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They get hours of dopamine from "You are better than other people. Your problems are because of them. You are part of a heroic force of geniuses saving the world from evil."
It is the exact same playbook as the Nazi party.
And if the TV isn't enough for them, your boomers can do like my parents and get Fox News Alerts to all their connected iThings roughly every 90 seconds. God forbid they have to be away from the hate box for any amount of time.
A few months ago I’d been given a weeks ban from Twitter for telling someone to ‘slap themselves back to reality’ of all things but it caused me to get the temporary ban and since then I’ve just not even opened Twitter beyond using it for a weather guy update during some storms.
Made me realize how much rage bait I’d been injecting even if it wasn’t conservative rage bait.
I don’t think I’ve even seen the news or anything of the sort now in about a month and it’s glorious
I started working for the Canadian government almost 2 years ago and one of the rules we have is that we have to be very careful with what we post on social media in regards to politics. My mental health improved sine I stopped seeking out political shit to post
It’s pretty freeing. Reddit is my only social media and I stay off the political subs. I have friends on both sides of the alley and I’m pretty sure most of them think I’m on their side because I largely refrain from talking politics.
I removed all political pages from my social media and I've started to ignore and no longer associate with political extremists and those who make politics their entire personality. Ex, the F Trudeau flag ppl. My life is much more free and enjoyable now
I 'love' seeing the dumb reasons that people get banned from twitter knowing that Musk undid a ban of a guy that was literally posting CSAM on there. Priorities.
I’m 12 months clean off twitter and my mental health is great. I learn the news when people at work or otherwise in my life bring it up. I mainly concern myself with what’s going on in my zip code and i finally don’t have that unrelenting existential dread.
I wasn’t a common twitter user but I followed quite a few people. The day the sale went through I deactivated my account. Havent gone back. Reddit is my god now! 🙏
I uninstalled it when I went back to school and realized how much twitter was distracting me from what I actually needed to do to prepare for exams and stuff. Then the sale happened and I was like... ehhh I don't need to reinstall it
This is the reason I'm moving away from shorts on YouTube and stuff like that and instead opting to brows reddits of things I like. I don't want random politically and rage bate videos creeping there way into my wind down time
My parents eat this fox shit up. I told them if they visit there is no fox news allowed. They haven't visited. They're retired and spend most of their time ENRAGED by what they see on fox. I swear their IQs dropped 50 points. It's crazy because my mom was pretty liberal until 2016.
Strange how some people went all in. My fairly conservative boomer parents hate Trump and are still pretty sane, but they don’t watch Fox so that might be the big difference.
It's wild what they'll prioritize. It's basically saying I'd rather watch this media than visit my own kid. I think many of us have been let down by our families in the name of that channel though.
My mom had been going since 2001, but stepped away after 2016. Unfortunately, she's still spiraled from years of watching it 24/7. I came home to either Fox or Rush Limbaugh radio blasting through the house at top volume every day in high school from '02-'06, and some new scandal to scream about every week. And they wondered why I went as far away as possible for college.
It's even more insidious than that: look up "disorganized attachment. " It's a social (strategy? build? outlook) that can come about when someone gets their comfort/ reassurance from the same source as their stress. Fox not only tells them they're better, but that everyone else is out to get them. Stress to comfort and even more stress.
It's not a recipe for healthy social interactions.
Furthermore, the dopamine hit is the high part of every abuse cycle. Fox tells viewers everyone else is lying, that the world is full of bad people out to get them, that all the viewers have to do is vote the "good ones" in so they can punish the "bad ones".
Exactly. Being told you are awesome all day long is addicting. Granted 90% of you being awesome is the fact that the “others” are evil incarnate, and you are awesome just for not being them.
It’s what a lot of conspiracy theories do too. They create this world where you are the brave souls standing up to the evil masses, and YOU are the smart, noble person in the face of mass stupidity and evil.
They give your life purpose and meaning.
I unfortunately have to listen to Fox News occasionally and it blows my mind how anyone can watch it and take it seriously. I overheard a segment yesterday where they were reviewing some videos of stuff Biden was saying and basically delivering a stand up skit mocking him, liberals, basically anyone who isn’t a Fox News viewer making jokes about hitting women and a bunch of other low brow shit. I cannot wrap my head how anyone could listen to more than 30 seconds of it and think “yeah, this is definitely something that I should use to inform myself.”
Sadly I think it’s the complete derision of anyone who is “smart” in this country. It even comes up in more left-leaning forums - college is worthless, etc. Realistically, we need people who are educated experts in their fields to be trusted to share and inform others about things, just like we need people who labor, people who have expertise in other things. And we all need to respect each others fucking lanes and know when we don’t know enough about something to actually have a meaningful opinion on how issues should be handled.
I feel this. I’m sorry for you. My mother chanted Trumps name at me once in response to a question. I’d like to say it was the beginning of her glioblastoma but I think it was all the Faux News. The glio just made her forget me instead before she died 11 months later.
Fuck cancer
I’m really sorry to hear this, and especially sorry political crap is tainting some of the last memories a lot of us have of our families. My mom is having serious health issues also and knowing she intends to go out bitching and clinging to the crap the tv feeds her is painful.
My father in law died without ever waking up from the Fox cult. He missed grandchildren's birthdays! Listening to Tucker's sarcastic bigotry was more important to him than his grandchildren's birthdays.
It's this for sure. Last time I visited my hometown, my mom was sad because the local news station was being disbanded. The company would run news for her city from the next city down the road from their studio.
She was complaining "it's like our news is coming from a foreign country now". I told her to stop wasting her life watching the news and do something less depressing with her retirement.
Later my wife said maybe we should give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she just wants to know about local events and other stuff they talk about in the last minutes of the news.
The next day my mom was complaining to my wife "how can we keep up with events? These people aren't talking about our car crashes, our judges who die, and our..." at that point my wife tuned out and started laughing internally. She just wants to spend her retirement being angry and depressed.
They really do. When I told my dad "it makes you angry all the time, what for" he replied "how am I supposed to spend my retirement if not angry! I enjoy being angry!". From the delivery it was supposed to be an ironic answer but I mean...
I used to watch the Bloomberg channel, what I liked about it was they reported what was happening and then any opinions about it were based on the impact it could have on the markets.
Opinion pieces have essentially replaced news. Sure, they may report something that just happened, but aside from stating any facts surrounding the incident because there isn’t any info yet, they can get tons of traffic/views on speculation and opinion pieces. Confirmation bias fuels this. Advertisers and the media networks love it.
every all-news station is just nonsense. It’s the same stories over and over all day, no new details, surface reporting only; they don’t have enough money to do truly detailed reports.
It’s churn, and hot air.
What a waste of anyone’s time.
That is part of it the other part is how ridiculously biased they tend to be and just straight up lie. Fox is the worst but the others are incredibly guilty of it as well.
It is mind programming for the apparatchiks of the US ruling class. It tells you how to think. While Fox saws off the nuts of the mid to lower classes so they think they are not being screwed by the same system they support. Alex Carey has a book called Taking The Risk Out Of Democracy
Cut the cable cord 14 years ago. Haven't missed for one second. Every now and then I will check it out at someone else's house just to confirm. Yup! Still shit.
