Have you lost family members to Fox News?

[LongTomH]

I also lost my father to Fox News is a response to a Salon mag article.: I lost my dad to Fox News: How a generation was captured by thrashing hysteria. Here are some excerpts:

Father Lost to Fox, from PA-C:

My grandparents were pacifist Mennonites. Until they started watching FoxNews.

I was unaware of the change until I saw an 8x10 picture of George and Laura hung prominently in their kitchen.
"Grandma," I said. "Why do you have this?" knowing full well they had to have donated to the campaign to get it.
"I just think he is a good, godly man."
"He started two wars."
"I know, I know..."

Father Lost to Fox:

Let’s call it the Fox News effect. Take sweet, kindly senior citizens and feed them a steady stream of demagoguery and repetition, all wrapped in the laughable slogan of “fair and balanced.” Even watching the commercials on Fox, one is treated to sales pitches for gold and emergency food rations, the product cornerstones of the paranoid.

Father Lost to Fox, from tigercrane:

This happened to my stepfather, too. He was never a nice man, but as he got older he became more and more hateful. Milton Friedman was a gateway drug to him in the 1980s; by the end of the 1990s he only watched Fox News and listened to Rush Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy. He stopped going to movies because they were made by liberals. He and my mother had planned a tour of Europe for several years, but he backed out because he didn't want to go among European liberals. He had grown up in a moderately conservative church, but he started espousing far-right religious views that hadn't been a part of his upbringing. He made himself into a virtual prisoner in his own home, with Fox News blaring from the television all day. It was disturbing to see, and rather sad how he cut himself off from life like that.

Father Lost to Fox, from Milestone0425:

I lost my dad the same way...[W]hat's been most upsetting is seeing my father, a former professor and bio-medical researcher, reject clear and overwhelming scientific evidence for things such as climate change and evolution because of all the negative reenforcement of people like Rush and Sean Hannity. He has come to trust pundits more than the scientific community for which he was a part of for 40 years.

The comments on the Daily Kos article are just as tragic. I can relate; I have cousins that have Fox on the TV all the time. One cousin has a copy of Glenn Becks Agenda 21 on a reading stand, like a devotional. There my cousins, so I feel obligated to visit; but, I dread each visit and I'm so glad to leave.

I wonder how much the fact that this generation came of age during the Cold War has to do with making them susceptible to this kind of paranoid demagoguery?

[JaneyVee]

1. The bite from a FOX can cause rabies which causes...

Hallucinations, confusion, and foaming from the mouth.

[Initech]

3. And it's contagious.

I've seen friends, relatives, neighbors and coworkers succumb to the Fox News virus. They freak out when they visit my place and find that I have it blocked from my receiver.

[Aerows]

2. Yes, my sister went from borderline sensible

to stark raving lunatic. I talked to her on the phone the other day and got a dose of some of the craziest shit I've heard outside of teabaggers.

I concluded it was useless to even try to debate it because it was all said with the fervency of the newly converted to the cult.

[rickford66]

4. I stole this from someone on DU. Please forgive me.

"Its hard to win an argument with a smart person, but damn near impossible with a stupid person."

[COLGATE4]

11. A paraphrase in the same vein from another great DU posi:

"Trying to win an argument with a conservative is like playing chess with a Pigeon - all that happens is that they knock over the pieces, crap on the board and strut off convinced that they've won".

[rickford66]

12. I'll steal that also. Thanks.

[napkinz]

19. ...

[COLGATE4]

20. That's the One! Thanks!!!

[DFW]

5. Back in the days before the wall came down

The parts of the old East Germany where people were "linientreu," or were most likely to believe the propaganda fed to them by the East German government, were in the far southeastern corner of Saxony, where reception of West German radio and TV was poor or impossible.

In the USA, walling one's self off from all but extremist propaganda is voluntary, but the brainwashing effects are just as severe. There is one difference, though. I was around to see East German TV, and watched plenty of it when I was in Hannover and Berlin before November, 1989. The difference is that East German TV was MILD compared to Fox "News." Fox reminds me of the hysterical tone of old Nazi-era newsreels. They are just about as loyal to reality, too, with a few minor exceptions.

