Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search
63 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
FOX has done to our parents what our parents thought video games would do to us. (Original Post) NightWatcher Jun 2019 OP
If only up up down down left right left right b a start tymorial Jun 2019 #1
Their viewers are all Stepford wives and husbands. Funtatlaguy Jun 2019 #2
K&R. nt tblue37 Jun 2019 #3
Good one malaise Jun 2019 #4
Worse than toothpaste. Caliman73 Jun 2019 #5
I remember when Fox News first came on the scene Skittles Jun 2019 #7
They knew what they were doing. Caliman73 Jun 2019 #36
I have to say Skittles Jun 2019 #37
You are unfortunately correct. They cannot accept that progress and change are inevitable. Caliman73 Jun 2019 #38
It's not just change - they refuse to see the world as it is. LisaM Jun 2019 #59
Well said! Black and white it is, gobbling up spoon-fed nonsense and lies about liberals. machoneman Jun 2019 #48
I also remember when Fox 5 DC first came on the scene Maggiemayhem Jun 2019 #60
So no young people watch Fox? murielm99 Jun 2019 #6
And all parents watch Fox? wasupaloopa Jun 2019 #8
NPR & PBS are about as right-wing as I go. Crowman2009 Jun 2019 #28
they don't watch cable news or even linear TV to begin with pstokely Jun 2019 #44
No. Act_of_Reparation Jun 2019 #46
Not many -nt Bradical79 Jun 2019 #47
Of course they do Maggiemayhem Jun 2019 #61
Doh! JohnnyRingo Jun 2019 #9
IMO, Faux News is the venue of the grandparents RainCaster Jun 2019 #10
If only you were correct. GulfCoast66 Jun 2019 #21
SHIT! I thought this was over and done with. I'm 60... RainCaster Jun 2019 #31
Florida has a unique problem no one realizes. GulfCoast66 Jun 2019 #34
No, you don't. I have relatives well short of retirement who disprove that theory. JHB Jun 2019 #26
LOL Scurrilous Jun 2019 #11
Depends how old your parents are. My mom and dad are FDR Democrats. YOHABLO Jun 2019 #12
OMG wryter2000 Jun 2019 #13
I've been playing video games just about since they were first invented. Stonepounder Jun 2019 #14
Both my parents infinite_wisdom Jun 2019 #15
Rupert Murdoch has done more damage to America than Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and ISIS sop Jun 2019 #53
FOX and hate radio have turned friends and family members into strangers..."addicted to anger"... FailureToCommunicate Jun 2019 #16
"FOX viewers have turned friends and family members into strangers..."addicted to anger"..." pazzyanne Jun 2019 #18
A good read ck4829 Jun 2019 #25
The article really explains so well what we sense is happening to those unfortunate FailureToCommunicate Jun 2019 #63
Minty fresh? snort Jun 2019 #17
All joshing aside, very insightful. . . . nt Bernardo de La Paz Jun 2019 #19
Parents could set time limits or take away the games ProudLib72 Jun 2019 #20
Certain people when they visit their Fox addicted parents Maggiemayhem Jun 2019 #62
i had a friend of mine who was a regular fan of flush rimshod. AllaN01Bear Jun 2019 #22
K&R. n/t Different Drummer Jun 2019 #23
K&R ck4829 Jun 2019 #24
Ahem ... umm, some parents. KPN Jun 2019 #27
My Dad died in 1997 but he used to watch Rush in the afternoons. kimbutgar Jun 2019 #29
a rightwing coworker quit Rush when Rush trashed Chelsea Clinton Skittles Jun 2019 #32
Exactly kimbutgar Jun 2019 #35
Murdoch is worse than any Terrorist. Dawson Leery Jun 2019 #30
Fox Aussie105 Jun 2019 #33
..👍🏼"Just that feeling of comfort, " uponit7771 Jun 2019 #41
I love the fact that RW TV is replete with con artist religious types..... machoneman Jun 2019 #50
Excellent observation. n/t Laelth Jun 2019 #39
K&R uponit7771 Jun 2019 #40
Toothpaste is a healthy, useful product TruckFump Jun 2019 #42
Fox new needs to be outlawed as hate speech... Joe941 Jun 2019 #43
Agreed! Raster Jun 2019 #45
Good observation. Pepsidog Jun 2019 #49
My parents, and my wife's parents, are still the Social Justice Democrats they've always been. hunter Jun 2019 #51
So true... BlueJac Jun 2019 #52
A shame too. There are far more important things to do then have the TV tell you blah...blah... SWBTATTReg Jun 2019 #54
Lucky Me DownriverDem Jun 2019 #55
Rush Limbaugh was there first FakeNoose Jun 2019 #56
So true Ohioboy Jun 2019 #57
Not to my parents it didn't! DFW Jun 2019 #58

