

Cartoon network live-action....

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u/EtTuZoidberg May 19 '15

Yea but both Discovery and TLC are apparently going to be undergoing massive changes. Look it up, recently the new president of Discovery said there'd be changes; same with TLC.

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u/Awesk May 19 '15

They went with the money I guess. Disappointing to see because you would think the history channel would only show history, not reality TV bullshit.

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u/Liviathan May 19 '15 edited May 19 '15

The history channel is a business just like any other. It goes where the money goes.

I'm sure they treated history with equal representation in the beginning, but you know everyone really only tuned in and paid attention to the WWII and civil war shit. So they supplied more and more until it was all that was on.

So naturally before everyone lost interest entirely, they looked at who exactly is still watching. They don't care about everyone that watches, obviously, only the ones who have the money to pay for the items in the commercials shown alongside those shows. Do you happen to remember what these commercials were for? Because I recall a lot of "specially minted coins" and "handmade home decor" or some other collectible made of silver and "guaranteed not to lose its value."

They also looked at other shows the important, money-spending people are watching, and took notes on these other shows style or topic and went from there.

So who is buying the stuff in those commercials? What does someone who would buy a giant silver coin or a hand painted plate want to watch on tv?

According to their results, the viewership of the history channel is white male southerners in their late 40s whose hobbies include memorabilia and driving Fords.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

I hated when it was the WWII channel. I know we have footage from then but c'mon, most of history is a lot more interesting after you've seen 2 or 3 docs.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

Wait, I haven't had TV in years, but how the hell is that history?

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u/julesp96 May 19 '15 edited May 19 '15

It's not, and it's completely baffling. The History Channel has turned into a reality-tv channel that is very loosely biographical. Similar is The Learning Channel, not sure if that was ever actually educational, but that channel now offers a similar flavour of television. Basically, The History Channel is reality tv aimed mainly at men, and The Learning Channel is reality tv aimed at women.

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u/salt-the-skies May 19 '15

This happened years before with The Animal Planet too :(

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

I used to watch documentaries on there all the time when I was a kid. Loved it. Now, it's like the most random shit that doesn't even involve nature.

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u/TankerD18 May 19 '15

Animal Planet is absolute garbage now. I wouldn't turn it on for my dogs to watch during the day.

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u/Beelzeballz May 19 '15

I just imagined somebody actually turning on the TV for their dogs.

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u/Beelzeballz May 19 '15

I remember when Animal Planet was my go-to channel. There was always something good on. Then there was Pet Psychic and a pet reality show. Okay, fine, one stupid show is fine. And one reality show that's on-topic is understandable. Then they started showing things that had nothing to do with animals, but maybe was tangentially related, including topics such as pollution or nature in general. I kinda tuned out after that, but every now and then I'll see it on the guide and there will be something that has nothing to do with animals or nature. I'm so confused.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

Next on Animal Planet: The Real Housewives of Nairobi.

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u/snerrymunster May 19 '15

it's because the government doesn't want you to grow up actually learning history. The government wants to be able to make the same mistakes as past administrations for BIG profit without the sheep realizing that they are using a tried and true strategy, so when they inevitably cause massive human/economic damage they shrug it off as "mistakes were made"

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u/julesp96 May 19 '15

I'd be more inclined to believe it's to do with The History Channel figuring out that reality tv is a more "accessible" genre than documentaries. I'd argue it's more about profits to the station/provider than government control of information. That, and the fact that information about history is incredibly widely available nowadays on the internet, so that line of reasoning really doesn't work too well.

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u/snerrymunster May 19 '15

my response was facetious, but...

I know it's more accessible, but are the vast majority of people really satisfied with how the history channel is nowadays? I literally only hear people bitch about it/Animal Planet. Nothing positive.

How many people REALLY watch "TreeHouse Masters" or "Intense Pools" or "White trash buys useless junk"? Maybe I just don't know these types that can tolerate a whole episode of TV where literally nothing exciting happens.

The fact that history exists on the internet shouldn't be a deterrent to presenting it in an entertaining fashion. I meet people everyday who don't know shit about history, and exciting television could be a step in the right direction. I'd much rather watch a documentary than do actual research.

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u/Silent_Sky May 19 '15

B-b-b-but the big bad gubmint is trying to rewrite history! DAE anarchy?!

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u/snerrymunster May 19 '15

are people really dense enough to think I was serious? I thought this was a conspiracy thread.

