long meandering rant to follow.
God damn! Fox isn’t even trying to pretend they’re fair and balanced anymore! I’ve walked out into the other part of the house to get something to drink twice tonight. My mom’s asleep in the family room with the TV on the junk food of news channels.
The first time, they were wrapping up a “news story” about the book of John’s prediction of the apocalypse; beyond belief? I think it’s the question mark that really bothers me. They then proceeded to advise the audience to tune in next week when they’ll discuss stories about christian statues crying tears of blood. The teaser for the next program was a story about how a brutal murder near Philadelphia recently is related to the Muslim practice of polygamy, which is going on even here in the US! :eek: Hide your daughters!!
…sorry, got a little snarky there.
The second time I go out, they’re running some talk show that’s playing a clip of some asshole doing a skit trying to make fun of atheists by showing “how they’d deliver a speach.” Right, because their entire lives revolve around reaffirming that they don’t believe in anything not scientifically verifiable. So they’d litter a speech with references to the non-entity they don’t worship the way only a fundie can shoehorn a reference to God into speaches.
I mean, I never thought they were an ok network (well, not after the first month and a half or so that we started getting it), but I still can’t believe how blatantly their programming tonight seems to be pandering to right-wing Christian fundamentalists types.
I walked out the second time and changed the channel. I’d say something to my mom, but what’s the point? It wouldn’t do any good. She’s built this mental image that everyone who disagrees with her politically is some sort of self-righteous intellectual snob who thinks hse’s a moron. If anyone disagrees with her, we’re attacking her right to hold an opinion, not having a discussion. She acts like we all talk about her behind her back as though we’re ashamed. I guess I kind of am doing that now, but she’s a normally intelligent, rational woman, who’s letting these 24-hour news networks poison her by working her up into a frenzy about the injustices of the world, how people have no patriotism anymore, about those damn-dirty democrats, and since she can’t do anything about most of it, she just internalizes it and becomes more bitter and out-there.
Every now and then we’ll be having a discussion, and she’ll go off on some tangent that’s borderline if not outright prejudice about the jews this, or the blacks that, or how they have a lot of crime there because of all the mexicans, etc. She acts the fact that Muslims coming into this country choose to live in neighbourhoods together is indicative of some widespread agenda against the Country (or more accurately, the practice of Christianity, which seem to be one and the same in her mind).
She gets terribly upset about how “in 20-30 years, Spanish will be the main language of this country.” First of all, no it won’t, and secondly even if it does, so what? So I might have to learn passable Spanish down the road. Yet to her this would be some great wrong. 10 years ago she wasn’t like this, and used to roll her eyes at her sister (I loved my aunt, but she was a top-grade right-wing conspiracy nut) with most of the rest of the family. I don’t know if it was her outrage at the Clinton scandal, her conviction that my aunt’s predictions of a horrible attack against us where vindicated by 9/11, or what, but I can’t help but feel like it’s her ongoing addiction to watching these channels almost round-the-clock that’s making her the way she is.
I hate this growing trend in her attitudes. I hate that I have to stand by and watch this continue, because trying to do anything about just hurts her feelings and makes her resent my opinion. I hate that we live in a country where news isn’t about providing people access to information about what’s going on in the world and how it effects their lives, but about how can we pander to some demographic and play on people’s fears to sell advertising time. I hate the ridiculous amount of time and attention that is wasted on celebrity gossip, the cat who took in some exotic animal pup downtown (and all the other stupid “human interest” news stories), instead of reporting on what’s going on in the government. I hate that even the political shows are just slander, libel, and spin; rather than tell us about what issues are before the gov’t, how the officials are dealing with it, and so-and-so’s voting record, we get Bill O’Reilly, or some politician’s BS lines about what he stands for (which are almost never what he stands for).
…sorry, I just needed to get that off my chest.