People would do well to remember Fox "News" chief Roger Ailes when interviewed at the launch of his station: "We have an agenda." It was the truest, most sincere statement he made in public before or since. They DO have an agenda. The quotes of the people in the Kos article should serve as chilling reminders of just how successful that agenda has been.

If Fox tells people to go shoot up family planning clinics, some of them will. If Fox tells people to plant explosive devices in the cars and houses of prominent Democrats, some of them will. If Fox tells people to do anything in their power, legal or otherwise, to prevent Democrats from voting on election day, or even registering to vote, some of them will. If Fox tells people to donate their net worth to the Republican Party, some (MANY!) of them will. If Fox tells people to jump off the 25th floor of buildings to protest "liberals," some of them will even do that.

It is long past the point of "influence." Fox is doing brainwashing. It's legal and they are good at it.

In Germany, the one main restriction on "free speech" is that anything resembling Nazi propaganda is forbidden. Fox does not broadcast here (they'd love to). There is a reason for that. The fact that they ARE allowed to broadcast in the USA does not mean the country should ignore the danger Fox poses.

[hollysmom]

6. how does brainwashing work on FOX?

Ihave an ongoing argument about this with some conservative people
1. using specific words or phrases and have very host and guest on every show use the same limited vocabulary, becoming obvious when Steve Ducey, one of the dumbest, was asking where his memo was on what word to use.
I think it makes the big lie easier to implant in the watchers brain - same words over and over all day long.

I just had a long argument with a conservative on the use of the word thug - which means someone that viciously attacks or murders another person. They were using the new N word to describe the protestors and I demanded to know what they were referring to because peaceful people are not thugs in any stretch of the word,. They countered back that they were rioters - so I mentioned that an attack against a store is not an attack against a person no matter how much you revere Mitt Romney. Then I was accused of picking nits. If you don't use a word correctly how are you able to communicate - ugh hate the idiots who fell for this anger drug. At least I have one friend who no longer admits to watching FOX, she does it but lies about it, so she has some shame, maybe next we can get her to turn off some shows. I try to get her out and away from TV whenever possible.

[DFW]

7. One bit of brainwashing is convincing their viewers that they are "conservative."

They should look up the definition of the word some day. They'll get a shock. Being "conservative" means taking a slow, cautious approach to things, being measured in your responses, etc. You know, like, well, let's see, who does that remind you of? Oh, yeah. The guy's name is Obama.

I tell Foxsuckers that I have been with the same woman for 41 years, happily married for the last 33 of them, worked for the same outfit for 40 years, have two normal, well-adjusted, drug-free kids who earn their own living. I have no debts, do no drugs, not even nicotine or alcohol. and never buy stuff to impress people or stuff I can't afford. In other words I am CONSERVATIVE. But I disagree with everything I hear on Fox because they LIE and they espouse point of view that are anything but "conservative." I am anybut but "A consrvative" as their channel defines it, but their definition is nothing like the word "conservative" as it is defined in English--you know, that language Republicans so fervently defend as the official language of the United States.

So, when I say "conservative," I use the word as defined in English, not Foxese.

The same goes for "liberal." In Foxese, the word means "dirty Democrat." In English, it refers to someone who respects freedom of thought, generosity. A friend of mine from England was visiting the USA a few years ago. Her hosts in Virginia asked her about her politics, and immediately labeled her "liberal." As she had the impression they were rather hostile to her points of view, she was pleasantly surprised at being called "liberal," and thanked them for the compliment. Both parties were thoroughly confused, as her hosts had meant to insult her, but used a term that was a compliment in her native language (English). She is from southeastern England (Kent, to be exact), and speaks only English, and no Foxese.

[hollysmom]

15. it is all about misusing words and misquoting bibles and mis- any and everything

I always considered conservative to be pro conserving things, yet the republicans are the biggest wasters.
conservation to save the earth - nope, destroy in swaths, we will just move somewhere else after we despoil our planet - heh reminds me about how Leaky thought gorillas were doomed because they pooped in their beds.

conserve money - yet manage to waste it on so many idiotic things. Like that Sheriff in Arizona - saves by serving rotten food to prisoners, but is constantly settling millions of dollars in law suits for is unconstitutional ways. in congress - there is not a military contractor (who might hire them after an elections) they don't believe in the next wasteful answer to the question no one cares about. or wasteful law suits for frivolous cases and political gain

or how about reducing the dept of agriculture food inspection money as food born diseases are on the rise? hey if their customers die, they will go out of business, free market works.

