Originally Posted By DyGDisney My mom watches A LOT of Fox news, and she has become very depressed and stressed about a lot of things. Here are a few: We are becomming a socialist country. The government is going to put us in concentration camps. There is going to be a revolution. The government is going to require mandatory volunteering for youth. Government regulation of your backyard garden. We all need guns to protect ourselves when everyone loses their jobs and things completely fall apart. The list goes on. I checked factcheck.org for her on a couple of those things and I told her to check them herself, to which she replied, "I don't need to check. I know it's true." I told her she needs to turn off the news, ignorance is bliss. But she thinks it's all going to happen, and soon. This is crazy, but more than that, unhealthy. The "fair and balanced" news is brainwashing people into believing these things, to the point of wanting a revolution. It scares me more than anything else I hear these days.
Originally Posted By ecdc I wonder how long it will be before some disillusioned person does something crazy and people get hurt. And of course then, Fox News will blame liberals for creating a country that causes people to do this. The irrationality is astounding.
Originally Posted By Mr X It has already happened. <a href="http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=80989&catid=2" target="_blank">http://www.wbir.com/news/local...&catid=2</a> ***two people died and seven others were hurt in that one-man rampage at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.*** ***In his note, he wrote "Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate and House, the 100 people in Bernard Golderg's book. I'd like to kill everyone in the mainstream media. But I knew these people were inaccessible to me"*** ***"I just drove down there...to kill some Democrats," Adkisson said in his interview with police.***
Originally Posted By jasmine7 I know what you're talking about, DyG. Even though I'm a liberal, I've always listened to talk radio quite a bit, especially the local talk show, always telling myself it was to keep informed on the other side's views. It honestly stressed me out and made me physically ill. I've hit the point to where I just can't stand to listen to it any more. It's all doom and gloom, all Armageddon is coming (yeah, that's the local guy, thinks the end times are here or will be soon). I don't understand how someone can live like that, live with that perpetual darkness mindset.
Originally Posted By DAR So this is the original OP's mother somehow being depressed by watching Fox News not some scientific study. Just checking.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh Because, you know, liberals never engaged in hyperbole when discussing the "misdeeds" of the Bush Administration.
Originally Posted By BlueDevilSF Oh, put a sock in it, Douglas. You're truly no better than anyone else when it comes to hyperbole. I know it, and everyone else around here knows it. If anyone here is a doo-doo instigator, you really need to count yourself among that number.
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 Also, the "misdeeds" of Bush is not the same thing as trying to instill fear on a daily basis to keep your base energized. My grandparents also watch FOX news all the time, and my grandmother especially sounds the same as your mother, DygDisney. She was already a worry-wart, but this stuff just poshes her over the edge. It makes me sad because I think it's causing her to deteriorate faster. I just hate the constant state of fear we've been forced to endure for the last 8 years, and the GOP doesn't seem to want to let go of the stranglehold. We're constantly told to be afraid of another terrorist attack, or our country will become a socialist country, etc. We're not supposed to be hopefull for this country at all, everything is going to hell in a handbasket. Forget about wanting the current president to actually fix our country, it's all about being afraid of him, and resisting any change. I'm so sick of the totally negative slant...
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>We're not supposed to be hopefull for this country at all, everything is going to hell in a handbasket.<< Absent ideas and a rudder of any kind, it's all they've got to offer. It works with about 25% of the country it seems.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney SPP -- are you referring to the fact that I've mentioned my mom before in this way? I have, but it's gotten worse. And my fear is all the others who feel the same way as her. If the President is killed, it will be by the Republican media and party.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney It is my mom to which I'm referring. But, I am afraid of people who have a like mind CREATING the exact revolution they fear. Have you all heard about the Tea Parties on tax day?
Originally Posted By DyGDisney It is my mom to which I'm referring. But, I am afraid of people who have a like mind CREATING the exact revolution they fear. Have you all heard about the Tea Parties on tax day?
Originally Posted By ecdc >>Because, you know, liberals never engaged in hyperbole when discussing the "misdeeds" of the Bush Administration.<< Of course they did. But again, the moral equivalency argument won't fly here. The "misdeeds" of the Bush Administration were, so far, much worse and more egregious than any "misdeeds" of the Obama Administration. If we track the misdeeds of the Bush Administration, we can judge their impact on our culture - more dead soldiers, more dead Iraqis, for example. A failed economy (though this is hardly entirely their fault, they failed to take any action to prevent it, and instead instituted policies that enlarged the problem). More terrorists due to inadvisable policies in the Middle East, etc. The Obama Administration does not yet have similar "misdeeds" under its name.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros You know what, I get that same depression no matter which station I watch. Watching one of the other networks, they say things that leave me a little leery. When they are so extatic about grand new plans, but don't say a single thing about where the money is coming from, I get worried. When they are so overly positive about a person, no matter what their action may be. It's there on every channel. Sure, some focus on it more than others, but if you read between the lines, you can find it pretty easily. Honestly, the other networks scare me more because they act as if there is something to cover up. From what I've seen so far, there is no real 4 year plan or long term vision that's currently being used. It's just trying to run around and try to stick your finger in the holes where water is leaking in, and in the mean time the iceberg is still ripping a giant hole in the side. I'm sure I sound like "one of them" right now, but I really don't feel any more depressed watching 'conservative' news than I do watching the 'evil liberal media'. It's scary from either side, and the more I watch, the more I want to turn away. "I told her she needs to turn off the news, ignorance is bliss." In a way, yes, it is. In another way, that's how we got ourselves into the mess we're in now.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney Hyperbole means to exaggerate something to make a point. This is not hyperbole, it's brainwashing. If it were hyperbole, the people would know it was merely an exaggeration, not take it as truth.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney We, as the public, have elected these officials and now they are making the decisions. Fretting about every thing they do, every law which goes through congress, most of which won't pass, does not do us any good. It's the worry and the fear that is not healthy. If you don't like something that's being done, by all means write your congressman/senator/president. But the fear will lead to violence.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney Oh, and Fox and the other conservative media is doing a pretty good job of convincing people that the mainstream media is covering things up.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <Hyperbole means to exaggerate something to make a point. This is not hyperbole, it's brainwashing. If it were hyperbole, the people would know it was merely an exaggeration, not take it as truth.> That's an excellent point.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper Conservative news, liberal news...frankly it is all BAD news. For the senior population who grew up with OUTSTANDING news professionals watching ANY of it has to be depressing. On most channels you get A yelling at B. That is supposed to inform, educate or inspire? I don't think so.
