2 ms·

Fox 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

Fox 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.

onli 13y ago
I don't know if that is common knowledge (or how old your father is), but there is a specific kind of paranoia which is quite common after a specific age. In Germany it's called Altersparanoia, informally (which translates to paranoia of the old). What you describes doesn't sound like the radicalization caused by manipulating (and fascist?) propaganda, but more like that (maybe triggered or fortified by that thought environment, might be possible. We still don't know enough about stuff like that). Though the holy spirit should make it a different thing, a schizophrenic attack. I'm sorry, good luck to you and your family.
- brg 13y ago
  Interesting that it is being attributed to the old and conservative. From 2002 to 2006 this kind of hysteria strongly affected the youth in the US beyond what I would consider reasonable measure. In 2004 I couldn't have a political discussion without someone talking about the inevitability of the draft, and in 2006 it was about how one party was obviously more corrupt than the other. From a foreign perspective, these views were obviously false, but were held by some with hysterical strength.

onli 13y ago

I don't know if that is common knowledge (or how old your father is), but there is a specific kind of paranoia which is quite common after a specific age. In Germany it's called Altersparanoia, informally (which translates to paranoia of the old). What you describes doesn't sound like the radicalization caused by manipulating (and fascist?) propaganda, but more like that (maybe triggered or fortified by that thought environment, might be possible. We still don't know enough about stuff like that). Though the holy spirit should make it a different thing, a schizophrenic attack. I'm sorry, good luck to you and your family.

brg 13y ago
Interesting that it is being attributed to the old and conservative. From 2002 to 2006 this kind of hysteria strongly affected the youth in the US beyond what I would consider reasonable measure. In 2004 I couldn't have a political discussion without someone talking about the inevitability of the draft, and in 2006 it was about how one party was obviously more corrupt than the other. From a foreign perspective, these views were obviously false, but were held by some with hysterical strength.