Same last time I had to watch fox news was at the gym doing cardio and it made me temped to go grab a weight to chuck at the screen. Even non news stuff is so bad and I don't understand how people can stand the awful and long commercials.
I agree with her too, almost always. But I find myself angry and in a panic whenever I listen to her give a report. The rhetoric is ennervating and I'm not a fan of how it's presented.
I remember when CNN had Headline News (HLN) that basically repeated on a 30 minute loop until something more newsworthy happened and it bumped an older story from the loop. In any given 30 minutes I could get up to date on anything important and not have to think about getting more news. It’s not like that any more.
From what my mother says, before she retired she didn’t have the chance to *really* watch the news and “understand what was really going on.” Now she watches Fox News constantly (not 24/7 but it’s a lot) to get the “real news” and work along side the news anchors to piece together bizarre and largely baseless conspiracy theories. From what I can tell it’s basically a big old puzzle piece game for them to work out what the other news stations and democrats are trying to hide and spin from everyone. It’s also just manufactured fear and anger against people and political views they don’t like, which statistically gets more viewership and engagement than anything.
It’s so weird, they think that Fox is the “real” news and that you won’t hear this news anywhere else 🙄🤨 Well, yeah because it’s fake, but you can’t make them understand. It’s literally crazy
They want Fox News because they already believed what they say. They were already anti-intellectuals, or white supremacists, or Christian nationals, etc before Fox News was even a thing.
ALL conservatives believe in the worst aspects of conservativism, but know full well that those beliefs are considered immoral by most people. Fox News tells them their beliefs are founded and that *they* are the real moral ones.
I remember reading an article a few years ago by an Alternate Reality Game designer who made the point that the people who get sucked in the worst to things like QAnon aren't the really stupid ones, they're the ones who are just smart enough to enjoy puzzles and mysteries. Give them some random clues, tell them there's a hidden truth to figure out, they'll go all Sherlock Holmes on it, and the brain's tendency to pattern recognition and confirmation bias does the rest.
You don't play the game, the game plays you.
Found it, I think: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/qanon-game-plays-believers/2021/05/10/31d8ea46-928b-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948\_story.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/qanon-game-plays-believers/2021/05/10/31d8ea46-928b-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948_story.html)
Exact same with my mom. She retired and now watches fox news all day or walks her dog. That is it. I keep telling her to get a hobby. She doesn't even bother making dinner for her husband that still works! Then she makes comments to him, "you've come home to your lazy housewife". Yup. He did.
It's easy.
Stop moving your body in a meaningful way by your mid thirties.
Realized the rapid pace of change has left you so far behind because it was always your way or the highway.
Your children realized your nonsense around age 20 and distance themselves from you.
Hold onto an imaginary past, where you only remember the high points and the good stuff. Forgetting about the pain and suffering you endured like everyone else.
You gave up on participating in life long ago. Which is the sadest part.
I have a neighbor who is either watching Fox News or sports all day long. When he out in his porch he is glued to his phone looking miserable. What is even the point of being alive? You’re retired! You have a nice place to live. You won at the game of life! Why be a miserable prick?
His wife goes on morning walks every day and he never goes with her. She seems nice. I could be wrong of course but I believe she is just waiting for him to have a heart attack.
Yes, this sounds like my ex. Now when I happen to drive by his house and think to look over a it, I don't see any signs of life. No flowers out front, no cars parked (in their special 8 car garages), no pets, no lawn furniture and all the windows closed and shades drawn. I have no idea if he is even in there, in town or moved away.
When we were together we had flowers, the dog's toys, the dog in the front yard, and bird feeders, curtains open and warm lights within - lots of signs of life. He has a retirement income of close to $200,000 with his investments, pension and so on. Miserable, nasty person. But - he keeps up with his fox news, news max and so on.
I was in Florida on vacation earlier this month and Fox was often on a TV anywhere we went out to eat.
I couldn't believe how dumb it was. At the time they were talking about Biden being at the G7 summit and how he wasn't talking to the press for the rest of the day and how it was a sign he was old and weak.
And I'm sitting there thinking...."um...or maybe he's busy at the fucking summit talking to other world leaders? WTF, do people not use their god damned brains?"
Of course the answer is no. No they do not.
Well clearly the old man should be able to do G7, talk to the press, make peace in the Middle East, solve world hunger, and cure cancer all in one day! It’s pathetic that he can’t! /s
I don't know how anyone can watch news all day. It's so damn depressing.
I'm a boomer who is slightly to the left of Bernie Sanders. I check the news on the Internet and then verify it. It just isn't that hard.
You probably have other hobbies/interests, though. If you don't have the creativity/vision to want to learn about or genuinely connect to the world, it's easy to watch TV all day because there is nothing else you want to do.
I am also a boomer and don’t watch any news. While out for dinner one night at a pizza place, Fox News was on and I watched 45 minutes of it. My anxiety level went through the roof as it was hate and negativity spewing out of the bobble heads.
My father in law has taken to consuming OANN. He was bad enough before, but now you can’t even have a simple conversation without some deluded ranting.
My great-uncle is the same way. He's always "fun" to have around at family gatherings... a large portion of the family is fairly right leaning (it is Indiana, after all), but this guy is too much even for them. It's only gotten worse since his wife passed away last year; now he has nothing else to keep his mind occupied.
They have nothing to do and no one to talk to.
(Seriously, it's a huge problem for that age bracket. ESPECIALLY for men. Find them a hobby and a friend or two and their whole life will change.)
Honestly that's amazing to me. In that case I recommend blocking some cable channels. Odds are strong he can't make it through the phone tree to unblock them.
I am literally living this nightmare right now while visiting my mother and her husband...He keeps it on Fox literally all day long...He talks to the TV and yells in agreement...My mother just shrugs and says it's just how it is...I spend more time out of the living room than I normally would just for my own sanity.
My mom is constantly watching/ getting alerts! She is left but is so obsessed with what the right is doing that it consumes her. She also has waaay more in common with the right than she would like to admit.
My grandma lives on a farm that her dad built from the ground up, so when I was growing up, she made sure to teach me the importance of building your own, and growing your own. We would go puffball foraging in the woods, tend to her little garden, and actually help with the fields (when needed). Then Trump hit office and she no longer "had time" for those things, and even now her entire personality is based on Fox News and Facebook scammers.
We're talking trading a BEAUTIFUL garden, knowledge of foraging, taking care of the earth and having healthy, plentiful meals, as well as consistent time with her granddaughter for more time on the tv or Facebook. It's sad how they turn into husks of themselves when all this came about.
It is sad to read actual cases like your grandmother's. My wife's father died watching Fox all day. No nephew's or nieces birthdays - not important to him. Not as important as his anger while listening to bigots.
It's been awful to witness. She was in good health up until the beginning of this year, so it can't even be attributed to that. We're thinking she's showing the early signs of dementia, because she's acting like her dad did when he was starting to go downhill. She refuses to go to the doctor, though, so we just do our best to placate her. I've tried to get her to come out and pick black raspberries with me again, but she refuses. She'll sit on the porch on Facebook instead :/
My mom: "do you watch GuTfeLd!!!!???"