Caliman73

(11,666 posts)
5. Worse than toothpaste.
Tue Jun 11, 2019, 07:35 PM
Jun 2019

It is a bit of apples to oranges but I get with Marshall is saying. My parents actually never said anything about "video games rotting your brain" to me. I played Atari, and spent time at the arcades, but playing video games was never a paramount activity for me. My oldest son played/plays video games as do my younger children. My wife and I try to go out of our way (as I did with my oldest) to make sure that some of the messaging behind video games did not promote unrealistic images about women, violence, etc...

The difference with Fox News is that the specific and sole purpose of Fox News is to alter the reality of its viewers. I mean video games have a message, they almost all and almost always do. You can argue that Grand Theft sends horrible messages about crime, women, etc... Studies have also shown that exposure to those messages can desensitize people to violence if they are particularly vulnerable. Again, the difference with Fox is that it is DESIGNED to indoctrinate viewers to reject any other source of information and to view the conservative viewpoint as the only valid viewpoint. The biggest danger about video games is that they can interfere with other types of activity like physical activities, academic activities (reading, math, science, etc...), and social activities like talking with people face to face, which are necessary to become well rounded people. The makers of Grand Theft Auto are not telling gamers that GTA is the ONLY game they should play and everything else is a conspiracy. That is what Fox does.

I would much rather have a toothpaste brained teen around the house than a completely brainwashed, delusional, person who only watches Fox.

Skittles

(152,918 posts)
7. I remember when Fox News first came on the scene
Tue Jun 11, 2019, 07:53 PM
Jun 2019

it took me less than 30 minutes to realize it was nothing but rightwing garbage....I could see it was propaganda but I did not even think it was very well done. It astounds me that so many fell for it, just like how they were conned by Trump. They are not master manipulaters, it's just that their fans are fucking STUPID

Caliman73

(11,666 posts)
36. They knew what they were doing.
Wed Jun 12, 2019, 01:16 AM
Jun 2019

It had been planned for decades before the actual launch. They had basis in history with Father Coughlin. Though Coughlin would have been considered from the opposite side of the political side than Republicans, he is an example of how mass media could be effective in gathering large audiences.

I don't think that people necessarily "fell for it" but rather, it fit with their preconceived ideas and so they just kept listening. There certainly are people who were more moderate or even left of center who through repeated exposure, probably changed. The documentary "The Brainwashing of My Dad" by Jen Senko illustrated nicely/scarily how her father went from an inclusive moderate Democrat to a hardcore conservative. Even though Fox's viewership is not incredibly large, they are pretty insulated. There was a study that showed that while Democrats typically received their information from an average of 6 sources, something like 77% of Republicans received their information from one source ... Fox News. It is a problem of both source and audience.

I imagine that conservatives felt pretty "under attack" by reality prior to the emergence of Fox News because news was typically reported factually and in a way that had a minimum of bias, however information is information and typically reports on change and progress, which is anathema to conservatives, especially if it means the empowerment of women and minorities. They needed a safe space and Fox gave it to them. It gave them a space from which to say, "See, everything else is liberal and against us, against truth". Democrats live in a complex world which we navigate by consuming as much information as we can. Conservatives want to, and thanks to Fox, can live in a world of black and white, yes or no, right and wrong; which is tailored to their held beliefs.

