Just had a terrible confrontation w/ a friend: Damn Fox "news" to hell!

[dutch508]

BComplex (1,018 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213409708

Just had a terrible confrontation w/ a friend: Damn Fox "news" to hell!

This woman and I have been becoming friends for a few years, and have friends in common. We've met a couple of times car-window to car-window for social distancing lunches, which a lot of girlfriends are doing these days.

This woman is a Phd. and a minister, late 60's. So we're talking about this man she's interested in, and how she hasn't seen him because of social distancing, and all of a sudden....here she goes with Fox "news" crap:

"The liberals are trying to count all deaths as coronavirus to make trump look bad".

"Trump is the chosen one of God, and when he's out of office, the liberals are going to start what the Bible says in Armageddon. These are the end days, and the liberals are the devil's pawns."

(Complete lies. No Dr. of Religion is going to shout TRUMP IS GOD'S CHOSEN!!!" Just a bad bouncy...)

I interrupted her and said, "You must be a Fox "news" fan."

She says "Of course I am! They're the only ones that tell the TRUTH about things. All the other channels are run by the liberals, and they lie all the time. Fox is the only place that I can get a fair and balanced take on what is going on!"

She said: "what corked it for me...ya wanna know what corked it for me? Liberals kill babies!!! The doctor puts the baby in her hands and she kills it!!!" (She said it. Her face was all contorted.)

I said: "I AM A LIBERAL!!! And that is SO not true!!!"

(Democrats and Liberals absolutely kill millions of babies every year. They are proud out it.)

It went downhill from there.

It was over an hour ago, and I'm still shaking, and deeply sad. Fox is making liberals out to be the devil with these people. How is that not splitting this country apart? How can they be allowed to do this?

Furthermore, this person had "links" to videos that she wanted to send me to prove it. I told her I didn't want to see any such trash. And I told her to turn off Fox news. She said she loves it. She loves it, but she hates liberals.

Fox "news". Something has to be done. I don't see how we can ever heal from this. I don't ever want to see this woman again, and I know so many people think just like she does. How can we be the "united" states, if fox keeps programming 1/2 of the people to HATE the other half?

What lies did she say?

COVID-19 numbers are being overcounted.
Liberals champion abortion up to and after live birth.

 

sfstaxprep (364 posts)

1. Friend?

Furthermore, this person had "links" to videos that she wanted to send me to prove it. I told her I didn't want to see any such trash. And I told her to turn off Fox news. She said she loves it. She loves it, but she hates liberals.


And you still call this person "friend?" I prefer to be friends with people who don't HATE me.

Star Member msongs (55,189 posts)

2. "minister", "bible", "fox news". that about covers it nt

essaynnc (144 posts)

6. My condolences.....

I'm sorry that you had such a confrontation with an "almost" friend.

I had a similar experience earlier in the week, with an acquaintance and his girlfriend. We started talking about the pandemic and he quickly started spouting obvious faux news talking points... how the cure is worse than the disease, how more people are dying due to the shutdown, how it's killing the economy and the deaths are overblown, we have to get people back to work, how sunshine and blood transfusions "cure" the disease. His girlfriend was looking on with horror as he talked, I finally told him, look, you're obviously a fox news junkie, and you're just repeating what you've heard. You need to do some research, not just parrot what you've heard.

He just turned around and walked away...... I don't think that he'll ever reach out to me again.

no cops jumping out of bushes. 0-bongs.

dawg day (4,596 posts)

7. I think proclaiming you're a liberal is a good tactic, actually-

As long as they can imagine liberals and Democrats are monstrous anonymous boogie men, they can come up with the most insane impressions. But when you say, "I-- the one you have lunch with and trust with your confidences-- am a liberal," they might actually stop and think.

I don't know. I wonder if they do. I wonder if they ever think, "Why am I choosing this Trump guy over actual friends?"

I have a young cousin whose parents (they are my actual cousins-- she's "once-removed" I guess) are furious Trumpers. They used to be kind of rightwing but okay, you know, against gay marriage in principle but polite to the gay couple next door. Since 2015, though, they've become (in tandem) really loud and angry and utterly devoted to Trump. They're not into the more arcane conspiracy theories, but they're into blaming Democrats for everything including the virus.