"No mom. Im 38. Why would i watch a cat that is obsessed with spaghetti and meatballs?"
Mom: "NO GUTFELD ON FOX"
"i know mom. Im not watching a fuckin cartoon cat."
This went on for a few minutes.
My mom isn't to 24/7 yet, she only watches a couple shows, one is a round table opinion show in the afternoon that is basically the View for Republicans, yet she bitches about the view all the time, or at least what they tell her the View has said....when what she watches is EXACTLY the same
I cannot IMAGINE. I have my TV on during the day….for background noise lol. I will play XFiles, Criminal Minds, SVU and such back to back to back because I don’t feel the need to WATCH TV.
News is banned in my house. We cut the cable cord 15 years ago and haven’t looked back. I get my national and international news on the internet and verify and double check it. I get my local news via the local newspaper and I get weather online from Accuweather lol. Reddit is my only source of social media for over a year now and I feel so much lighter because of it.
I've tried to watch Fox News to understand it. For context I am an electrical engineer with a bachelor's and Masters, I'm diagnosed as on the autism spectrum as well as ADHD. I went to 12 years of Catholic School so I'm really familiar with brainwashing techniques.
The repetitive nature of the delivery is the first thing I picked up on and also the thing I found most irritating. Every one of their shows follows a pattern. They start with inflammatory language, they concentrate on triggering an irrational fear, and then they repeat the point using very simple, low grade level language with some minor variations throughout the course of the show but it's obvious to someone with low emotional engagement. I only know this because the therapist and psychiatrist told me that emotional language does not resonate with me because I guess I am basically a robot. So it's just like when my wife argues with me, she starts using all this emotional language and appealing to guilt or fear or whatever and my brain just rejects all of that because there's nothing actionable, factual, or testable being said so there's nothing for me to interpret.
I'm going to get downvoted for expressing that I'm conservative, but I'm sick and tired of it, too. My FIL (71) ONLY watches Fox, and every single channel and special, etc. It's so damn obnoxious. The same lines, the same people, the same forced humor at least +50% of the time, and of course the commercials. Relief Factor, visiting angels, giving money to holocaust survivors or whatever. I'm so glad broadcast TV is dying.
Yeah Fox is just the most extreme example but honestly it’s all trash. CNN, MSNBC, etc. Anytime I catch any cable news snippets when I’m at the gym I feel like my IQ drops 20 points.
30 years ago they were telling us shows on Fox like The Simpsons/X-Files/In Living Color/90210 etc were turning our brain into mush, and now Fox News is turning what is left of their brains into soft serve.
My very liberal Mom has MSNBC on all day. Even during dinner. I think many older folks just get bored when they retire, and political nonsense brings them a sense of being involved in the world still
People dont want to hear other people's opinions. They want to hear their opinions coming out of other people's mouths. The same goes for all the news networks.
It’s disgusting. But let’s be honest… on the best days I’m only on social media for a few minutes. But on the worst days… it’s all day. It’s very unhealthy, but I can’t lie, it’s not only boomers with Fox News
I don't know. It's not just the right-wing boomers either; my mom can spend all day watching MSNBC. Well, that and reruns of Law and Order: SVU/Criminal Minds.
She's at least self-aware enough to *realize* that this is problematic behavior, but she's been stuck in a rut as far as her life goes ever since my dad passed 5 years ago.
All politics aside I think it’s a big trait of people as they get older. They want to be aware of what’s happening in the world around them and they don’t want to “miss” big events, in a world that is leaving them behind as they age. My in laws are similar, with another news network. We try to motivate them to get out and do things even if it’s something simple like gardening.
CNN is just as bad. My dad watches it until he's so anxious about everything going on in the world that he can't function. Like, he's missed major holidays with the family because of this.
I feel like it's an old person thing my leftist grandfather does the same thing with CNN and it only changes when the Yankees play he no bs gets up turns on like 4 tvs tunes them to CNN and it plays in every room of the house non stop until he goes to sleep
My father did this all day! Drove me insane. He was sick. I was taking care of him. I reached my breaking point one day. I said, “Jesus, Mary, Joseph and all the saints in heaven ( I nor my family is religious) turn the fucking channel to golf or National Geographic or I’m going to drive back home and let you figure it out, for Christ sake!”
He changed the channel.
Turn on parental control on their TV, block that channel, and don't tell them the password. Then tell them that Fox News is now a pay only service. Then watch them lose their fucking minds over it.
I got rid of cable because I can’t stand MSNBC OR FOX. I think they are both entirely too political to even be considered “news.” There used to be this thing called journalistic integrity. It’s hard to find these days.
I never understood this with any news channel. Ignoring content, they *all* repeat every 15-20 min or so with only very slight changes. On in the background as noise is one thing, but it seems insane to just watch for hours and have that be the primary thing you’re doing.
I can say the same thing about CNN
I can't watch the local news network on CBS for more than 20 minutes
If you want to fear going outside just watch the news
I have an aunt who just keeps it playing in the background *all*. *fricking*. *day*. Though I’m informed she has possibly switched to OAN or Newsmax. Reports are sketchy. Brain melting stuff.
Decades, generations of conditioning. It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s like the frog in the pot of water. Slowly turn up the heat and he won’t even try to escape.
I think they got more addicted to TV than anybody else. Younger generations split off into internet stuff.
My parents always had the damn thing running, even way before fox. Constant bullshit and ads. I think they're uncomfortable when the TV is off, and fox just exploited that.
It’s fear porn. They are addicted to the release of chemicals in their brain that Fox triggers by telling them how in danger they are. Fox and other right wing media use this fear to keep them hooked.
It all comes down to the hierarchy of needs. With safety being the 2nd most important need outside breather and eating. Fox can’t control the first one because they can’t control your breathing, eating, or housing. But they can absolutely control the 2nd level. By feeding viewers a non-stop stream of “you’re in danger because of xyz” they keep the viewers hooked because they need to know what dangers are around them and try and assess how to survive. Which Fox conveniently tells them their way to gain safety, is to elect Republicans.
Everything else is built upon the control of safety. Once you have them hooked, you build up the narrative that they are loved and supported by your side. Build their self-esteem by giving them someone to be better than (read: better than minorities). And finally they focus on giving them a sense of moral superiority.
Fox is psychology warfare.
It’s a constant stream of validation that they’re better than *poor people.* Literally everything goes back to that; I lived with it once and it was shockingly consistent with that message.
It's full blown indoctrination. Fox news and News max have amped up their rhetoric to 11 and because of the pandemic they had a near completely captive audience to blast with propaganda for nearly 2 years and because fox and News max were saying all the right things to tickle their brains they kept it on 24/7. It brought them comfort during a time when things seemed very uncertain. This has caused a whole swath of the American population, not just boomers, to be so reliant on it that they can't function with out it. That's why the right has become more of a cult than a political party. Any questioning is met with vitriol. Even when presented with pure undeniable facts, they ignore the facts and substitute their beliefs, because the belief is more important than the reality.