Or save every baby, but then refuse them medical care both before and after birth.

[JHB]

13. Even more stark is their use of socialist/socialism/marxism...

...which is applied to anything that interferes with absolute, might-makes-right, greed-is-good, laissez-faire capitalism.

Conveniently erased by the way they talk is the fact that if they applied their own current definitions to US policies and economy during the Cold War, they would be calling them "socialist", even "marxist".

You can't have a drumbeat if you admit that there's more than one kind of capitalism (nor, for that matter, if you allow that "socialism" doesn't necessarily equate to "Warsaw Pact police state&quot .

[ileus]

8. My father died last week but not because of Fox news.

[riderinthestorm]

9. Yes, my mom...

A sane, educated woman transformed into a O'Reilly-bot.

[metalbot]

10. There's a chicken and egg problem

And it isn't completely clear that Fox is the chicken or the egg, but their decision to camp firmly on the right is part of the problem. Is Fox driving the republican party to the right, or is the republican party driving Fox to the right?

I've not lost family to Fox news, because I can coexist with people who have irrational beliefs. Nearly everyone has irrational beliefs about something, and I would not want irrational beliefs to get in the way of the human relationship that I want with my family and coworkers.

Politics as a whole does bad things to human rationality (independently of whether those politics are right or left). There is an excellent series on lesswrong that discusses why politics is so toxic to rationality. In essence, they argue that politics for many people becomes an extension of war via ideas, and once people pick sides, they don't want to disagree with any idea on their side, because then they would "not be supporting their soldiers". Only you start believing just a few things irrationally in politics, it's easier to believe other things irrationally.

http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Politics_is_the_Mind-Killer

[ScreamingMeemie]

14. My father is 70, and he is the guy who kicks up a fuss to get FOX News turned off

at his doctor's office. He is the guy who lectured his night nurse on the benefits of the ACA. He is the guy who is tuned in to what is going on and won't shut up about it... even in bars here in Texas. I love my dad.

[Ron Green]

16. They come for the thighs,

and stay for the lies.

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. sounds like brainwashing

[cherokeeprogressive]

18. Nnnnnnope. I love my family, don't care what they listen to when I'm not around and...

when we're together we're too busy enjoying each others' company to talk politics.

[romanic]

21. I don't have any close family members who watch Fox.

But I did switch doctors once when the waiting room is basically a hub for Fox News. Everytime I came in I'd heard that moron Megyn Kelly or Sean Hannity drone on while waiting. I didn't want to kick up a fuss and ask the receptionist to change the channel so I just took it in stride. The final straw was my old doctor ranting away about Obamacare while I was being examined. I don't need to hear politics at the doc's office!

To make a long story short, I changed doctors and am getting better care - and i can afford it thanks to Obamacare!

[Thornleylv]

22. My father was a liberal news anchorman and Democrat

who believed in social issues and was in the broadcasters Union. He was a city commissioner and ran for governor on the democratic ticket. Now he watches Fox News all day except for his nightly Jeopardy Show. He is 97, God bless him, and when his retired fellow journalist ask him where he gets most of his news he tells them anything but FOX so I know he feels guilty about his obsession. I'm his caregiver and I always admired him and still do because I know the man I knew is still in there somewhere. He rails against Obama Care and yet several of his children would be without any insurance or would still be locked into a job they did not like without it. Sometimes when I walk into the room he will quickly turn the channel to CNN or the weather channel so I won't see him watching the thighs and lies. It is sad to see the man I once looked up to reduce himself to that propaganda which he should be aware of coming from broadcast news himself. Very Sad.

[LWolf]

23. No.

But then, that's probably because I raised my family to think for themselves, and they weren't conditioned to follow the news on tv or radio as they grew up.

Neither was I.