My young cousin is - amazing considering who raised her-- liberal and tolerant. The last time she was home, her parents went on a rant about how it was the Soros-gay conspiracy that brought the virus over (the trifecta-- antisemitic homophobic anti-science) to destroy Trump's presidency.

She hasn't gone back. She's a mild person and doesn't want to make a big scene over it, but she's staying away. And I thought, "Her parents chose Trump over their own daughter."

I don't know how those people are going to come back into the normal range. They're too far gone.

 

cayugafalls (567 posts)

8. The extreme right media machine has demonized the left.

We are to be considered dangerous and evil.

They have done exactly what Goebbels did in Nazi Germany. Dehumanize the enemy so that people feel justified in their hatred.

It will be very difficult to fight and make things right again.

I am very afraid for our country, the division is very deep.

Star Member get the red out (13,328 posts)

10. Fox is disgusting

And she's a PhD you said, and she wanting to send you links to her cult brainwashing tapes in order to prove the truth of the cult brainwashing tapes? Round and round they go.

JMO but I think Churches are a huge distributer of Fox thinking and shit for brains "news". My gentle, loving aunt passes sick RW memes along on FB, I guess that's what white, rural southerners who have been terrorized about going to hell feel they have to do.

I hate this sick shit.

Star Member womanofthehills (4,787 posts)

68. An ex boyfriend from high school who has a PHD recently contacted me on Facebook

He told me he gets his news from Tucker Carlson. You can have a PHD and be clueless. Some people in my rural town have posted that Fox News is becoming too liberal so they only watch Tucker.

BComplex (1,018 posts)

26. For some reason, I expect more from highly educated people.

Maybe that's just a stereotype I have to get over, but I have to say, I was shocked out of my boots.

 

Leftist can't understand why anyone believes differnetly than they do;

Educated People
Black People
Gay People


They all have to follow the liberal thought train or be declared 'traitors'...

I am considered by some to be 'educated' but I am in no way a liberal...

Star Member Different Drummer (5,102 posts)

63. Can confirm that's what a lot of rural white Southerners who have been terrorized about going to hell do. I've often said my idea of hell would be to end up in heaven and find it populated by such people.

 

Bucky (48,560 posts)

13. Destroying civility is always job number one for fascist takeovers

I won't give them the satisfaction. I stand my ground with against disinformation, but I force facts and civulity upon them. Human decency and basic compassion are among our strongest weapons.

 

Star Member Turbineguy (30,414 posts)

15. It seems to me that we need some sort of antidote to the effects of Fox News propaganda. I think of it a bit like heroin. Anybody can become addicted. But you have to start by taking it.

Years ago I asked my Doctor "How can people inject themselves with this stuff?" She replied that the reward was greater than the reluctance to stick a needle in their arm.

Fox News being a psychological addiction can be overcome by not watching it. But I'm sure there must be some sort of withdrawal.

This propaganda has the effect of a base-level emotional satisfaction that becomes worse. I think this feeling and the further need for it become so strong that people arrange their lives around it, they make decisions in such a way that the result is this satisfied feeling. It's not based on logic or facts.

In normal circumstances we are all subjected to these pressures. Marketing people use it to sell cars. But with a car, you have the physical fact of owning the car to tell you if you are happy with your decision or not.

With Fox propaganda you only have the emotional feeling to reward you. It's not physical substance.

We need to figure out how to de-program millions of people who are owned by their belief in this stuff.

 

Star Member Aristus (50,327 posts)

18. PhD.? From what uncredentialed cow college? Or diploma mill?

Obtaining a PhD. really requires the kind of incisive and curious mind she doesn't seem to possess...

90-percent (6,418 posts)

23. Prejudice towards liberals

It hurts my feelings when facebook acquaintances describe liberalism as a cancer on our nation.

What these fox viewers think liberals stand for has been programmed by 30 years of hate radio and fox news.

In other words, the view foxbots have is not there own. It was brainwashed into them using the tried and true NAZI BIG LIE propaganda method. The more the lie is repeated, the more it becomes truth in their minds. And they don't understand their thought and point of view was IMPLANTED into them by the morbidly wealthy that think a life of economic servitude is all us inferior by virtue of not being a billionaire deserve.

Their wealth is not due to innate superiority and ability, their wealth comes from morally bankrupt sociopath's greed.