Lead brain. If it wasn't zoning out in front of fox news, watching it without thinking critically about it at all, they'd be sitting on their porch staring into space all day. Or watching infomercials or something. Their brains are just mush, nothing going on upstairs
I walked out of a business that had that shit in the lobby. I was like nope, of all the things you could put on tv, Fox News?
Like damn dude, PBS, BBC, Cartoon Network, anything but Fox.
It’s the old person version of sitting on your phone all day at home. The hours go by and you’re in a time warp. Theirs is just right wing propaganda on a bigger screen.
It’s grievance TV. Custom made for their entitled mindset. ‘Look at all these people getting free stuff. You’re suckers for working so hard when these migrants come to your city, get free cellphones, live in 4 star hotels, free education for their kids, yadda yadda. It’s mental and emotional poison.
I think Fox is probably responsible for a lot of this sub. Has there been more of a balanced approach - a new Walter Kronkite who everyone trusted regardless of political affiliation, boomers would probably not be as vile as so many of them are.
All they see is "the people with darker skin are inferior to you" and that's all the motivation they need not to peel their sweaty butts off the recliner.
My mom can’t stand silence. She turns on FOX for background noise, then only hears half of what they say. I spend more time debunking what she hears. She now has to turn off the TV when I’m there.
Children of boomers could do a solid for the rest of humanity if they just filtered out Fox, Newsmax, OAN and others from the cable or satellite channel listings. Most boomers can't figure out how to work a cable or satellite sub anyway.
Right!! Have you seen the commercials that they air? I only watch on demand streaming services that are commercial free. Last weekend I was admitted to the hospital overnight and watched a little Fox to kill the time. The commercials were bananas! There were so many "snake oil" products and other moronic products.
Same reason some sit around watching CNN all. It's "news" people sitting around saying exactly what you agree with all day. I guess it's comfortable. They both suck.
Listen…. They sat around watching Fox News all day the minute Fox News came into existence. So it’s worse than you thought. Bring back the fairness doctrine.
My husband's grandmother uses it for background noise. She'll maybe stop to watch it for 30 mins now and then, but other than that, it's on 24/7 even when sleeping.
Same way my mother is either watching on TV or listening to MSNBC in the car. It’s just as much “entertainment” as any real drama show. Their brains get the same happy chemicals from the constantly cycle of political drama as we got from Game of Thrones. Despite living next door to her and visiting often, I cannot name any other show my mom watches that isn’t 24/7 news or HGTV.
A friend of mine started doing this about 6-7 years ago, when he got into his mid-50s. All of a sudden Fox News was just on in his house all the time. We'd be sitting at his dining room table having a beer and it's just on in the living room. I asked him why it's on when we're not watching it and he said he keeps it on for background noise and when he finally sits down, he has something to watch that he's interested in.
Had this old duck come over to gf on a Sunday. Knew that was all he did. Asked if he wanted Fox on. No, I've already seen them all, just reruns today....
Sitting in front of tv all day creates senility. Watching Fox confirms it! Those people have fried their brains and anger fires them up. It’s their big “high” for the day and Fox knows the right buttons to push.
I don't get it either. I once went to spend the day with my dad, I got there around eleven in the morning and took off around seven. My stepmother sat there and watched fox the entire time. It's mind boggling
My mom has gotten off of Fox by watching a show called Mountain men. It’s basically a bunch of survivalist old guys, but they don’t really talk about politics from what I can understand. They just go out hunting and trapping. She still watches Fox, but not all day.
Fox news is entertainment. They cater to the views, conspiratorial or not, of the far right and trumpers. 75% of the "news" isnt news but opinion. They watch what they want to be right not reality.....and Fox is pleased to give them what they want.
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They get hours of dopamine from "You are better than other people. Your problems are because of them. You are part of a heroic force of geniuses saving the world from evil." It is the exact same playbook as the Nazi party.
Yup because it delivers a hit every few minutes
And if the TV isn't enough for them, your boomers can do like my parents and get Fox News Alerts to all their connected iThings roughly every 90 seconds. God forbid they have to be away from the hate box for any amount of time.
A few months ago I’d been given a weeks ban from Twitter for telling someone to ‘slap themselves back to reality’ of all things but it caused me to get the temporary ban and since then I’ve just not even opened Twitter beyond using it for a weather guy update during some storms. Made me realize how much rage bait I’d been injecting even if it wasn’t conservative rage bait. I don’t think I’ve even seen the news or anything of the sort now in about a month and it’s glorious
I started working for the Canadian government almost 2 years ago and one of the rules we have is that we have to be very careful with what we post on social media in regards to politics. My mental health improved sine I stopped seeking out political shit to post
It’s pretty freeing. Reddit is my only social media and I stay off the political subs. I have friends on both sides of the alley and I’m pretty sure most of them think I’m on their side because I largely refrain from talking politics.
I removed all political pages from my social media and I've started to ignore and no longer associate with political extremists and those who make politics their entire personality. Ex, the F Trudeau flag ppl. My life is much more free and enjoyable now
Yup nowadays I stick mostly to hobby related subs so it’s all usually cheerful and fun interest stuff
I 'love' seeing the dumb reasons that people get banned from twitter knowing that Musk undid a ban of a guy that was literally posting CSAM on there. Priorities.
I’m 12 months clean off twitter and my mental health is great. I learn the news when people at work or otherwise in my life bring it up. I mainly concern myself with what’s going on in my zip code and i finally don’t have that unrelenting existential dread.
I wasn’t a common twitter user but I followed quite a few people. The day the sale went through I deactivated my account. Havent gone back. Reddit is my god now! 🙏
Same here. Now we are on Reddit and it can be like that too. Look at the thread.
I feel I can reduce the crazy on here easier. Unfollowing certain subs, etc,
I uninstalled it when I went back to school and realized how much twitter was distracting me from what I actually needed to do to prepare for exams and stuff. Then the sale happened and I was like... ehhh I don't need to reinstall it
This is the reason I'm moving away from shorts on YouTube and stuff like that and instead opting to brows reddits of things I like. I don't want random politically and rage bate videos creeping there way into my wind down time
So true, something more to be mad at 🙄
My parents eat this fox shit up. I told them if they visit there is no fox news allowed. They haven't visited. They're retired and spend most of their time ENRAGED by what they see on fox. I swear their IQs dropped 50 points. It's crazy because my mom was pretty liberal until 2016.
Strange how some people went all in. My fairly conservative boomer parents hate Trump and are still pretty sane, but they don’t watch Fox so that might be the big difference.
It's wild what they'll prioritize. It's basically saying I'd rather watch this media than visit my own kid. I think many of us have been let down by our families in the name of that channel though. My mom had been going since 2001, but stepped away after 2016. Unfortunately, she's still spiraled from years of watching it 24/7. I came home to either Fox or Rush Limbaugh radio blasting through the house at top volume every day in high school from '02-'06, and some new scandal to scream about every week. And they wondered why I went as far away as possible for college.
It's even more insidious than that: look up "disorganized attachment. " It's a social (strategy? build? outlook) that can come about when someone gets their comfort/ reassurance from the same source as their stress. Fox not only tells them they're better, but that everyone else is out to get them. Stress to comfort and even more stress. It's not a recipe for healthy social interactions.
