For years now I've been able to laugh off my grandparents, FOX News and brainwashed Republicans in general.
But my roommate's interaction with her parents changed things for me.
Her parents told her that they were scared. They were scared because something serious was underway in America, that a revolution was happening that threatened to destroy the entire country and that it was serious. They told her that Marxists were on the brink of pulling Biden to the Left, and that they were legitimately danger.
I usually laugh this off, but something struck me: they weren't angry, or grumpy, or bone-headed, like I usually imagine Republicans. They were legitimately afraid, and perceived themselves to truly be descending into a national emergency, one that FOX News has completely manufactured.
I used to laugh off people that said FOX is paving the way to Fascism, or Drumpf = Hitler. But I've come to comprehend that fear, not anger, was the driving motivator in Nazi Germany, and now understand that FOX is pumping sheer terror into the American public at levels only possible in modern society.
I don't really think FOX is a laughing matter anymore, because I begin to understand how an American public this afraid could condone Nazi Germany level atrocities under the impression that they were saving themselves.
Yes, these people are terrified. The people who refuse to wear a mask 😷 are doing so because they are afraid of the virus (even though they pretend that it isn’t real) and that wearing a mask will legitimize the situation. When they see others wearing a mask it angers them because it reminds them that this situation they can’t control is real.
There's some irony in this. They're winning. They control the presidency and the Senate. Even if they didn't, the Dems would warm the seats for them until the next round. Biden will never get a second term! Who else mounts a good presidential campaign next round? Buttchug? The guy whose platform is playing nice with them? America distills terror and takes it abroad. Children in Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, NK, China, the entire South American continent are (likely but not unanimously) terrified of boots on the ground and coup attempts. The entire African continent is subjugated by American business interests.
Bernie Sanders wanted to SAVE THEM MONEY ON HEALTHCARE. There were probably like 13 or 14 insurance execs actually drinking the Kool aid. The rest were probably playing golf with petrified migrant eyeballs or something equally grotesque. He wanted to stop wars and preserve what's left of the environment. He was a sweet old man running for the highest office - hardly the cold-hearted revolutionary that Mao and Lenin embodied (sigh).
Sure, the libs are detestable TO US they're fighting for the same team as Fox News. The people who are in power have a faux opposition, they're subjugating foreigners on a scale that would make Ceaser blush, and they're still legitimately terrified.
EDIT: Even the fucking impeachment was a defanged charade designed to fail. What the fuck?!
That is pretty much how they're winning too, pump up the fear on one side to such a degree that even the most tepid of ideas on the other are viewed as demonic and evil.
That way the only way for the "opposition" to be taken seriously is to conform to the standards set by the ruling class but pretend that it's enough for people who buy into facade of opposition.
It perfectly alienates an actual left, makes us look like conspiracy theorists when we say that they all largely think and act alike and hence collectively oppress people by default.
Those who regularly consume Fox News (or any, single news source really, but that's not the point) functionally live in a different reality from us.
Fox News does a really good job of establishing that they and they alone are the sole arbiters of truth. Other news channels, or papers, or magazines all have an agenda, but Fox doesn't because they're patriots, and you're a patriot too aren't you? So just sit your ass down and generate some my pillow ad revenue while Sean Hannity angry cries at you about those scary scary BLM thugs.
It's a difficult thing to break through by itself, but usually it's paired with some other annoying brain worm like the belief that any politics left of center will inevitably be aged out of or that or that any post middle school education is some type of indoctrination to the DNC.
Although I am Canadian, I work with a lot of yankees, some of whom are huge chuds that watch Fox news. I got sucked into a coronavirus debate with one of them (although I tried my best to avoid it) and he immediately started regurgitating FOX News talking points.
-The seasonal flu is worse
-The WHO is "taking us for a ride" (whatever the fuck that means)
-Masks don't do anything to protect people from catching the virus
-Mail in ballots are an existential threat to democracy (not sure where this one came from since it was so off topic)
It occurred to me that this rhetoric is literally getting people killed by the thousands.
You'd think that if the end game of FOX news was just to scare people that this virus would be a perfect opportunity to do so, but they are doing the opposite, probably because shutting down the economy is hurting the profits of businesses. Then again, on the other hand, the billionaires are getting massively richer during this crisis.
I've never quite been able to figure out what their end-game goal is.
Their short, mid, and long term goals are as follows:
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Money
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Money
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Money
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It's usually fun to ask socratic style questions like "how do you know that's true?" or "what do you mean by that?" to get people to realize they're full of shit and have no idea what they're talking about. But these people have such little self awareness that I imagine that won't work
Fuck every single canadian that is a Chinese room of rightwing american talking points. Fuck them all.
Sry, Chinese room is a thought experiment about the existence of consciousness in computers lmao
Someone is sitting in a box, who doesn't speak Mandarin. But they have a giant book that tells them what to write and send out of the box based on every single possible written Mandarin message that someone puts into the box. Like a computer. From the outside, it looks like you're communicating with someone who speaks Mandarin; but the person inside the box doesn't not know Mandarin.