Behind every great fortune is a great crime.

-90% Jimmy

 

Star Member renate (12,489 posts)

38. in a weird way I almost find it comforting that this is mostly due to Fox

Of course, it's terrifying that so many people are so easily brainwashable. (And I'll readily admit that my sources of information surely affect my world view. The difference is that my sources of information aren't deliberately lying to me and getting me all worked up about stuff that isn't even remotely true.)

There's something about anger--not justifiable anger, which is a good thing, but lashing-out anger--that really appeals to a certain kind of person. My neighbor listens to Fox in his garage. How do I know, even before I walk by and can see, that it's Fox and not CNN? From the tone of their voices. A lot of MSNBC and CNN commentary is angry, but it's measured. It's about facts.

Anyway. I'm glad that the brainwashables' anger comes from a specific source, because that gives me a little shred of hope that they can change if that source changes, the way Germans changed after WWII.

What I really don't understand is why there isn't some major boycott of Fox advertisers. I'm not equipped to start one, but it sure seems as though MoveOn or somebody with a social presence should make it a huge focus of their work. Starve the beast. Fox, not CNN, not MSNBC, is still the main cause of all this hatred and divisiveness. If they weren't making a buck any more, they'd have to change or die.

 

Dread Pirate Roberts (1,274 posts)

33. Don't blame Fox News

This person would most definitely be an ass hole with or without Fox News. Fox News just feeds the beast. She was just defective goods from the start. That is a failure of character, a failure of morality and a lack of critical thinking skills...and no doubt absolutely confident in the correctness of her views. What cult made her a minister?

Star Member Mariana (10,011 posts)

47. Really.

This person is a minister. She's preaching this hatred and these lies.

BComplex (1,018 posts)

58. I think that was what shocked me so. That, and the contorted face, and the hatred in her eyes.

 

Initech (80,668 posts)

40. Last week I found out one of my neighbors went to the Huntington Beach protest.

I wanted to scream "ARE YOU INSANE???" but then she kept spewing all kinds of crap about Gavin Newsom, and I pretty much answered my own question.

Star Member Mariana (10,011 posts)

42. Those are pretty mainstream Christian beliefs these days

The majority of Christian voters cast their ballots for Trump in 2016. Most of them will probably do it again in 2020, because they believe stuff like, "Trump is the chosen one of God, and when he's out of office, the liberals are going to start what the Bible says in Armageddon. These are the end days, and the liberals are the devil's pawns." This is what is being preached in a lot of the churches. Love of Trump and hatred for liberals/Democrats are literally tenets of their Christian faith.

They love Fox News because Fox News repeats back to them what they already believe. Fox News tells them what they want to hear. If Fox News ever started saying things they don't already agree with, they'd turn it right off.

 

Star Member andym (3,766 posts)

44. The current incarnation of Fox News must be "destroyed"

the only way might be the creation of a fairness doctrine for all media whether on cable or over the air.

Star Member CrispyQ (27,774 posts)

49. Those were almost the exact words a member of my family used:

"...The doctor puts the baby in her hands and she kills it!!!" Only my family member used the word execute. And that comment is what "corked it for me" with that family member. I will probably never talk to them again. Where did they hear this bullshit? Who believes a woman would carry a pregnancy to full term just to kill the baby once it's born?  It's insanity.

BGBD (353 posts)

54. Dr. Minister?

that should be the tip off.

 

Star Member Bettie (8,608 posts)

64. Trump has shown us who a lot of people really are

and it isn't pretty.

I blocked my brother today on Facebook (yes, I know...facebook) and plan never to speak to him again. He's always been something of an asshole, but he's now a Q-Anon acolyte as well as a Trumpkin and I just can't with that.

Star Member Paladin (20,843 posts)

74. Cut all ties with her, as soon as possible. Life is too short. (nt)

[DUmpDiver]

I knew liberals were stupid and evil long before Fox News existed.

[Maverick1987]

And these people wonder why they're complete losers in most, if not all, aspects of life

Being a social retard is reason #1

[thundley4]

dawg day (4,596 posts)

  My young cousin is - amazing considering who raised her-- liberal and tolerant. The last time she was home, her parents went on a rant about how it was the Soros-gay conspiracy that brought the virus over (the trifecta-- antisemitic homophobic anti-science) to destroy Trump's presidency.

