# A modest proposal -- buy Fox News and OANN **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [November 7, 2023, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-buy-fox-news-and-oann/992725 "2023-11-07T00:47:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2023, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-buy-fox-news-and-oann/992725/1 "2023-11-07T00:47:43Z")
Given that the people who watch those two particular services are living in their own reality bubble and seem loathe to leave it I would propose that some rich billionaire – George Soros comes to mind – buys them both and then… instead of trying to get them to grasp what’s real over what is not, _give them what they want._ Over the next year or so – so far as they see – Trump is exonerated of all charges, runs for President, and wins in a walk. CGI imagery shows the handful of Democrats that managed to squeak into the House and Senate are lined up against the wall and shot. The head of the Biden crime family is flushed out of his Delaware hideout with tear gas and black-bagged onto a C-130 bound for Gitmo. Trump is declared President for Life by general acclamation and then, when it is seen what a shining city on the hill the US has become, made Emperor of the World as the last act of the UN before it is dissolved. Any signs to the contrary they might see as they move about their neighborhood are paid actors, the last gasp of the Deep State just trying to rouse the rabble and to be pitied. It doesn’t matter anyway because we don’t have elections any more. Like the residents of the B-ark they can _have_ their own little world and leave the rest of us alone. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2023, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-buy-fox-news-and-oann/992725/2 "2023-11-07T01:19:24Z")
It’s not entirely original idea: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/mIjSaHUKD5I/hqdefault.jpg "Goodbye Lenin - Trailer #1") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIjSaHUKD5I) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2023, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-buy-fox-news-and-oann/992725/3 "2023-11-07T01:23:26Z")
I doubt they’ve seen that. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2023, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-buy-fox-news-and-oann/992725/4 "2023-11-07T01:29:17Z")
No, but you might find the challenge of keeping up the facade for 74 million voters a bit of a challenge. Still, I like the cut of your gibberish, and will pitch in a ten-spot if you figure out how to make it work. Twenty if you can convince them all to move to the Dakotas and construct an impenetrable wall “to keep the libs out”. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2023, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-buy-fox-news-and-oann/992725/5 "2023-11-07T03:25:02Z")
I too have a modest proposal. Buy Fox News and OANN. Then over the course of about 3 years, slowly morph them into telling the actual truth, not the fake crap they peddle now. Present real issues with real tradeoffs. Talk about morals and duty and the importance of community, not mah rights and selfishness and the importance of hate. I have a different modest proposal inspired by certain other billionaire’s recent business shenanigans. Buy them and shut them down. Click. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2023, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-buy-fox-news-and-oann/992725/6 "2023-11-07T05:54:18Z")
Unfortunately they have demonstrated an imperviousness to that tactic. Case in point, the fallout when Fox declared Arizona for Biden first. Better to keep them in their own little bubble with no intersection to the one we share, kind of like that episode in TNG where a pair of miscreants who’d escaped the holodeck were given their own universe in a box to explore. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2023, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-buy-fox-news-and-oann/992725/7 "2023-11-07T13:30:20Z")
Problem is they’ll still behave in the real world. Soon they’ll be demanding to see actual police round-ups of their local brown people, not just seeing vids of it happening elsewhere. I think **Stranger** nailed it. Tell them there’s a RW paradise waiting in the Dakotas if only they’ll wall themselves off inside. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2023, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-buy-fox-news-and-oann/992725/8 "2023-11-07T14:02:08Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > . . . I would propose that some rich billionaire – George Soros comes to mind – buys them both and then… After George Soros buys them, what are we saying they will do with all that money? Start new networks, now debt-free, I suppose. I hope the billionaire is other than Soros. He’s already enough of a lightning rod for antisemitism. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2023, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-buy-fox-news-and-oann/992725/9 "2023-11-07T14:59:19Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Buy Fox News and OANN. Then over the course of about 3 years, slowly morph them into telling the actual truth, not the fake crap they peddle now. Present real issues with real tradeoffs. Talk about morals and duty and the importance of community, not mah rights and selfishness and the importance of hate. This is probably the only way to deprogram that many people and help them back to reality. And probably as realistic as the proposed gulag archipeligo in the Dakotas. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2023, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-buy-fox-news-and-oann/992725/10 "2023-11-07T15:03:53Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > the proposed gulag archipeligo in the Dakotas. Basically the [Marching Morons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons) solution, then? ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2023, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-buy-fox-news-and-oann/992725/11 "2023-11-07T16:17:44Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > No, but you might find the challenge of keeping up the facade for 74 million voters a bit of a challenge. About that many people are convinced the 2020 election was stolen, that America’s southern border is completely free movement, Antifa has caused more killings than white supremacists and the economy is in the toilet. A smaller number (though still probably tens of millions) believes QAnon crap. So it turns out you can go pretty far with the BS, though of course the OP’s plan is some pretty high-level stuff. Also I think it would also require buying Sinclair also. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2023, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-buy-fox-news-and-oann/992725/12 "2023-11-07T19:52:28Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I think **Stranger** nailed it. Tell them there’s a RW paradise waiting in the Dakotas if only they’ll wall themselves off inside. Nah, convince them to take a vacation on Venus. > [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > Basically the [Marching Morons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons) solution, then? EXACTLY the Marching Morons solution. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2023, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-buy-fox-news-and-oann/992725/13 "2023-11-07T21:55:09Z")
Sounds more like the [The Space Merchants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Merchants). ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2023, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-modest-proposal-buy-fox-news-and-oann/992725/14 "2023-11-07T22:44:30Z")
I recall a joke where a nation’s leader was beset by constant border skirmishes from the neighboring country. They find a old oil lamp, polish it, and out pops a genie offering the traditional three wishes. > 1. I wish to rule for a long and prosperous time. “Done!” says the genie. > 2. I wish you to build a mile high impenetrable wall around my enemy’s country to stop these invasions. “Done!” says the genie. > 3. I wish you to fill it with water. A tempting solution to be sure. Now we just need a genie.