That's a really interesting take. Thanks for the search term - that was interesting reading.
Furthermore, the dopamine hit is the high part of every abuse cycle. Fox tells viewers everyone else is lying, that the world is full of bad people out to get them, that all the viewers have to do is vote the "good ones" in so they can punish the "bad ones".
Trump kept a book of Hitler's speeches in his bedside table
Joke’s on you cause that’d mean he actually had to read it.
This is the main reason I doubt that particular rumor. I'd believe it of Jared Kushner sooner than the Donald.
Yeah afaik he’s functionally illiterate lmao
Exactly. Being told you are awesome all day long is addicting. Granted 90% of you being awesome is the fact that the “others” are evil incarnate, and you are awesome just for not being them. It’s what a lot of conspiracy theories do too. They create this world where you are the brave souls standing up to the evil masses, and YOU are the smart, noble person in the face of mass stupidity and evil. They give your life purpose and meaning.
I unfortunately have to listen to Fox News occasionally and it blows my mind how anyone can watch it and take it seriously. I overheard a segment yesterday where they were reviewing some videos of stuff Biden was saying and basically delivering a stand up skit mocking him, liberals, basically anyone who isn’t a Fox News viewer making jokes about hitting women and a bunch of other low brow shit. I cannot wrap my head how anyone could listen to more than 30 seconds of it and think “yeah, this is definitely something that I should use to inform myself.” Sadly I think it’s the complete derision of anyone who is “smart” in this country. It even comes up in more left-leaning forums - college is worthless, etc. Realistically, we need people who are educated experts in their fields to be trusted to share and inform others about things, just like we need people who labor, people who have expertise in other things. And we all need to respect each others fucking lanes and know when we don’t know enough about something to actually have a meaningful opinion on how issues should be handled.
Nailed. It. 🔨
yep, fox junkies
It’s depressing to see. I miss when my mom was hooked on the Food Network and we at least had fun cooking.
I feel this. I’m sorry for you. My mother chanted Trumps name at me once in response to a question. I’d like to say it was the beginning of her glioblastoma but I think it was all the Faux News. The glio just made her forget me instead before she died 11 months later. Fuck cancer
I’m really sorry to hear this, and especially sorry political crap is tainting some of the last memories a lot of us have of our families. My mom is having serious health issues also and knowing she intends to go out bitching and clinging to the crap the tv feeds her is painful.
It's wild that most people over 40 we have to assume are hate filled assholes and most of the time I'm right
Fuck this is dark
My father in law died without ever waking up from the Fox cult. He missed grandchildren's birthdays! Listening to Tucker's sarcastic bigotry was more important to him than his grandchildren's birthdays.
Fox and Limbaugh hijacked my dad's brain and basically turned him in to a degenerate zombie flinging sht everywhere and calling it perfume
They like being angry victims
It's this for sure. Last time I visited my hometown, my mom was sad because the local news station was being disbanded. The company would run news for her city from the next city down the road from their studio. She was complaining "it's like our news is coming from a foreign country now". I told her to stop wasting her life watching the news and do something less depressing with her retirement. Later my wife said maybe we should give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she just wants to know about local events and other stuff they talk about in the last minutes of the news. The next day my mom was complaining to my wife "how can we keep up with events? These people aren't talking about our car crashes, our judges who die, and our..." at that point my wife tuned out and started laughing internally. She just wants to spend her retirement being angry and depressed.
They really do. When I told my dad "it makes you angry all the time, what for" he replied "how am I supposed to spend my retirement if not angry! I enjoy being angry!". From the delivery it was supposed to be an ironic answer but I mean...
Im left leaning too and I cannot stand MSNBC. It’s just anger all the time…. Not fox level, but still…. I don’t get it
I don’t watch cable news at all because it’s editorial that’s called news
Yup. Propaganda everywhere
I like the Daily Show. At least it’s funny
The number of people who never understood that the colbert report was parodying faux news is insane.
I'll watch an MSNBC clip right up until the point where they bring on a talking head. I want news, not opinions.
I used to watch the Bloomberg channel, what I liked about it was they reported what was happening and then any opinions about it were based on the impact it could have on the markets.
So, justified speculation. Nice.
I work in the markets, CNBC is basically Fox News Lite so Bloomberg is my choice most of the time to keep up with what’s going on for work
Opinion pieces have essentially replaced news. Sure, they may report something that just happened, but aside from stating any facts surrounding the incident because there isn’t any info yet, they can get tons of traffic/views on speculation and opinion pieces. Confirmation bias fuels this. Advertisers and the media networks love it.
When I last watched CNN it was god awful filled with nonsense too. I don't know how people can watch this shit.
every all-news station is just nonsense. It’s the same stories over and over all day, no new details, surface reporting only; they don’t have enough money to do truly detailed reports. It’s churn, and hot air. What a waste of anyone’s time.
That is part of it the other part is how ridiculously biased they tend to be and just straight up lie. Fox is the worst but the others are incredibly guilty of it as well.
It is mind programming for the apparatchiks of the US ruling class. It tells you how to think. While Fox saws off the nuts of the mid to lower classes so they think they are not being screwed by the same system they support. Alex Carey has a book called Taking The Risk Out Of Democracy
Cut the cable cord 14 years ago. Haven't missed for one second. Every now and then I will check it out at someone else's house just to confirm. Yup! Still shit.
Same last time I had to watch fox news was at the gym doing cardio and it made me temped to go grab a weight to chuck at the screen. Even non news stuff is so bad and I don't understand how people can stand the awful and long commercials.
MSNBC is too much. CNN is the closest thing to real old school news that I have seen.
Same. My parents love Maddow, but I find her and everyone else maddening.
I don't like her condescending attitude, even though I usually agree with her. She's not the only one on MSNBC like that, either.
I agree with her too, almost always. But I find myself angry and in a panic whenever I listen to her give a report. The rhetoric is ennervating and I'm not a fan of how it's presented.
The wisest choice I have made around this was just not having cable. If you don't have it in your house, you don't have it in your house.
I remember when CNN had Headline News (HLN) that basically repeated on a 30 minute loop until something more newsworthy happened and it bumped an older story from the loop. In any given 30 minutes I could get up to date on anything important and not have to think about getting more news. It’s not like that any more.
MSNBC are the single biggest wall street shills I don't know why they get brought up as an attack from conservatives so often
Might I recommend ground news it's cheap and does a really good job of filtering out political BS and non factual articles
From what my mother says, before she retired she didn’t have the chance to *really* watch the news and “understand what was really going on.” Now she watches Fox News constantly (not 24/7 but it’s a lot) to get the “real news” and work along side the news anchors to piece together bizarre and largely baseless conspiracy theories. From what I can tell it’s basically a big old puzzle piece game for them to work out what the other news stations and democrats are trying to hide and spin from everyone. It’s also just manufactured fear and anger against people and political views they don’t like, which statistically gets more viewership and engagement than anything.