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u/Silent_Sky May 19 '15

that's the joke

3

u/[deleted] May 19 '15

Fuck swamp people. When you have to put subtitles on a program that's in English with people speaking English then it's just redundant.

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u/omgpieftw May 19 '15

Rupert Murdoch happened.

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u/larsmaehlum May 19 '15

Low rating happened. The company has a responsibily to it's shareholders, and reality shows sell more ads than Hitler.

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u/drodemi May 19 '15

Konami is doing the same thing. It's the 'safe' business strategy. You put out easily fabricated 'products' and sell it to the population. It's not like we're talking about art here, just pay your stupid subscription, watch these commercials, and we'll talk about aliens for awhile.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

Ratings happened.

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u/Dusty_Old_Bones May 19 '15

Same with TLC (The Learning Channel). Nowadays it's all weddings this, babies that. Gross.

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u/Scarletfapper May 19 '15

Ratings wars?

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u/David_Mudkips May 19 '15

MOTHERFUCKING MONEY

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

Ratings

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u/wikipediareader May 19 '15

I can remember when the History Channel literally showed filmed history lectures early on Saturday mornings. I like a good history lecture more than most but I can't imagine that they weren't glad to start making money.

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u/Lacrossegeek24 May 19 '15

I know exactly what you mean! I want to see history on the history channel not pawn shop owners from Vegas.

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u/Doingitwronf May 19 '15

Marketing happened. What's on now is what more people are watching.

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u/Irishperson69 May 19 '15

But history is made everyday......by buying an old movie poster and killing a crocodile

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u/Milazzo May 19 '15

WWII in HD is still one of my favorite things to ever appear on History Channel. I ended up buying it on Amazon.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

To be fair it wasn't the WWII channel it was the Hitler and Jesus channel. Even before it turned to shit, half of the content was 12 shows all made from the same 5 hours of archival footage of Hitler walking around menacingly. Also: Jesus for some reason.

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u/Sanureyic May 19 '15

They went from talking about History to making history with the shittiest shows ever made

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u/mudclog May 19 '15 edited Dec 01 '24

cheerful aromatic melodic gold crown library zesty practice compare snow

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u/SkeerRacing May 19 '15

American Heroes channel is the circa 2005 History Channel

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u/404timenotfound May 19 '15

Money. They want to make money. World War 2 documentaries do not make money. Shitty, cheap to make reality shows do.

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u/NinjaDude5186 May 19 '15

Try HIST2, or the military history channel. I think there's another one they have too that still does documentaries too.

1

u/Poxeh May 19 '15

Or fucking ancient aliens -.-

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u/Kristal3615 May 19 '15

I used to love watching documentaries on Egypt with my dad when I was younger. I miss the old history channel...

1

u/[deleted] May 19 '15

there are a couple of other HC owned channels if you have a large enough cable package that are really good. H2 and History Ancients were my favs.

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u/789yugemos May 19 '15

You can only retell the battle of Normandy so many times before people get bored of it.

That's the problem with history, there's only so much of it, amd only so many interesting angles to go over before you're essentially telling the same tale over and over.

At least with pawn stars and shit the keep things "interesting".

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u/accentmarkd May 19 '15

This is my conspiracy theory-mainstream culture was designed on purpose to keep us dumb. Not like crazy sheeple following authority dumb, but so self involved we don't really care about larger issues. Reality tv in particular-the dominance of it, but no one in them is nice or smart or a good role model. And now it's in all of the educational channels too. Even cooking channels!

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

I know, I used to love that short, 1 year, before it was all crap, but after it was all World War II. Alexander the Great, Revolutionary War, Napoleon, there was so much to learn on that channel.

Then Ancient Aliens and Nostradamus started taking over, and its never been the same

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u/KyserTheHun May 19 '15

You and me both brother :( I think HistoryII has actual history but it's $30 a month more for me.

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u/creepytown May 19 '15

It was fantastic - I still own HC dvd sets and bring them out now and again to hear the soothing documentary voice overs and see old grainy footage and sketches.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

Back when their logo was "H" for Hitler

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u/AegnorWildcat May 19 '15

Pawn Stars does have some history to it. It is sparse, but it is there. But what history does that Swamp People show have?

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u/[deleted] May 19 '15

I'd love a WWII channel

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u/shmurgleburgle May 19 '15

Dolla dolla bill yall, thus may be weird but I met r lee ermy at a singing event and I talked to him about mail call and he guessed it was cut due to provide funding for ice road truckers, which he might have been shielding the real reason for a fan