Gavin Volure’s Peanut ButterMy 90 yo mom, who we triumphantly snatched from the precipice of Trumpism a couple years ago merely by replacing her Fox news with CNN, is staying with me at the farm for the weekend. We watched MSNBC this afternoon, and of course there was a bunch of disparaging Trump campaign coverage. She muttered — when Al Sharpton brought up Trump’s most recent self-comparison to Jesus — “I can’t believe I voted for that asshole.”
Side note: one of the MSNBC commentators mentioned that he was on Twitter and Threads and “even Mastodon” and my mom went “Mastodon? What’s that?”
I’ve told and re-told the story of how my mom, who used to be a decent, reasonable, sweet little old lady doing good works in the community, was brainwashed into a paranoid anti-immigrant freak by a steady diet of Fox. She would go on and on about “the caravans” of “criminals” besieging “our borders,” and even bought a MyPillow. I remain amazed that all it took to pull her back from the Dark Side was removing Fox from her remote. She was her old liberal (sigh, but I’ll take what I can get) self again within a couple of months. The whole episode was just astonishing. That channel is truly depraved and dastardly.
I lost 5 years with my mom, for one thing. She was like a postulant in a cult, there was no reasoning with her, no facts would suffice, and she didn’t seem to care that I, her cancer-ridden gay firstborn, was gonna lose healthcare and was under attack by her government. Since the mother had become a MAGA zombie, I had to mostly cut ties. I will never forgive Fox news for that, and I know I’m not alone. There’s a whole documentary about the Fox news brainwashing phenomenon, in fact. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brainwashing_of_My_Dad Everyone in charge of that family-destroying shit should get the guillotine.
RiaResists@iBlame same.
I’m estranged from my whole family. Half of them bc they happily reside in the echo chamber & are always in my mother’s ears.
Can’t even give her good news without her hearing me say something bad the sibs said they heard.
It’s been decades of constant conditioning for them.
It’s basically a cult.
Facts don’t matter.
I’m estranged from my whole family. Half of them bc they happily reside in the echo chamber & are always in my mother’s ears.
Can’t even give her good news without her hearing me say something bad the sibs said they heard.
It’s been decades of constant conditioning for them.
It’s basically a cult.
Facts don’t matter.
@RiaResists It’s the worst. Solidarity.✊
kira :3@iBlame i think about how there is weight behind the phrase "they started watching fox" when someone talks about what happened to someone they know, it's such a ubiquitous understanding
@chrisisgr8 We’ve all been there. Sadly.
The Febrile Muse@iBlame I am so glad you got her back.
@CMDoran Yeah, I mean, it was so horrible, for like 5 years. She was unrecognizable to us. Nightmarish.
Lachesis@iBlame
reposting bc this is a speck of right-on amidst (waves) all this.
reposting bc this is a speck of right-on amidst (waves) all this.
AnnZ@iBlame now that is a heart-warming photo. Glad you have your mom back, time passes too quickly to lose any time together.
Doc AWFL*
Vee@iBlame ...one at a time... we'll get em all.
Samhain Night@iBlame I’m glad you were able to save her 💜
Richard Knott@iBlame in the UK, my mother was an avid Daiky Mail reader. We occasionally talk about politics and she kept wondering why some of the stuff I was talking about she knew nothing about. I subscribed her to the Independent and now she’s started a one woman campaign in the village about water pollution and says she’s never voting Conservative again.
@richardknott Bravo! I guess sometimes that’s all it takes. My mom was the same way here in the states. “Why did I never hear about Trump grabbing pussy?” she will say to me now. And don’t get me started on how I had to define “schlong” to her because Trump used it in some dumb remark. The upshot is, Mom is voting Biden this fall. Despite her observation, as a 90 yo voter, that he is “painfully infirm.” LOL
FreediverX@iBlame
You should get her to watch Democracy Now
You should get her to watch Democracy Now
Joe Hill 🇵🇸🇺🇦@iBlame
Well done. Although my folks were very liberal, in a way I’m glad they passed before all this came down.
Well done. Although my folks were very liberal, in a way I’m glad they passed before all this came down.
Tony Novak@iBlame My 91 year old father watches Fox. I’ve seen significant decline in his mental health and ability to discern fact from fiction. He is otherwise sharp in matters outside of the news.
BlueintheSouth@iBlame Most people wonder why ANYONE voted for him
Scott Grimmett
CartyBostonWhat a lovely picture.
Daisy the Burpadoodle@iBlame Those of you who were able to get your parents back are lucky. Before my dad died he switched from watching Fox . . . to Newsmax. With 2 daughters, he couldn't have cared less about the world he wanted to leave us with.
@b7ski I’m so sorry. That just sucks.
Len Whitten@iBlame @lisamelton Similar experience: my 91 yo mom. Fox News 24hr watching husband passed. She had voted Trunp, but after switching back to NBC, now says she can't stand Trump & would never vote for him again.
There is (some) hope...
There is (some) hope...
@iBlame @lisamelton I spelled TFG as “Trunp”, and now all I can see is “Turnip”.
I think I’ll use Turnip from now on.
Although, turnips do have some value…
I think I’ll use Turnip from now on.
Although, turnips do have some value…
@iBlame
Better yet, stop watching commercially driven news. NPR and PBS are far better sources.
Better yet, stop watching commercially driven news. NPR and PBS are far better sources.