# Y'know, f\*ck Netflix some more
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [April 6, 2014, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495 "2014-04-06T19:10:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/81 "2014-04-10T21:02:18Z")
If you haven’t managed to outwit the system so well that you have experienced the subtle yet intense pleasure of immersing yourself in the ouvre of Honey Boo Boo whilst simultaneously protecting your delicately fine-tuned psyche from the crass commonality that is advertising, then you clearly do not have the sophistication required to contribute intelligently to this, the debate of its age.
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### Author:  [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/82 "2014-04-10T21:35:51Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#):
>
> Only a thick layer of superiority and apparently Netflix can keep you immune from the seductive succubus that is commercials.
You can form the thick layer with Nutella.
Or so I’ve heard.
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### Author:  [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/83 "2014-04-10T21:45:35Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#):
>
> While I’m usually in separate areas of the Dope than her, I’ve seen it before. Has she ever gone back and amended a score, or might I as well pin my retirement on a lottery ticket?
Just do what Stoid does and dig lotto tickets out of the garbage can.
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### Author:  [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2014, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/84 "2014-04-11T01:30:56Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#):
>
> You must be unfamiliar with our friend Amateur. It’s not enough to simply ignore the commercials. They leak their evil marketing hoo-doo deep into the center of your psyche and knowledge and education be damned, they hypnotize you into buying products you do not want or need and worse of all, they make you think you enjoy the things they force you to buy!
They also corrupt your precious bodily fluids. My god, won’t someone think of the fluids?!
Out of curiosity, if I watch tv on the actual tv when it’s broadcast, but I’m also spinning or knitting or eating dinner or painting my nails or whatever, does the time saved multitasking counteract the time wasted ignoring the commercials? Or does watching tv with ads and not even giving the program my full attention make me extra stupid? I mean, I have zero intention of changing my ways, but I like to know where I stand.
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### Author:  [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2014, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/85 "2014-04-11T01:56:03Z")
If RedBox had a wider selection, I’d just shitcan Netflix. Their DVD selection is abysmal and I could rarely find anything on it that I really wanted to watch. I dropped down to streaming only and I may even discontinue that if their selection doesn’t improve.
Netflix was a good idea that quickly went bad.
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### Author:  [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2014, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/86 "2014-04-11T01:57:00Z")
> [@Shakes](#):
>
> Is this like one of those “Looking the mirror” moments? As in, if I really analyze smugness, I’ll come to the logical conclusion that I find it off putting because of my own shortcomings?
The reverse, actually. You realize that other people’s smugness has \*\*nothing whatsoever \*\*to do with \*\*\*you \*\*\* in any way at all; other people’s smugness is entirely about _ **them** _. It’s their production and you are just their audience, why even buy the ticket and give it your attention at all, particularly if you find it grating?
Having come to this understanding, your reaction to their smugness will very likely drain away to at most a faint echo of what it was. Perhaps even the echo will be gone and you will find that other people’s smugness rolls off you without the slightest effect, like water off a slicker.
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### Author:  [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2014, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/87 "2014-04-11T02:20:12Z")
> [@Fenris](#):
>
> This dumbass gimmick of Stoid’s dates back more than a decade. She used to do it for political stuff all the time. Basically “Her side”=“win”, “Other side”=“Lose”, regardless of the merits of any arguments made.
Assuming for the moment that this is a factually correct statement (it isn’t), you appear to think that I have a side in this and that it is AB’s, which baffles me completely. I don’t have the slightest concern in how anyone defines “watching television” (And I think Ab’s framing it that way derailed a good opportunity for a much better discussion we’re now not having) and I don’t have the slightest concern about what anyone thinks of what I watch or how much or why or when, something which should be obvious from post #22. As I stated at the outset, my interest in looking it all up was prompted by AB’s wording at one point which I thought was kind of lame.
AB and I could not possibly be _less_ alike in our views on this, so by what mysterious route did you arrive at the conclusion that AB and I share a “side”?😕:dubious:
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### Author:  [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2014, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/88 "2014-04-11T03:37:47Z")
Ok, I have some thoughts on **Amateur Barbarian** ’s positions regarding television et al. BUT I want to make sure I have a clear and accurate understanding of his argument. So before I post my thoughts, could you read this, **AB** , and let me know if I grok it?
**Amateur Barbarian** has specific definitions for “watching tv” and “television”. Specifically:
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> “Television” is:
>
> [ol]
> [li]Any publicly-accessible video stream that is primarily funded by advertising revenue, whether it nominally charges for viewing or not, and is populated by programming intended to focus attention on the advertising via its content, segmentation, timing and other features. This includes OTA, most cable & sat, YouTube, most TiVoing/DVR rewatching/on-demand replays, and a scattering of other minor options.[/li][li]An advertising medium that occasionally shows less overtly commercial content.[/li][/ol]
He then explains that the material “television” broadcasts is called _content_. There is a subset of this content called _commodity content_, which is explained as:
> [@](#):
>
> video works produced outside of the demands of television and not driven primarily by a need to drive advertising. Theatrical movies are commodity. Most quality documentaries are commodity. Most programs HBO and like channels produce for themselves are commodity. Netflix productions are commodity. Commodity “content” is paid for in ways other than ad revenue, and is usually easily distinguishable from even the best “content” productions as a result.
Thus it appears commodity content may be shown _on_ television (though not exclusively so), but it is _not_ television itself. A tv station may broadcast commodity content and add in advertising when doing so, but that doesn’t change the fact that the commodity was not created for that purpose. In contrast, nom-commodity content broadcasted by a tv station _is_ television itself, because this content was created specifically to be an advertisement delivery vehicle. This intent is why, in **AB** ’s opinion, stripping all advertising (commercials) from this content doesn’t change it into commodity content.
So, to put his definition into my own words, “television” is 1- the transmission of advertising-driven video by a channel/service/provider to video screens; said channel/service/provider has absolute authority over what content will be transmitted and when it will transmit it (ie, the programming schedule). It also is 2- the video content (shows) created specifically for def. 1 to deliver advertisements to viewers. Without advertisements, this content would not exist because it would serve no purpose.
So. How’d I do?
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2014, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/89 "2014-04-11T06:45:09Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#):
>
> You must be unfamiliar with our friend Amateur. It’s not enough to simply ignore the commercials. They leak their evil marketing hoo-doo deep into the center of your psyche and knowledge and education be damned, they hypnotize you into buying products you do not want or need and worse of all, they make you think you enjoy the things they force you to buy! Only a thick layer of superiority and apparently Netflix can keep you immune from the seductive succubus that is commercials.
Here’s the thing. Everyone says they aren’t affected by commercials. They don’t watch them. Yet companies keep on spending a ton of money advertising stuff. Study after study shows that people are affected by the advertizing, even when they try not to be. It really is impossible to not be affected unless you just don’t watch.
AB’s problem isn’t his opinion on advertising. It’s that he can’t not sound like an elitist snob when discussing it. The is smug, but it doesn’t make him wrong.
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### Author:  [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2014, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yknow-f-ck-netflix-some-more/685495/90 "2014-04-11T10:10:40Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> And when a “TV program” leaves me as baffled as to its popularity as GOT, I’m going to ask… and when the answer is “You just don’t get it, do you?” I’m going to roll my eyes quite loudly.
Oops; okay, you don’t like _Game of Thrones_. My bad. I have never watched it and have no interest in it, so I don’t read the GOT threads here.
> [@](#):
>
> Anything else? Here’s your lollipop now.
I don’t know why you think handing out lollipops is an act of shaming. Lollipops are delicious, just like Nutella.
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