It's like how chuds don't even understand half the shit they say, they just regurgitate talking points in response to other talking points. It might seem like you're communicating with them, but they don't actually speak Mandarin.
This is especially true in canada where american talking points just actually don't even make sense there.
reminds me of people in Alberta and out east who fly the confederate flag lol
Lol, yes... they don't know what that flag means. When you ask them, they say 'southern pride', and they still don't know what the flag means lol
Fox News has been in the process of 'othering' the left in the minds of their viewers for years, perfectly paving the way for Donald Trump to incite violence as a means of gaining support. His DHS tactics wouldn't be an effective political tool if his people had any feelings of commonality or empathy with the protesters. But Fox, and the right-wing media apparatus that takes its cues from them, have deliberately changed their viewers' perception of the protesters from people with a justifiable cause into violent rioting aliens, and they don't feel bad seeing aliens get hurt, because aliens aren't human.
By dehumanizing protestors and the left, you create a mental back door to committing violence without guilt. And frankly, you shouldn't care if libs are correctly diagnosing what Fox News is doing, because it doesn't change the fact that Fox News is literally putting your life in danger.
This is such a good read, but my god it was dense and tricky for my little brain.
tbh i think it's really sad there is such a HUGE outlet for disinformation/misinformation in our society :/
a lot of these people hold ideological beliefs which serve little or no benefit towards them (eg. american conservatism) -- the only reason why they hold those beliefs is because they've been indoctrinated throughout their life with american propaganda.
conservatism doesn't help the working class. it only benefits the rich. are these trump supporters/fox news watchers rich? no. why would they believe it then, other than the reason of disinformation/propaganda? i'm pretty interested in this idea right here
They have been indoctrinated with anti communist red scare propaganda their whole lifes.
Because these anti communist beliefs are so internalized they just instinctively out of hand reject anything that can be associated with socialism/communism.That obviously is not the only reason, but I believe it’s quite essential to this phenomenon.
Inundated with American propaganda in general. From being forced into pledging fealty to the American flag every day to constant assertions in the news, media, and daily life that America is the greatest nation on earth and that the ideals and beliefs of the American revolutionary clique and subsequent ruling classes are absolutely correct and unquestionable.
Combine that with red scare mentality, cathartic 24/7 anger content, and casting enemies of the Republicans as being against America, and you've got a powerful media weapon.
I think one of the things that really gets me about Fox is how much worse it is then even our parodies. You'll see Leftists post sarcastic, ironic "Are Marxists coming to your town to have sex with your pets?" and its funny, but the actuality of Fox is that they are the largest disseminator of disinformation, huge percentages of the country believe every word they say, and that fake headline wouldn't even be a blip for them.
FOX News is the new bible of hellworld.
Good news: Not that many people actually watch it.
Bad news: it's the top-rated cable channel, and its vitriolic disinformation percolates through the broader culture as memes and words of mouth.
Death to FOX News.
Exactly, fear is the emotion underpinning fascism.
Looking only at its results, it is easy to come to the conclusion that fascism is rooted in hate. Looking at how fascists style themselves as descending from some ancient, better culture, you might think it is based in pride.
But if you look at the core of the ideology, the thing that drives the average fascist, is fear. Fear of the foreign. Fear of being "replaced". Fear of losing their privileged position in society. Fear of being treated the way they like to treat others. Fear of not being able to live the life that was promised to them.
Some of these fears are manufactured by propaganda, and can be dismissed as baseless. Others are legitimate fears caused by living in a capitalist hellscape, but not having any ideological framework to figure out why it's happening.
If my dad wasn't watching some war movie, he was watching Fox. 99% of what he watches is Fox and he watches TV all day everyday.
I walked in on him watching some Fox News version of John Oliver, except somehow less funny.
it was bound to happen. The notion of defending yourself is too powerful of an excuse to entertain horrible views, so they have used that angle repeatedly.. Yes, they fearmonger about antifa and "communists", but "war on Christmas", "the caravan", fucking same-sex restrooms is an attack to defend yourself from. I'll agree with you that it's not funny, but we should always keep this in mind when discussing fox news. This is what they do, this is who they are.
The answer is yes, but it's easier said than done. I need evidence for why each of the stories is propaganda, which takes a lot of work. I need evidence for why my evidence is reliable. I need to keep up with every latest propaganda story and repeat this process for each of them.
It helps that this point applies just as much to the liberal news media as well ("Teens are drinking lighter fluid. Could YOUR kid be the next in the hospital? What YOU need to know!").
Yeah, that's a good point. They can't refute my point as the "liberal agenda" if I'm coming at it from a purely anti-consumption angle.
And it eternally works on all of it too. If you debunk today's Fox stories they'll tune in tomorrow and get 10 more. Debate nerd shit never works in real life because it's faster to bullshit than it is to fight bullshit.