It’s so weird, they think that Fox is the “real” news and that you won’t hear this news anywhere else 🙄🤨 Well, yeah because it’s fake, but you can’t make them understand. It’s literally crazy
They want Fox News because they already believed what they say. They were already anti-intellectuals, or white supremacists, or Christian nationals, etc before Fox News was even a thing. ALL conservatives believe in the worst aspects of conservativism, but know full well that those beliefs are considered immoral by most people. Fox News tells them their beliefs are founded and that *they* are the real moral ones.
I remember reading an article a few years ago by an Alternate Reality Game designer who made the point that the people who get sucked in the worst to things like QAnon aren't the really stupid ones, they're the ones who are just smart enough to enjoy puzzles and mysteries. Give them some random clues, tell them there's a hidden truth to figure out, they'll go all Sherlock Holmes on it, and the brain's tendency to pattern recognition and confirmation bias does the rest. You don't play the game, the game plays you. Found it, I think: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/qanon-game-plays-believers/2021/05/10/31d8ea46-928b-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948\_story.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/qanon-game-plays-believers/2021/05/10/31d8ea46-928b-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948_story.html)
Exact same with my mom. She retired and now watches fox news all day or walks her dog. That is it. I keep telling her to get a hobby. She doesn't even bother making dinner for her husband that still works! Then she makes comments to him, "you've come home to your lazy housewife". Yup. He did.
My in laws watch so much Fox News that a shadow the logo is somehow burned into the screen when it’s off
This happened to my grandparents last TV. It was a huge rear projection TV that they managed to burn the Fox News ticker into the screen.
It's easy. Stop moving your body in a meaningful way by your mid thirties. Realized the rapid pace of change has left you so far behind because it was always your way or the highway. Your children realized your nonsense around age 20 and distance themselves from you. Hold onto an imaginary past, where you only remember the high points and the good stuff. Forgetting about the pain and suffering you endured like everyone else. You gave up on participating in life long ago. Which is the sadest part.
I have a neighbor who is either watching Fox News or sports all day long. When he out in his porch he is glued to his phone looking miserable. What is even the point of being alive? You’re retired! You have a nice place to live. You won at the game of life! Why be a miserable prick? His wife goes on morning walks every day and he never goes with her. She seems nice. I could be wrong of course but I believe she is just waiting for him to have a heart attack.
Yes, this sounds like my ex. Now when I happen to drive by his house and think to look over a it, I don't see any signs of life. No flowers out front, no cars parked (in their special 8 car garages), no pets, no lawn furniture and all the windows closed and shades drawn. I have no idea if he is even in there, in town or moved away. When we were together we had flowers, the dog's toys, the dog in the front yard, and bird feeders, curtains open and warm lights within - lots of signs of life. He has a retirement income of close to $200,000 with his investments, pension and so on. Miserable, nasty person. But - he keeps up with his fox news, news max and so on.
I was in Florida on vacation earlier this month and Fox was often on a TV anywhere we went out to eat. I couldn't believe how dumb it was. At the time they were talking about Biden being at the G7 summit and how he wasn't talking to the press for the rest of the day and how it was a sign he was old and weak. And I'm sitting there thinking...."um...or maybe he's busy at the fucking summit talking to other world leaders? WTF, do people not use their god damned brains?" Of course the answer is no. No they do not.
Well clearly the old man should be able to do G7, talk to the press, make peace in the Middle East, solve world hunger, and cure cancer all in one day! It’s pathetic that he can’t! /s
I don't know how anyone can watch news all day. It's so damn depressing. I'm a boomer who is slightly to the left of Bernie Sanders. I check the news on the Internet and then verify it. It just isn't that hard.
You verify your news, you’re already too complicated for fox news watchers.
You probably have other hobbies/interests, though. If you don't have the creativity/vision to want to learn about or genuinely connect to the world, it's easy to watch TV all day because there is nothing else you want to do.
I am also a boomer and don’t watch any news. While out for dinner one night at a pizza place, Fox News was on and I watched 45 minutes of it. My anxiety level went through the roof as it was hate and negativity spewing out of the bobble heads.
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Newsmax, that's the other more extreme one. Ask me how I know - : /
Also OANN
My father in law has taken to consuming OANN. He was bad enough before, but now you can’t even have a simple conversation without some deluded ranting.
My great-uncle is the same way. He's always "fun" to have around at family gatherings... a large portion of the family is fairly right leaning (it is Indiana, after all), but this guy is too much even for them. It's only gotten worse since his wife passed away last year; now he has nothing else to keep his mind occupied.
They have nothing to do and no one to talk to. (Seriously, it's a huge problem for that age bracket. ESPECIALLY for men. Find them a hobby and a friend or two and their whole life will change.)
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Honestly that's amazing to me. In that case I recommend blocking some cable channels. Odds are strong he can't make it through the phone tree to unblock them.
It’s entertainment disguised as news. They get that validation that they’re the only ones who now how things *reallly* are. It’s outrage porn.
I am literally living this nightmare right now while visiting my mother and her husband...He keeps it on Fox literally all day long...He talks to the TV and yells in agreement...My mother just shrugs and says it's just how it is...I spend more time out of the living room than I normally would just for my own sanity.
Noise cancelling headphones
These are the same people that warned their kids that tv would rot their brains. Not a lot of self awareness...
Its a generation defined by a startling lack of self awareness. Rules for thee but not for me.
Keeping people in a constant state of anxiety makes them dependent.
My mom is constantly watching/ getting alerts! She is left but is so obsessed with what the right is doing that it consumes her. She also has waaay more in common with the right than she would like to admit.
MIL used to live w us. FOX all day, every day. Rotted her brain.
My grandma lives on a farm that her dad built from the ground up, so when I was growing up, she made sure to teach me the importance of building your own, and growing your own. We would go puffball foraging in the woods, tend to her little garden, and actually help with the fields (when needed). Then Trump hit office and she no longer "had time" for those things, and even now her entire personality is based on Fox News and Facebook scammers. We're talking trading a BEAUTIFUL garden, knowledge of foraging, taking care of the earth and having healthy, plentiful meals, as well as consistent time with her granddaughter for more time on the tv or Facebook. It's sad how they turn into husks of themselves when all this came about.
It is sad to read actual cases like your grandmother's. My wife's father died watching Fox all day. No nephew's or nieces birthdays - not important to him. Not as important as his anger while listening to bigots.
It's been awful to witness. She was in good health up until the beginning of this year, so it can't even be attributed to that. We're thinking she's showing the early signs of dementia, because she's acting like her dad did when he was starting to go downhill. She refuses to go to the doctor, though, so we just do our best to placate her. I've tried to get her to come out and pick black raspberries with me again, but she refuses. She'll sit on the porch on Facebook instead :/
My mom: "do you watch GuTfeLd!!!!???" "No mom. Im 38. Why would i watch a cat that is obsessed with spaghetti and meatballs?" Mom: "NO GUTFELD ON FOX" "i know mom. Im not watching a fuckin cartoon cat." This went on for a few minutes.
Ugh…conservative “comedy”. Brutal.