Skittles

(152,918 posts)
37. I have to say
Wed Jun 12, 2019, 01:37 AM
Jun 2019

if you get all your news from one source, that right there shows your limitations -- how stupid would you have to be? Fox fans are racist assholes who just cannot fathom that the world is actually changing.

Caliman73

(11,666 posts)
38. You are unfortunately correct. They cannot accept that progress and change are inevitable.
Wed Jun 12, 2019, 01:40 AM
Jun 2019

It isn't necessarily stupidity, but fear. Prolonged fear does bad things to a person's psyche. Right wingers learned to channel that fear into anger and into an insulated bubble where they and they alone can make sense of a changing world.

LisaM

(27,748 posts)
59. It's not just change - they refuse to see the world as it is.
Wed Jun 12, 2019, 06:09 PM
Jun 2019

The keyword is "world". They don't want to see a wider world. These are insular people.

They don't even want to see the country as it is.

machoneman

(3,941 posts)
48. Well said! Black and white it is, gobbling up spoon-fed nonsense and lies about liberals.
Wed Jun 12, 2019, 12:29 PM
Jun 2019

Even something as insignificant (in my mind) as the "now we can say Merry Christmas again" shows the depths of Fox-like propaganda these folks eat up every day. Critical thinking is NOT one of the genes any Trumpian inherited either. Better to follow HairLeader than think that what he said is nonsense, a lie, a deceit and more. Oh no, if its on Fox and Trumpy said it, it's Gospel Truth!

Maggiemayhem

(804 posts)
60. I also remember when Fox 5 DC first came on the scene
Wed Jun 12, 2019, 07:08 PM
Jun 2019

when Murdoch and Ailes took over. News came on at 10 instead of 11. That’s how they brainwashed the seniors.

RainCaster

(10,585 posts)
10. IMO, Faux News is the venue of the grandparents
Tue Jun 11, 2019, 08:24 PM
Jun 2019

You have to be beyond retirement age to believe that shit.

GulfCoast66

(11,949 posts)
21. If only you were correct.
Tue Jun 11, 2019, 09:42 PM
Jun 2019

I know lots of people my age bracket who live by it.

And I am in my young 50s.

RainCaster

(10,585 posts)
31. SHIT! I thought this was over and done with. I'm 60...
Tue Jun 11, 2019, 10:15 PM
Jun 2019

and I thought that this shit would be pushed back to those another decade beyond me. It appears that KY and FL have been pushing this idea that foreign dictators are better than our Cheetoh Tweeter.

GulfCoast66

(11,949 posts)
34. Florida has a unique problem no one realizes.
Tue Jun 11, 2019, 10:31 PM
Jun 2019

For every one old white conservative that dies, 2 more move into the state into hellholes like the Villages.

So every year we get out of fresh reinforcement of old white bigots. And I am a white guy rapidly approaching the old category! If not for them, we would be purple to solid blue. Realize these are rich or upper middle class immigrants. And they all vote!

Some people are saying that many also vote in their home states in the Midwest as well. This is voter fraud we need to look into.

But we are doing our part to make the Midwest more Blue. And Obama won here both times. The right democrat can win here.

JHB

(37,122 posts)
26. No, you don't. I have relatives well short of retirement who disprove that theory.
Tue Jun 11, 2019, 09:55 PM
Jun 2019

There's a kind of dark charisma to the idea that "we know the real deal, unlike those dopes who just go along with what they're told".

That can be very attractive to people who think "things just don't add up" by presenting things in a way that, on first encounter, does seem to explain things. If it stokes their biases and they don't have an inclination to gnaw on it for a while until they notice "that doesn't add up either", they're liable to swallow it whole.

Not exclusive to FOX, but it is the FOX business model.

