My poor 87 year old mother has become confused, and I'm blaming Right-Wing Media.

[Ohioboy]

I just got back from a 2 day visit with my 87 year old Mom for mothers' day. My mother is very healthy, both in mind and body. She is very clear with no signs of memory loss or dementia, but her view of Trump has me worried.

We were talking about the need for consumer protections, especially with financial products, and credit. Both of us agreed that such protections are good and necessary. That's when she said "That's why I'm glad Trump is draining the swamp". I'm like..."What?"!

At first I thought she was being sarcastic, she has a quick wit, but when I questioned her further it became evident that she was serious. Somehow my mother, a very intelligent together person, got the idea that Trump was all about consumer protection with his campaign promise to "drain the swamp". She thinks Trump has been working to make it so big corporations can't scam their customers. I tried my best to explain to her how she needs to support people like Elizabeth Warren for that and not Trump, but she seemed pretty set in her thinking. I'll be following up with her later on this to explain further, but in the meantime I think she actually believes Trump is all for consumer protections.

Later that same evening when she wanted to watch some television the TV defaulted right to FOX. I'm blaming them.

This is a true story! I just back an hour ago from the trip.

[Ohiogal]

1. I'm so sorry

that Fox has poisoned your otherwise intelligent mother's brain. I hate them more and more every day.

[yesphan]

2. SAme thing happened to my father

and now my older brother. Fuck em ! (not my relatives, fox,info wars, etc..........)

[kimbutgar]

3. Too bad you didn't block fox on her tv

Another person did this to their father recently.

Sometimes when I go to hotels I block fox on the tv.

[Ohioboy]

5. I was thinking about that, but wasn't sure how to do it.

I'm not good with how a lot of tech stuff works. I didn't want to totally mess something up and leave her without TV at all.

[kimbutgar]

9. It depends on the way she receives her news

Cable or satellite. In the menu settings they have an area where it is parental controls where you pick a channel to block.

[Hortensis]

7. :) I'd block Fox on hotel TVs without a qualm and

hope it stuck for a while. But to do so to one's grandmother would be a profoundly disrespectful interference with her personal choices. Big no-no. I'd sure long to be able to, though.

[Hortensis]

4. PBS is doing a series on fake news, and one segment

features the producer's grandmother, a strong conservative, who generously allowed herself to be portrayed as a subject of its pernicious effects. The medium they examined was Facebook News, not Fox, but otherwise she might be yours. This grandmother regards herself as an independent thinker and occasionally, as necessary, does check facts and believes she respects truth, and she's still filled chock full with delusions.

[iscooterliberally]

6. The same thing happened with my folks yesterday too.

They think Trump is a good negotiator. They watch Fox all the time too. Mom's 78 and my step-dad is in his early 80s. I really hate Fox. What a disaster they have been for our country. I can't convince my parents of what a horrible person Trump is, even though he stepped right up the hot mic with the cameras rolling and told us all directly to our faces what a jack-ass he is.

(this is our new salute I suppose)

[Turbineguy]

8. Fox is a mind altering drug.

And it doesn't have any pejorative terms attached like "dropping acid", "shooting heroin" or even "smoking dope".

Maybe we need to come up with a term that associates "watching" with something bad. In Britain they have the term "glassing", the verb for glass, as in attacking somebody with a broken bottle.

Update: It seems the WH people themselves have worked out a name for this: "a dosage of Fox". Well maybe just "a dose", as in, "a dose of Gonorrhea"

[enough]

10. This happened to both my elderly parents.

It’s partly about fear. As you get older you start to feel precarious in many ways, and you can become susceptible to fear mongering.

It’s also about simplicity. Fox News makes things simple. All these issues are very complex, but Fox News gives you simple ideas to hang onto. Witch Hunt, drain the swamp, can’t afford healthcare for all or welfare programs, immigrants are criminals, global warming is a hoax, etc etc. Pick an issue, they have a simple idea to answer it.

[Ohioboy]

11. You're right about that.

They use short, easy to remember, phrases full of emotion and they stick.

[renate]

12. those are very good points, and they explain SO MUCH

Especially about how Fox is so persuasive to people in certain demographics. Or to people who are working two jobs (and are already in anger or exhaustion mode as a result) and don't have time for nuanced information, etc.

[Kittycow]

13. Welp, happened to my elderly parents too.

They're in their early '90's but still run around the PNW Fifth Wheel camping in the warmer months so they're not doddering too much yet.

Anyway, long story short, I told my mom at a family holiday dinner when she was going on and on about Obama being a "mulatto"--" he's not even a real black person"-- and "Moose-chelle" that I was grateful that my Real Mommy raised me and not Fox Mommy.

She's turned into a real asshole.

[enough]

15. That is so terrible when the very parents who taught you about the world

turn into bigots before your eyes. I remember sitting in a doctor’s waiting room while my aged mother made racist and anti Semitic remarks about other people in the room. The same mother who taught me about how all humans are one family and we all have to work and live together.

That confirmed for me that intolerance is a form of mental illness or dementia.

[sarcasmo]

14. Block Fox News from the TV.