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> Fox has a strangle-hold on the older minds When most people think of Fox News, they think boomers. You might be right considering that the commercials they r

by 1-6 5y ago

> Fox has a strangle-hold on the older minds When most people think of Fox News, they think boomers. You might be right considering that the commercials they repeat target that demographic. As a non-boomer, however, it is refreshing to escape away from the blame Trump on everything narrative. I have a profound respect for older Americans and enjoy asking about history from their perspective. It's always engaging and fun when things are discussed in hindsight. > The solution, I'm sorry to say, is not teaching critical thinking, or appealing to better emotions, but rather an equal-and-opposite channel: a news walk-through with the same emotional profile, but with opposite opinions to Fox. Isn't that the point of CNN (or the point of Fox whichever way you look at it)? Cable news is exactly that, a commentary of today's news. Unfortunately all the news broadcasts have gone to cable especially during a time when there are cord-cutters everywhere. News isn't free over-the-air anymore. You have to belong to a certain segment to enjoy (or be susceptible to) that news.

javajosh 5y ago
Some of the nicest, most generous, good-hearted people I know are Fox-addicted boomers. THE biggest assholes I know are liberals. My objection to Fox and it's audience is not personal. Fox is exactly like heroin: it's dangerous to the users, but it doesn't mean the users are bad people. In fact the users are in a lot of pain and are doing their best to manage it with the drug. Fox represents an extraordinary disconnect from reality - and increasingly, just watching it, and buying into it, represents an act of proud American defiance, even if it's wrong. And yet the underlying goals are sound: they want a safe, healthy, wealthy country. Yes, they also prefer white people, and Christians, and resent being forced into accepting crazy diversity shit like new pronouns (one I agree with, actually - only transfolk should get to switch pronouns!). They see the way the left attacks men, and masculinity, the way #MeToo equates allegation with guilt, and object to it by going too far in the other direction. But the resistance to liberal excess is real and comes from a good place - and liberals themselves can't do it lest they be lumped in with rapists and abusers and ostracized. But goddamn, those Fox lies, big and small, come fast and furious from Fox, 24/7, and it's terrible. Their agenda is clear for anyone to see, and there is nothing Fox won't say, no tortured argument or shameless innuendo they won't make, to forward that agenda. It's actually painful for me to watch, even if I think there are plenty of valid things to criticize modern American liberalism about.

by 1-6 5y ago

javajosh 5y ago

Some of the nicest, most generous, good-hearted people I know are Fox-addicted boomers. THE biggest assholes I know are liberals. My objection to Fox and it's audience is not personal. Fox is exactly like heroin: it's dangerous to the users, but it doesn't mean the users are bad people. In fact the users are in a lot of pain and are doing their best to manage it with the drug. Fox represents an extraordinary disconnect from reality - and increasingly, just watching it, and buying into it, represents an act of proud American defiance, even if it's wrong. And yet the underlying goals are sound: they want a safe, healthy, wealthy country. Yes, they also prefer white people, and Christians, and resent being forced into accepting crazy diversity shit like new pronouns (one I agree with, actually - only transfolk should get to switch pronouns!). They see the way the left attacks men, and masculinity, the way #MeToo equates allegation with guilt, and object to it by going too far in the other direction. But the resistance to liberal excess is real and comes from a good place - and liberals themselves can't do it lest they be lumped in with rapists and abusers and ostracized. But goddamn, those Fox lies, big and small, come fast and furious from Fox, 24/7, and it's terrible. Their agenda is clear for anyone to see, and there is nothing Fox won't say, no tortured argument or shameless innuendo they won't make, to forward that agenda. It's actually painful for me to watch, even if I think there are plenty of valid things to criticize modern American liberalism about.