 

YOHABLO

(7,358 posts)
12. Depends how old your parents are. My mom and dad are FDR Democrats.
Tue Jun 11, 2019, 08:31 PM
Jun 2019

However, my mom, especially, watches MSNBC nightly till after 11:00 pm. She's 85 and is still very lively and active. She knows more of what's going on politically than your average U.S. citizen.

Stonepounder

(4,033 posts)
14. I've been playing video games just about since they were first invented.
Tue Jun 11, 2019, 08:42 PM
Jun 2019

So, for about 50 years now. I met my wife in a MUD. At the time she was living in KY and I was living in CA. That was over 20 years ago. I love dungeon crawls and hack and slash MMO's. Been playing Elder Scrolls Online for a couple of years now.

And, you know what, I don't own a gun, won't allow one in my home. Am a proud ultra-liberal Democrat.

So video games didn't warp me the way FOX News warps people who watch it!

 

infinite_wisdom

(73 posts)
15. Both my parents
Tue Jun 11, 2019, 08:50 PM
Jun 2019

Last edited Wed Jun 12, 2019, 07:12 AM - Edit history (1)

followed the same pattern.

They were sane. They retired. They started watching Fox News. They were no longer sane.

The behavior is the behavior of an addict. If they visit, they immediately ask to turn on Fox News. If I don’t, they go behind my back and get sneaky to watch it.

I took my Mom to Hawaii a few years ago. I said we are not going to waste time watching that crap. I wake up at 3 AM and I see her in front of the TV watching Fox News. I bring it up the next day and she denied doing it, even though I stood there watching her doing it.

Last week she told me they investigated Trump and found he did nothing wrong.

Murdock is evil. Those shows are designed somehow someway to be addictive, to stimulate dopamine or whatever so these people have to get their outrage fix.

FailureToCommunicate

(13,968 posts)
16. FOX and hate radio have turned friends and family members into strangers..."addicted to anger"...
Tue Jun 11, 2019, 08:57 PM
Jun 2019

Last edited Tue Jun 11, 2019, 10:28 PM - Edit history (1)

"Addicted to Anger" article in the Boston Globe from May:

http://c.o0bg.com/ideas/2019/05/01/are-addicted-anger/SkrH8k390jgtkY0JBObJ0K/story.html

pazzyanne

(6,501 posts)
18. "FOX viewers have turned friends and family members into strangers..."addicted to anger"..."
Tue Jun 11, 2019, 09:26 PM
Jun 2019

Add victimhood to that and I'll agree 100%.

FailureToCommunicate

(13,968 posts)
63. The article really explains so well what we sense is happening to those unfortunate
Thu Jun 13, 2019, 12:35 PM
Jun 2019

souls...

letting down their guard, they become... FOX-ified pod people.





ProudLib72

(17,984 posts)
20. Parents could set time limits or take away the games
Tue Jun 11, 2019, 09:38 PM
Jun 2019

Too bad there is no adult in America who can do the same for Fox.

AllaN01Bear

(17,065 posts)
22. i had a friend of mine who was a regular fan of flush rimshod.
Tue Jun 11, 2019, 09:44 PM
Jun 2019

i would play tease him by saying your poor polluted brain.funny thats what they said about rock and roll too also.

kimbutgar

(20,764 posts)
29. My Dad died in 1997 but he used to watch Rush in the afternoons.
Tue Jun 11, 2019, 10:11 PM
Jun 2019

One day I came over and he didn’t have it on and my Dad said he was a crazy fascist racist and wouldn’t watch him anymore.

I’m glad he is not alive today to see fat donnie as president. He thought he was a low life scum.

Skittles

(152,918 posts)
32. a rightwing coworker quit Rush when Rush trashed Chelsea Clinton
Tue Jun 11, 2019, 10:16 PM
Jun 2019

He asked, "What kind of man trashes a 12 year old girl?"

Aussie105

(5,172 posts)
33. Fox
Tue Jun 11, 2019, 10:19 PM
Jun 2019

Some people watch Fox because the world is a confusing place and they want some certainty and understanding of the complexity of it all.

Introduce a talking head who tells them what to think, with a layer of 'Trust me, I know what I am talking about!' and they are hooked.

