Pat noone here should be saying it's a 'boring set-up'. the SSPX as a rule is against TV period. The first, second and third orders are not supposed to watch tv at all unless it is neccessary. I personally have no cable, nor do I have over the air, I do watch old movies and old tv shows on dvd occasionally however.

Maybe that would work for you? At least you'll know what kind of things will be on since you will have picked it :)

thanks for the advice and actually starting there.(watching dvds)... an aside... my typing style is odd. what I meant by set-up was setting up my premise for the post.

I do agree that t.v. is not good.  

I like to think of it like this. Propaganda has always been a tool to sway the public mind. In the past it wasn't that powerful due to its limited scope. With the invention of the printing press and the eventual distribution of the newspaper, propaganda became much more powerful in its ability to control the hearts and minds of the masses. For example, Napoleon Bonaparte once said, "Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets." Even in his time, the media was something to be feared.

Now imagine the power of such a media multiplied by like 1,000,000, perhaps even more, and you can get an idea of the power of the modern mass media over the minds of people. The primary culprits are television and Hollywood, but it exists everywhere. Books, magazines, newspapers, radio, internet--you name it. Any form of communicating information can be used toward the means of dispersing propaganda or disinformation.

Now, I am not sure if the people on this forum are aware of it, but the mass media is nearly entirely owned by a certain group of people. These people use the media not only for the purposes of political propaganda, but also to enforce the law of political correctness, to reinforce secular/leftist beliefs about reality, and to promote anti-Christian and anti-Western sentiment. One needs but turn on MTV to see what the youth of today are being fed to know something is not right.

It is no wonder the West is in such a sickly, degenerate state. It is no wonder that the youth are being led toward culturally Marxist views of the world and atheism. Couple the general message of the mass media being simultaneously promoted in public education and higher education, and you have whole generations of people who are, quite literally, brainwashed. Social engineering has become an art, and most of the West is subject to it.

Watching television is often a mortal sin.
We know that there will be Blasphemy and anti-Catholic ideas.
We know that there will be immodestly dressed women on almost every program.
As well as obscene and pornographic images.
If knowing all this we choose to watch television, we risk mortal sin.

Our Lord said in the Gospel of St. Matthew XVI:26,
"For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?"

I read something about how one of the Saints saw a vision of a box in people's houses, and the devil came flying out of the box.
I believe she saw television in that vision.

Get rid of the box of satan.

Do not go to Hell because for refusing to give up the sinful "entertainment" we are fed by the anti-Catholic tv industry.

They are against Our Lord, so we should be against them.

Pray to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the Graces to give up this sin.
This Lent, try to give up television as a penance.

Think how much that would please Our Lord.

You can spend more time really with your Family and with God.

Yes,
The temptations of the internet are also very grave.
If the computer is an occasion of sin, put it in the garbage. Break it first so that no-one else can use it.
Never give away a television, DVD player, video player, or computer. They will almost certainly be used for sin.

If one just looks at Traditional Catholic sites on the internet, then the moral perils are less.

Ideally, one should go without television, computers, and all their sordid technological cousins.

The Saints were canonized without any of those things.

Padre Pio compared buying a television to inviting the devil into your home.

Padre Pio would probably have likewise condemned the internet.

Replacing tv with lots of other screen time is hardly any better.

Quote from: SantaMaria1

Replacing tv with lots of other screen time is hardly any better.

I would disagree SantaMaria. If you think about it, TV is very one directional. Information is just shot out at you. So if you're using it for anything other than DVDs/VHSs, you have no real control. Commercials, programs themselves, etc.

The internet, while it can indeed be used for sin and evil, also gives one much more control over what they do. As sedecatholic said, if its an occasion of sin, if you lack control in what websites you visit, you should not use it at all. However, you can indeed use it for only good, and indeed find very useful information.

I think danger can come in a different form, however, with the use of the internet. Its a intellectual one. A poster was banned here recently, CuriousCatholic, who essentially has fallen into the hands of heretics who've convinced him, for one, that all the posters here on Cathinfo are not Catholic. He went without the sacraments for the entirety of the time he was posting on this forum (at least a year), and began reading more and more from these so-called 'monks' whose sole job is to get people's money. They do this by convincing people all priests and other Catholics are not Catholic and, thusly, divert the money streams to themselves.

Is it really necessary to add more to this thread;  I think everything that needs to be said, has been said on the topic already  

Tv was better in the 1970s when I was growing up.  I loved watching mastermind, the two Ronnies, morecombe and wise, doctor who, star trek, I Claudius, Survivors, the professionals, the Sweeney and all that stuff.

Now it is utter utter rubbish  Over Easter we went to stay in a holiday house on the south coast where they have sky tv.  80 channels of crap, with loads of advertising.  It is as bad now here in the uk as American tv.  Just boring crap.

Every program worth watching mostly nature and history docuмentaries ends up either on iplayer or YouTube anyway.