More proof reality tv is NOT reality

http://www.adn.com/2012/06/13/2503784/despondent-california-man-leaps.html

A California man with unrealized dreams of working in the Alaska fishing industry stole a taxicab, drove through security at the Port of Anchorage and jumped to his death from a fuel tank early Wednesday, police said.

<snip>

"He was despondent and possibly thinking about hurting himself," Parker said. "He came to Alaska because he had watched the 'Deadliest Catch' on television, and he was expecting to get a job in the fishing industry."

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People keep asking me why I am not a fan of any of the shows based on Alaska on TV, and this is why. No, I don't blame them for this person's death - he was obviously disturbed and that's no one's fault really, but I DO blame these shows for pushing an already skewed view of Alaska even more off the mark. Even "Sarah Palin's Alaska" was totally unalaskan, and yes she worked with Mitch Seavey on one of her episodes.

Alaska is an AMAZING place, and I wouldn't live anywhere else, but REALITY TV IS UNREALITY - be it jersey shore or deadliest catch. Life in AK is not all $$, a women's pick of men, or adventure. There's crappy weather, no sun for most of the year, and those jobs on most of those reality shows? Super hard to get, and most don't even hire IN ALASKA - commercial fishing, unless you know someone already in teh industry, is based out of Seattle, WA.

Into the Wild - the movie about the guy who came here without a plan to live off the wild and died - glorified stupidity. Alaskan life is not a joke. It's not this idealized live off the land blah blah blah look how fun it is. The guy died because he was unprepared and had no respect for the Alaska wilderness. Same for the Alaska bear dude who got *gasp* mauled and eaten by the bears he loved.

I kinda wish people would just go back to believing we're just a block of ice and we all wear fur parkas and live in igloos...

/rant lol

I hear you, Toni! The prevalence of moronic, suggestible behavior can really get depressing. I think because Alaska has such a unique lifestyle and such an extreme climate, you probably get some of the worst of it. Nobody wakes up one day and says, "Yeah! I want to go find riches and adventure in Ohio!" (No offense to those of you in Ohio.) If you think about it, for almost a hundred years, gullible young women have headed to Hollywood to become movie stars, and even in the 1920s that dream could lead to some pretty bad outcomes. But at least in California, these girls could wake up, get a job as a car hop or a manicurist or even as a wardrobe department worker in a studio. (There were less savory jobs too, of course, but those weren't inevitable.) Los Angeles was an urban area with a diversified economy. The weather was decent, so aspiring screen goddesses would be less likely to die of exposure if they slept in their cars. And generally, the most dangerous animals were of the human variety.

With Alaska, the beauty and the danger of the place are pretty much from the same source: the setting itself. The terrain is mostly wild and unpopulated. The low population (with first dibs on whatever jobs are available unless the employer outsources to Seattle) means there won't always be someone around when a newcomer wanders off. There are bears bigger than people, not to mention other predators. (As I understand it, no snakes however. Whew!) There's weather extreme enough so that a trip to North Dakota might be considered a Riviera vacation.

Unfortunately, a lot of birdbrains don't pay attention to that. They see stardom and/or adventure in their futures. Maybe the real problem is that people who watch too much TV start thinking that all life is a kind of manicured theme park, and all they have to do is show up to get the gold. Are Americans unusually lacking in common sense, or is this an international weakness?

In Alaska it's an international moronism. We have a lot of homeless from not just the US and Canada but Russia, several Asian countries, and several European countries.

A lot of the issue is no one wants the entry level, pays minimum wage jobs. They claim it's unfair that they actually have to *gasp* WORK THEIR WAY UP. They want the millions of dollars they see Deadlist Catch guys get... um, yeah, they had to work the slime line at first, too. Suck it up princess or go home!