Getting Past Hating Fox News
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I was just reading a Medium essay about a man who felt he had “lost his mother” to FOX News. His story paralleled that told in the excellent documentary by Amy Jaffe, “The Brainwashing of My Dad.”
I have also lost a few friends to Fox News (national) over the last five years; and also to very unprofessional (and sometimes, highly produced) websites, and social media-based and YouTube videos, in which people have claimed all sorts of things, such as: Western wildfires were started by Antifa arsonists, BLM is a fundraising scheme for the DNC, and Bill Gates is the spawn of Satan. Actually, nearly all Democrats and Liberals and even Tom Hanks are the spawn of Satan … So. There aren’t a lot of paths toward constructive dialogue one can take from there.
I do try!
The COVID stuff has been off the rails, with purported nurses (who normally wear masks for hours and hours in surgeries) claiming masks make people sick, actually.* Many of these videos — shared with me by Trump supporting friends — ended their narratives with Donald Trump saving the world from everything, I mean everything — from “Communist” anti-racism to regular racism, to homelessness, famine, poverty, pedophilia, sex trafficking, terrorism and war (not climate change, though). All of this happening to a soundtrack of some very dramatic and heart warming music.
FOX “News” and especially opinion is just one limb of a multi-tentacled fear and outrage apparatus that is now global, and generally, extreme Right-reactionary, teetering on fascist. Maybe fascist, full stop.
We know the Russians are involved; this is documented and confirmed by US intelligence agencies, Russian leaks and the Mueller Report (which one can actually read!) I suspect also the fossil fuel industry — scrambling now and seeking to stop sane, equitable action on climate and our probable coming collapse. Also implicated: Roger Stone, a self-proclaimed and very proud liar. Rupert Murdoch. The late Roger Ailes. The Koch Brothers. The Heartland Institute. Alex Jones. Tucker Carlson. Sean Hannity. Etc. etc. etc.