No, it doesn't need to make sense. Just that feeling of comfort, of being on the winning side.

But it's not just Fox.
Some con artists have donned a thin mantle of religiosity and made a fortune out of (mis)leading the sheeple out there.
Sunday morning seems to be the time for them to be on TV.

I've watched a bit of Fox. Makes me want to puke. I get the same reaction when I watch a few minutes of the early Sunday morning evangelicals. Same-Same.

machoneman

(3,941 posts)
50. I love the fact that RW TV is replete with con artist religious types.....
Wed Jun 12, 2019, 12:35 PM
Jun 2019

"But it's not just Fox. Some con artists have donned a thin mantle of religiosity and made a fortune out of (mis)leading the sheeple out there. Sunday morning seems to be the time for them to be on TV.

Yes, I say fleece the shit out of those RW asshole Trump supporters. Take their 401K money, SS payments, etc. Minimizing their wealth is great for our cause as they have less money to throw at winger politicians. I hope they end up broke and in the streets long before they meet the Devil in Hell! Zero compassion for these clown and their evil politicians, I say!

hunter

(38,240 posts)
51. My parents, and my wife's parents, are still the Social Justice Democrats they've always been.
Wed Jun 12, 2019, 02:12 PM
Jun 2019

Some might call them Social Justice Warriors.

If the U.S.A. turns into a Nazi Republican Fascist hell my parents and my siblings are all going to the re-education camps unless we've already skedaddled on out of here.

All my ancestors landed in America in the 19th century and ran straight into the wilderness because the places they came from had turned into shit holes intolerant of religious and political dissent.

Some of them were just one or two steps ahead of the law, abusive husbands or families, and rotten governments that meant to conscript them.

My wife has ancestors who were forced out of their lands into Mexico by the U.S. Army. Had they stayed it's likely they would have been killed. Their descendants returned as Mexican "immigrant" farm workers. One of my wife's grandmothers never forgot or forgave the injustice. She had her green card, she owned her own home here in California, she had a comfortable pension, but she refused citizenship many decades until her death, far beyond the point it became socially awkward for her family, and an extreme nuisance whenever she was returning to the U.S.A. after family visits to relatives in Mexico.



SWBTATTReg

(21,811 posts)
54. A shame too. There are far more important things to do then have the TV tell you blah...blah...
Wed Jun 12, 2019, 03:54 PM
Jun 2019

blah...

I tell my folks to get outside and enjoy the weather, do things, get away from the damn TV. It's ridiculous on how much time and energy people spend in watching literally what I call the idiot box (TV).

Don't you have anything better to do than have someone else tell you what to believe? That's what I told my parents and they agreed with me. My mom in particular, she' very hostile to anyone telling her what to do.

That's what we need to do, emphasize that they're letting someone else tell them what to do...most seniors I know getting riled up when you accuse them of this. I guess it is a sign of when our folks get older and they go into a reverse childhood phase, where as we (as the pseudo parents) have to educate our parents on turning off the damn TV (or watch the good shows on PBS instead) and do other things.

FakeNoose

(32,202 posts)
56. Rush Limbaugh was there first
Wed Jun 12, 2019, 04:23 PM
Jun 2019

I think Limbaugh created the pattern for right-wing hate radio and Faux came along 10 years later and changed the format to television. But the audience was already there and Faux knew it.

Ohioboy

(3,209 posts)
57. So true
Wed Jun 12, 2019, 04:58 PM
Jun 2019

My poor mom believes everything she hears on FOX. It's very sad. She used to think for herself.

Her latest FOX induced delusion is that AOC wants to take away everyone's car with the New Green Deal.

DFW

(53,932 posts)
58. Not to my parents it didn't!
Wed Jun 12, 2019, 05:37 PM
Jun 2019

My dad (second from left) was the one being honored here, and got kudos afterward from the big guy in the middle for it. One of the last great one-horse town print correspondents in Washington.
[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»FOX has done to our paren...