Accusing Soros of criminal behavior is not anti-Semitic. The only remotely close thing to teh Gheys I've heard is that China may have designed the virus to kill people with HIV. Accusing people of criminal intentions, like spreading a virus deliberately, like CHINA did, is not being anti-science.

However, DUmmies and all pro-abortion people are anti-science, because they deny that they are killing a human baby.

cayugafalls (567 posts)

8. The extreme right media machine has demonized the left.

We are to be considered dangerous and evil.

They have done exactly what Goebbels did in Nazi Germany. Dehumanize the enemy so that people feel justified in their hatred.

It will be very difficult to fight and make things right again.

I am very afraid for our country, the division is very deep.

In the 1800's Democrats considered blacks to be less than humans to justify slavery.
In the early to mid 1900's the considered Jews to be sub-human to justify Hitler's actions.
Today, Liberals claim that it's "just a clump of cells" to justify murdering an innocent unborn human baby.

Liberals always dehumanize those they wish to kill or dominate.

[SVPete]

DU Phundy-Phobes are so ignorant of real Fundamentalists that they didn't recognize something significant in the -tale's description of the woman:

This woman is a Phd. and a minister, late 60's.

If there are Fundamentalist churches "out there" somewhere that allows women to be pastors, I haven't heard of it. Many Evangelical, Pentecostal, and charismatic churches do, but not Fundamentalist churches AFAIK.

As for "ministers" preaching politics as sermons, maybe that happens in Lib/Prog "mainline Protestant" churches and a few Lib/Prog Catholic churches, but as a whole Fundie and Evangelical pastors have more important things to preach, and do.

[Ptarmigan]

BComplex (1,018 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213409708

Just had a terrible confrontation w/ a friend: Damn Fox "news" to hell!

This woman and I have been becoming friends for a few years, and have friends in common. We've met a couple of times car-window to car-window for social distancing lunches, which a lot of girlfriends are doing these days.

This woman is a Phd. and a minister, late 60's. So we're talking about this man she's interested in, and how she hasn't seen him because of social distancing, and all of a sudden....here she goes with Fox "news" crap:

"The liberals are trying to count all deaths as coronavirus to make trump look bad".

"Trump is the chosen one of God, and when he's out of office, the liberals are going to start what the Bible says in Armageddon. These are the end days, and the liberals are the devil's pawns."

(Complete lies. No Dr. of Religion is going to shout TRUMP IS GOD'S CHOSEN!!!" Just a bad bouncy...)

I interrupted her and said, "You must be a Fox "news" fan."

She says "Of course I am! They're the only ones that tell the TRUTH about things. All the other channels are run by the liberals, and they lie all the time. Fox is the only place that I can get a fair and balanced take on what is going on!"

She said: "what corked it for me...ya wanna know what corked it for me? Liberals kill babies!!! The doctor puts the baby in her hands and she kills it!!!" (She said it. Her face was all contorted.)

I said: "I AM A LIBERAL!!! And that is SO not true!!!"

(Democrats and Liberals absolutely kill millions of babies every year. They are proud out it.)

It went downhill from there.

It was over an hour ago, and I'm still shaking, and deeply sad. Fox is making liberals out to be the devil with these people. How is that not splitting this country apart? How can they be allowed to do this?

Furthermore, this person had "links" to videos that she wanted to send me to prove it. I told her I didn't want to see any such trash. And I told her to turn off Fox news. She said she loves it. She loves it, but she hates liberals.

Fox "news". Something has to be done. I don't see how we can ever heal from this. I don't ever want to see this woman again, and I know so many people think just like she does. How can we be the "united" states, if fox keeps programming 1/2 of the people to HATE the other half?

I sense a huge load of BS. 

[freedumb2003b]

I believe the human term for this type of post is "cool story, bro."

[jukin]

Star Member Bettie (8,608 posts)

64. Trump has shown us who a lot of people really are

and it isn't pretty.

No it is not pretty. I'm sure there maybe 1-3 democrats that are not power mad tyrants but I doubt it.

Trump has made all of the left drop their masks and go 110% commie tyrant.

It is one of his super powers.

[I_B_Perky]

I believe the human term for this type of post is "cool story, bro."

 

That made me LOL!  H5!