Monday, November 4, 2013

The dumbest show on TV

Whale Wars: Viking Shores is hands down the dumbest show on television.  It's so full of itself that I bailed on it after three episodes.

I had no problem with the Sea Shepard organization when they went after those who hunted endangered whales.  Humans have and will continue to hunt some breeds of whales to extinction because we're fucking idiots.  If history has taught us anything, it's that we humans will shit all over anything until it's gone.  So, yeah, go after those that hunt sperm whales or humpback whales, knock yourself out.

But to go after an island society that hunt non endangered whales and that's out in the north Atlantic surrounded by nothing but hundreds of miles of ocean that has for a thousand years hunted and eaten whales because you think that it's barbaric, well, that's just fucking nuts.  In this incarnation of Whale Wars, that's exactly is what is going on.  The Sea Shepard people have their panties in a wad over the fact that the citizens of the Faroe Islands kill and eat non endangered pilot whales.  They're incensed that the Faroese have developed what to the Sea Shepard a cruel and inhumane way of killing whales and they hate it that whale is the main source of meat for the people on the Faroe Islands.

Humans are omnivores.  We eat plants, fruit, nuts, grains, and yes, meat too.  Some don't eat meat, and that's cool.  Some don't eat meat or any animal products, and that's cool too.  And yes, there would be a lot less death and suffering in the world if we all ate less or even no meat, but that's not ever going to happen.  And yes, I'm trying to eat less meat and one day I hope to give it up all together.  But for these Sea Shepard people to tell the Faroese that what their doing is wrong and that it needs to be stopped forever because they find it all uncomfortable, that's just fucking nonsense.

The Sea Shepard people went to the Faroe Island expressly to stop legal whale hunts, and by extension to take food out of the mouths of hungry people, and to raise a ruckus.  They promised to stop any killings they saw and they promised to provoke the locals so that one day they'd stop their centuries old practices.  They went there full of self righteous indignation and with white hot anger.  By gawd, they were going to put the locals right no matter what.  Then they got pissed when people got pissed at them.  After trying to provoke the locals on their national holiday, they got crazy pissed off when some locals poked back at them.  One woman in Sea Shepards moaned and wondered how the locals could have the audacity to stage a whale hunt while the Shepards were on the island, I'm guessing she expected them to stop just because a bunch of animal rights people told them to.

Ugh.  The whole show sucks ass.  It's premise is insane and it's absurdly slanted while it tres to make the people of the Faroe Islands look like bloodthirsty yokels.  They play ominous music when any locals defend their hunts and they lionize all the Sea Shepards and try to make them look like saints.  It's a farce.  Is the hunt a shocking sight?  Yes.  But do they eat the whale meat and blubber? Yes.  If they stopped eating it they'd have to import tons of food from elsewhere, food that's been grown using fossil fuels, that's been doused with pesticides, that's been shipped on ocean liners that use thousands of gallons of gas and oil, all of which contributes to climate change.  Or they could hunt what's off their shores.  And really, what's next?  If the Faroese are supposed to stop hunting non endangered whales because the Sea Shepards don't like it, will the Shepards decide they don't like salmon fishing and make people stop fishing for it and eating it?  Will they declare shrimp off limits?  Trout? Tilapia?  And if they hate barbaric meat production methods, why don't they target slaughterhouses?

This show has made me hate the Sea Shepards.  They seem to me the kind of people who insist that we all need to be more like them and that we should all animals eat a vegan diet.  It's also made me want to go to the Faroe Islands, that place looks beautiful.  Would I eat the whale if I went, probably.  Would I punch an annoying self righteous Sea Shepard stooge if he got in my face, you bet.

4 comments:

Nan said...

Self righteous is an understatement. I read an interview with one of the guys involved in the Sea Shepherd movement (think it was in the Sun a couple years ago), and even though the interviewer did his best at hagiography, the man still came across as being a jerk. Hearing about shows like this one, btw, make me glad we don't watch much television.

Mnmom said...

Good points, all.

gmb said...

Makes me glad I don't have a tv. Is this a series?

dguzman said...

I don't watch any of these "reality" shows. I was flipping around last night in the guide (my favorite part of tv is flipping through the guide to see what's on EVERY. EFFING. CHANNEL! Weeee!), I saw that there's a show about tree service guys!? One episode's synopsis read something like, "the workers struggle to fell an old oak before a big storm." So the show is about guys with chainsaws, cutting down trees in people's yards. THRILLING.