I lost my dad to Fox News: How a generation was captured by thrashing hysteria
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Re: I lost my dad to Fox News: How a generation was captured by thrashing hysteria
#2I lost my brother to this also, but he's only 40 and it started much longer ago and with talk radio (Limbaugh, Hannity, etc). I'm in the process of losing my 72 year old mother to it too.
I remember as a family we listened to Bob Grant and he seems tame by comparison to the hosts of today. What a slippery slope... Thankfully, I saved myself from this sort of thinking, but it's sad to not really be able to talk to my family.
Re: I lost my dad to Fox News: How a generation was captured by thrashing hysteria
#3Why was Fox News so able to induce such hysteria in these people, though? (Admittedly, that's less comfortable to think about than just complaining about what Fox does.)
Re: I lost my dad to Fox News: How a generation was captured by thrashing hysteria
#4Might this just be an example of someone who is getting old and cranky?
As you get older things start to change and it's harder to move with the times and the world doesn't seem to make so much sense; so it's comforting to consume media that tells you that it isn't your fault but the rest of the world.
Re: I lost my dad to Fox News: How a generation was captured by thrashing hysteria
#5Addiction really is the operating word here. It's what keeps you in front of the TV in the same way it keeps people in front of slot machines. The worst part is the thesis of conservative media; that while you do everything right, some nebulous liberal agenda is taking away everything that you hold dear, and are entitled to as a working person (ignoring all information regarding demographics and welfare recipients). Fox News makes good money off of convincing people who feel they are victims of the world at large that they are in fact autonomous conservatives/libertarians.
Re: I lost my dad to Fox News: How a generation was captured by thrashing hysteria
#6Some of us are terrified of an ever-more invasive government, welfare progams that only ever seem to be welfare for corporations, and the destruction of the important american myth of hard work == success. Some of us keep listening to lies and dreams from an increasingly despotic asshole while american prosperity drifts away. You've lost yourself in fantasyland, not the other way around.
Re: I lost my dad to Fox News: How a generation was captured by thrashing hysteria
#7Fox News is a reasonable focal point for this piece, but it's only one small contributing factor. The sad thing is that purveyors of fear and distrust are all over the internet. I lost my dad to some combination of Glen Beck, Fox News, and the "Gold, Guns, and God" crowd.
I caught glimpses of it via his emails from time to time. The first major one being links to radiation pills after Fukushima. Then the obsession with silver hit -- no one in my family knows how much or where he has buried his stashes in our two acre yard, but we know there are at least 4. Then the fear of drones hit, evidenced by my dad saying he was mowing the lawn as a "dog and pony show" for the eyes in the sky. Then the internet had to be disconnected because neighbors might be hacking him. Then the telephone was unplugged because it was bugged. Then he started making my mom write messages to him on paper in the house since the house was bugged. Then he had a restraining order put on him by a preacher who was so unnerved by his ranting. During this whole process he was convinced he was being led by the Holy Spirit and threatened my mom if she told anyone about it.
Things went down hill so fast that I'm still shaken by it. I had to work with my family to get him committed on Christmas Eve.
Maybe this is TMI, but hopefully some will see it as a warning. If you see someone you love going down that slippery slope of paranoia, don't hesitate to talk to them about it at first, and get advice from a trained psychologists if things get worse. Love the person, ignore the content of their ideas... maybe you can help prevent a breakdown.
Re: I lost my dad to Fox News: How a generation was captured by thrashing hysteria
#8Why was Fox News so able to induce such hysteria in these people, though? (Admittedly, that's less comfortable to think about than just complaining about what Fox does.)
It leveraged the News's status as an integral part of the democratic process to undermine and influence that process.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent:_The_Poli... covers the how.
Re: I lost my dad to Fox News: How a generation was captured by thrashing hysteria
#9Some of us are terrified of an ever-more invasive government, welfare progams that only ever seem to be welfare for corporations, and the destruction of the important american myth of hard work == success. Some of us keep listening to lies and dreams from an increasingly despotic asshole while american prosperity drifts away. You've lost yourself in fantasyland, not the other way around.
Your diet must be very Fox News heavy.
Re: I lost my dad to Fox News: How a generation was captured by thrashing hysteria
#10I find the father and the writer to be insufferable. The father for, as portrayed, his clutching ignorance, the writer for being a born-again snob.