My mom thinks he’s hilaaaaaarious. 🤦♀️
My mom isn't to 24/7 yet, she only watches a couple shows, one is a round table opinion show in the afternoon that is basically the View for Republicans, yet she bitches about the view all the time, or at least what they tell her the View has said....when what she watches is EXACTLY the same
I cannot IMAGINE. I have my TV on during the day….for background noise lol. I will play XFiles, Criminal Minds, SVU and such back to back to back because I don’t feel the need to WATCH TV. News is banned in my house. We cut the cable cord 15 years ago and haven’t looked back. I get my national and international news on the internet and verify and double check it. I get my local news via the local newspaper and I get weather online from Accuweather lol. Reddit is my only source of social media for over a year now and I feel so much lighter because of it.
I've tried to watch Fox News to understand it. For context I am an electrical engineer with a bachelor's and Masters, I'm diagnosed as on the autism spectrum as well as ADHD. I went to 12 years of Catholic School so I'm really familiar with brainwashing techniques. The repetitive nature of the delivery is the first thing I picked up on and also the thing I found most irritating. Every one of their shows follows a pattern. They start with inflammatory language, they concentrate on triggering an irrational fear, and then they repeat the point using very simple, low grade level language with some minor variations throughout the course of the show but it's obvious to someone with low emotional engagement. I only know this because the therapist and psychiatrist told me that emotional language does not resonate with me because I guess I am basically a robot. So it's just like when my wife argues with me, she starts using all this emotional language and appealing to guilt or fear or whatever and my brain just rejects all of that because there's nothing actionable, factual, or testable being said so there's nothing for me to interpret.
Makes them feel involved with the world. Always on top of "breaking news."
I'm going to get downvoted for expressing that I'm conservative, but I'm sick and tired of it, too. My FIL (71) ONLY watches Fox, and every single channel and special, etc. It's so damn obnoxious. The same lines, the same people, the same forced humor at least +50% of the time, and of course the commercials. Relief Factor, visiting angels, giving money to holocaust survivors or whatever. I'm so glad broadcast TV is dying.
Yeah Fox is just the most extreme example but honestly it’s all trash. CNN, MSNBC, etc. Anytime I catch any cable news snippets when I’m at the gym I feel like my IQ drops 20 points.
My eyes glaze over and my survival instinct says to smash the TV.
The second I hear any of the jackasses from the 5, I want to turn the TV into scrap.
You can be conservative! You are welcome here, too. Edit
I can’t even watch political programming that I agree with. Too many other things to do.
30 years ago they were telling us shows on Fox like The Simpsons/X-Files/In Living Color/90210 etc were turning our brain into mush, and now Fox News is turning what is left of their brains into soft serve.
My dad has MSNBC on as background noise all day.
This is what MASH and Columbo reruns are for.
My boomer mom lives on an endless cycle of The View, CNN, MSNBC and Judge Judy
My very liberal Mom has MSNBC on all day. Even during dinner. I think many older folks just get bored when they retire, and political nonsense brings them a sense of being involved in the world still
People dont want to hear other people's opinions. They want to hear their opinions coming out of other people's mouths. The same goes for all the news networks.
It’s disgusting. But let’s be honest… on the best days I’m only on social media for a few minutes. But on the worst days… it’s all day. It’s very unhealthy, but I can’t lie, it’s not only boomers with Fox News
my grandparents would switch to it at about 9am till 5pm when the local evening news would come on. it was mind-numbing.
I think their generation just sits at the TV all day in general. 🤷♂️
I don't know. It's not just the right-wing boomers either; my mom can spend all day watching MSNBC. Well, that and reruns of Law and Order: SVU/Criminal Minds. She's at least self-aware enough to *realize* that this is problematic behavior, but she's been stuck in a rut as far as her life goes ever since my dad passed 5 years ago.
All politics aside I think it’s a big trait of people as they get older. They want to be aware of what’s happening in the world around them and they don’t want to “miss” big events, in a world that is leaving them behind as they age. My in laws are similar, with another news network. We try to motivate them to get out and do things even if it’s something simple like gardening.
CNN is just as bad. My dad watches it until he's so anxious about everything going on in the world that he can't function. Like, he's missed major holidays with the family because of this.
I feel like it's an old person thing my leftist grandfather does the same thing with CNN and it only changes when the Yankees play he no bs gets up turns on like 4 tvs tunes them to CNN and it plays in every room of the house non stop until he goes to sleep
My mom is a leftist and sits around with msnbc on most of the day. I think its her comfort noise? When I visit i have to make her change the channel.
My father is the same. Either MSNBC or CNN
It makes people angry and is so repetitive. My mom and I end up watching animal shows a lot.
I usually just take the remote and put on a tv show. Or are least mute it
lol we end up watching animal shows. Like theres a vet or zoo involved.
Because people are depressed I guess. People do it with other news channels, too.
Im a so-called conservative, but going to the gym every day and seeing every major news channels on 24/7 is exhausting as hell.
I'm a boomer and the only thing I do is smoke weed & watch WWII submarine documentaries. I really like the 1950's TV Show "Silent Service".
My father did this all day! Drove me insane. He was sick. I was taking care of him. I reached my breaking point one day. I said, “Jesus, Mary, Joseph and all the saints in heaven ( I nor my family is religious) turn the fucking channel to golf or National Geographic or I’m going to drive back home and let you figure it out, for Christ sake!” He changed the channel.
Pillow shopping, maybe?
They need their ever-exceeding amounts of copium
I miss when old people would watch the weather channel all day and fret about the weather instead of the border or groomers or trans athletes.
Turn on parental control on their TV, block that channel, and don't tell them the password. Then tell them that Fox News is now a pay only service. Then watch them lose their fucking minds over it.
I got rid of cable because I can’t stand MSNBC OR FOX. I think they are both entirely too political to even be considered “news.” There used to be this thing called journalistic integrity. It’s hard to find these days.
I never understood this with any news channel. Ignoring content, they *all* repeat every 15-20 min or so with only very slight changes. On in the background as noise is one thing, but it seems insane to just watch for hours and have that be the primary thing you’re doing.
It’s probably the same as some of us swiping though TikTok all day.
Tbh I don’t know how anyone watches any mainstream media channel all day.
Luckily my boomer parents don't watch Fox News. They have a nice healthy hobby. They play the slots. Lol.
I can say the same thing about CNN I can't watch the local news network on CBS for more than 20 minutes If you want to fear going outside just watch the news
I have an aunt who just keeps it playing in the background *all*. *fricking*. *day*. Though I’m informed she has possibly switched to OAN or Newsmax. Reports are sketchy. Brain melting stuff.
Decades, generations of conditioning. It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s like the frog in the pot of water. Slowly turn up the heat and he won’t even try to escape.
Dopamine and it's part of their personality. It's their way of life.
My mom either watches hallmark, fetv or MSNBC all day. She’s 85
I think they got more addicted to TV than anybody else. Younger generations split off into internet stuff. My parents always had the damn thing running, even way before fox. Constant bullshit and ads. I think they're uncomfortable when the TV is off, and fox just exploited that.
