From this mornings Guardian Luke O’Neil

The following 8 pieces are from an article describing what is being called FOX news brain, and the damage it is doing to American families. Read this and don’t make your family one of the victims.

I love my mother. She is one of the kindest and sweetest people you will ever meet and I would be nothing without her. I’ve never heard her say a bad word about anyone, never mind anything overtly terrible, like the type of thing, for example, you might hear from Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity. But I do know, much to my dismay, that she has watched them on TV a lot over the years. As such, my mom and I have agreed to not talk about politics anymore. The cognitive dissonance between this lovely woman finding something appealing in the most xenophobic pundits on TV is too hard for me to reconcile. I don’t want to think about it.

It turns out there are a lot of families across the country who have a similar arrangement, or worse, in which people have stopped talking altogether to relatives they feel have been stolen from them by Fox News.


To be clear, Fox News didn’t invent the w***e s*******y and r****m at the heart of America, but the channel has definitely supercharged it. It’s also important to point out that “My parents watched the bad TV and got r****t off it” is clearly a much less serious problem than being someone whose life is put at risk by the type of stuff Fox News promotes. That doesn’t make seeing someone you care about slide into the myopic bubble of right wing propaganda any easier.


I mentioned the idea of losing family to Fox News brain on Twitter the other day, and unsurprisingly, a lot of people had their own similar stories. I asked some of them to share how it felt.

Here’s a collection of the stories people shared.

If you do not watch Fox, you do not have a say in this discussion. I have watched that station to see both sides of the political world, and Fox is not fair and balanced in any way. It has also affected my family to the point where we agree to disagree. My normally empathetic parents frequently rail against a raise in the minimum wage, Medicare for all, and the regulations imposed by the government on businesses. Those regulations are for the safety and health of the citizens. We will be realizing those consequences in the near future with food safety as the Trump administration will now allow the meat industry to police itself. Fox fans do not realize that they are being fed propaganda that is really against their best interests.

If you do not watch Fox, you do not have a say in this discussion. I have watched that station to see both sides of the political world, and Fox is not fair and balanced in any way. It has also affected my family to the point where we agree to disagree. My normally empathetic parents frequently rail against a raise in the minimum wage, Medicare for all, and the regulations imposed by the government on businesses. Those regulations are for the safety and health of the citizens. We will be realizing those consequences in the near future with food safety as the Trump administration will now allow the meat industry to police itself. Fox fans do not realize that they are being fed propaganda that is really against their best interests.

Just a general comment, so not replying to anyone specifically. I am so tired of hearing people on the left (who must be aware at this point that the vast majority of media outlets are pushing their agenda) whine about those few remaining voices that actually present a conservative viewpoint. If you're only happy when everyone around you is espousing your world view, then you deserve the apparent anguish you feel when you encounter that rare dissenting opinion. Maybe we don't deserve another 12 years.

From this mornings Guardian Luke O’Neil

The following 8 pieces are from an article describing what is being called FOX news brain, and the damage it is doing to American families. Read this and don’t make your family one of the victims.

I love my mother. She is one of the kindest and sweetest people you will ever meet and I would be nothing without her. I’ve never heard her say a bad word about anyone, never mind anything overtly terrible, like the type of thing, for example, you might hear from Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity. But I do know, much to my dismay, that she has watched them on TV a lot over the years. As such, my mom and I have agreed to not talk about politics anymore. The cognitive dissonance between this lovely woman finding something appealing in the most xenophobic pundits on TV is too hard for me to reconcile. I don’t want to think about it.

It turns out there are a lot of families across the country who have a similar arrangement, or worse, in which people have stopped talking altogether to relatives they feel have been stolen from them by Fox News.


To be clear, Fox News didn’t invent the w***e s*******y and r****m at the heart of America, but the channel has definitely supercharged it. It’s also important to point out that “My parents watched the bad TV and got r****t off it” is clearly a much less serious problem than being someone whose life is put at risk by the type of stuff Fox News promotes. That doesn’t make seeing someone you care about slide into the myopic bubble of right wing propaganda any easier.


I mentioned the idea of losing family to Fox News brain on Twitter the other day, and unsurprisingly, a lot of people had their own similar stories. I asked some of them to share how it felt.

Here’s a collection of the stories people shared.

After Obama was elected I thought my dad had turned a corner – he said he stopped listening to talk radio, especially Rush Limbaugh, on his long work commute, because he said that Limbaugh had gone off the deep end.

I don’t watch Fox News because of course it warps your psyche, but it must have changed tone after Trump was elected. My dad slowly became even more xenophobic and angry than he used to be.

My wife and I are worried about letting our daughter stay with our respective parents, because their toxic anger and resentment is slowly becoming their entire identity. I h**e what Fox News has done to almost everyone in my family. It’s absolute poison and the only thing I think is worse is that there are people who think that destroying the morals and conscience of multiple generations is worth a few more bucks. I absolutely refuse to believe that people like Hannity don’t know what they are doing.

I wish I could do something, but who has the time or energy to combat that?

If you do not watch Fox, you do not have a say in this discussion. I have watched that station to see both sides of the political world, and Fox is not fair and balanced in any way. It has also affected my family to the point where we agree to disagree. My normally empathetic parents frequently rail against a raise in the minimum wage, Medicare for all, and the regulations imposed by the government on businesses. Those regulations are for the safety and health of the citizens. We will be realizing those consequences in the near future with food safety as the Trump administration will now allow the meat industry to police itself. Fox fans do not realize that they are being fed propaganda that is really against their best interests.