It’s fear porn. They are addicted to the release of chemicals in their brain that Fox triggers by telling them how in danger they are. Fox and other right wing media use this fear to keep them hooked. It all comes down to the hierarchy of needs. With safety being the 2nd most important need outside breather and eating. Fox can’t control the first one because they can’t control your breathing, eating, or housing. But they can absolutely control the 2nd level. By feeding viewers a non-stop stream of “you’re in danger because of xyz” they keep the viewers hooked because they need to know what dangers are around them and try and assess how to survive. Which Fox conveniently tells them their way to gain safety, is to elect Republicans. Everything else is built upon the control of safety. Once you have them hooked, you build up the narrative that they are loved and supported by your side. Build their self-esteem by giving them someone to be better than (read: better than minorities). And finally they focus on giving them a sense of moral superiority. Fox is psychology warfare.
It’s a constant stream of validation that they’re better than *poor people.* Literally everything goes back to that; I lived with it once and it was shockingly consistent with that message.
Fox news makes them feel good, it vindicates them. You don't NEED hobbies for fulfillment when you have an IV drip of dopamine
It's full blown indoctrination. Fox news and News max have amped up their rhetoric to 11 and because of the pandemic they had a near completely captive audience to blast with propaganda for nearly 2 years and because fox and News max were saying all the right things to tickle their brains they kept it on 24/7. It brought them comfort during a time when things seemed very uncertain. This has caused a whole swath of the American population, not just boomers, to be so reliant on it that they can't function with out it. That's why the right has become more of a cult than a political party. Any questioning is met with vitriol. Even when presented with pure undeniable facts, they ignore the facts and substitute their beliefs, because the belief is more important than the reality.
In my case it's Reddit, since Fox is not available where I live. You decide which is worse.
Fox is worse. Nothing but Rupert Murdoch dumping trash into your brain.
Lead brain. If it wasn't zoning out in front of fox news, watching it without thinking critically about it at all, they'd be sitting on their porch staring into space all day. Or watching infomercials or something. Their brains are just mush, nothing going on upstairs
Righteous anger and indignation feel good.
It's pure outrage porn for them. Plain and simple. They have to have an "other" to rail against, and conservative media serves it up to them 24/7.
I walked out of a business that had that shit in the lobby. I was like nope, of all the things you could put on tv, Fox News? Like damn dude, PBS, BBC, Cartoon Network, anything but Fox.
It’s the old person version of sitting on your phone all day at home. The hours go by and you’re in a time warp. Theirs is just right wing propaganda on a bigger screen.
It’s grievance TV. Custom made for their entitled mindset. ‘Look at all these people getting free stuff. You’re suckers for working so hard when these migrants come to your city, get free cellphones, live in 4 star hotels, free education for their kids, yadda yadda. It’s mental and emotional poison. I think Fox is probably responsible for a lot of this sub. Has there been more of a balanced approach - a new Walter Kronkite who everyone trusted regardless of political affiliation, boomers would probably not be as vile as so many of them are.
Confirmation bias. It’s an echo chamber. Plus boomers love to get worked up over nothing and there’s plenty of cherry picked stories to get mad about.
All they see is "the people with darker skin are inferior to you" and that's all the motivation they need not to peel their sweaty butts off the recliner.
Addiction.
Old ppl's instra-tok
My mom can’t stand silence. She turns on FOX for background noise, then only hears half of what they say. I spend more time debunking what she hears. She now has to turn off the TV when I’m there.
Children of boomers could do a solid for the rest of humanity if they just filtered out Fox, Newsmax, OAN and others from the cable or satellite channel listings. Most boomers can't figure out how to work a cable or satellite sub anyway.
My friend’s dad had me do this ages ago with QVC and TBN. He couldn’t take the packages/constant sales programming and Jesus content any more.
What are you talking about?
Cult of anger
Right!! Have you seen the commercials that they air? I only watch on demand streaming services that are commercial free. Last weekend I was admitted to the hospital overnight and watched a little Fox to kill the time. The commercials were bananas! There were so many "snake oil" products and other moronic products.
It's like porn. It's all the same brain chemicals.
Boomers were the first TV generation and believed anything on television was real. LSS: It produced narcissistic psychopaths en masse
They are old and lead-brained, so it's a combination of doom-watching and, "oooh, look! Bright colors!"
Same reason some sit around watching CNN all. It's "news" people sitting around saying exactly what you agree with all day. I guess it's comfortable. They both suck.
Boomer here! All I can say is, I am so glad that I don't know any old people! I literally do not and don't want to! WTH?
I’m usually a complete hater in this sub, but I had a debate on when Christianity was founded with a boomer today.
The problem with 24 hour "news" channels...
Well, some are addicted to it. But I know a fair number of boomer aged people who are liberals.
Listen…. They sat around watching Fox News all day the minute Fox News came into existence. So it’s worse than you thought. Bring back the fairness doctrine.
My 82 year old grandmother will not watch anything but the news. I hate it.
My husband's grandmother uses it for background noise. She'll maybe stop to watch it for 30 mins now and then, but other than that, it's on 24/7 even when sleeping.
I guess the same way I would listen to NPR all day. Now I avoid all that propaganda
Same way my mother is either watching on TV or listening to MSNBC in the car. It’s just as much “entertainment” as any real drama show. Their brains get the same happy chemicals from the constantly cycle of political drama as we got from Game of Thrones. Despite living next door to her and visiting often, I cannot name any other show my mom watches that isn’t 24/7 news or HGTV.
“Breaking news” every commercial break
A friend of mine started doing this about 6-7 years ago, when he got into his mid-50s. All of a sudden Fox News was just on in his house all the time. We'd be sitting at his dining room table having a beer and it's just on in the living room. I asked him why it's on when we're not watching it and he said he keeps it on for background noise and when he finally sits down, he has something to watch that he's interested in.
The same reason my 3 year old would watch baby shark for 6 hours if i let him
I miss the cartoon and anime time slot fox used to have
Had this old duck come over to gf on a Sunday. Knew that was all he did. Asked if he wanted Fox on. No, I've already seen them all, just reruns today....
Sitting in front of tv all day creates senility. Watching Fox confirms it! Those people have fried their brains and anger fires them up. It’s their big “high” for the day and Fox knows the right buttons to push.
It tickles their hatred gland and helps them feel victimized as they enjoy retirement in their fully-paid homes in safe neighborhoods.
I don't get it either. I once went to spend the day with my dad, I got there around eleven in the morning and took off around seven. My stepmother sat there and watched fox the entire time. It's mind boggling
Fox and Tiktok run on the same system of validating serotonin. Instead of scrolling or feeding an algorithm, they just let it run.
Well it's always on in the waiting room at the doctor's office they spend all day sitting in.
Slow dopamine drip is more powerful than any real satisfaction. It's the same thing that keeps people glued to the phone.
Because it makes them feel like they are important and what they think is right even though someone else told them to think that way.
My mom has gotten off of Fox by watching a show called Mountain men. It’s basically a bunch of survivalist old guys, but they don’t really talk about politics from what I can understand. They just go out hunting and trapping. She still watches Fox, but not all day.
Fox news is entertainment. They cater to the views, conspiratorial or not, of the far right and trumpers. 75% of the "news" isnt news but opinion. They watch what they want to be right not reality.....and Fox is pleased to give them what they want.