My father was a moderate Democrat for most of his life but when he retired he started listening to Rush Limbaugh and later watching FOX news. The change in his attitudes and personality were astounding. This thoughtful moderate became an extreme right winger and my mother went along for the ride. I’m not alone in this and via Josh Marshall someone has actually made a movie, The Brainwashing of My Dad. Here is the trailer: Josh Marshall heard from some readers who had similar experiences.
I recall the moment I knew my Dad, an engineer and a very rational guy, had changed. In Dec. 1999, he called all of his kids and grandkids to join him to experience the fallout from Y2K together. His house was full of supplies for survival. The fact that Y2K was a media-fueled nothing-burger never sunk in. Each new conspiracy has caught his imagination anew since then. His neighbor joined us for Thanksgiving one year after her husband had passed away. According to her story, the husband—also an aeronautical engineer who was long retired, like my Dad—died one day after she turned off Bill O’Reilly. She was tired of listening to the angry rhetoric, she said, so she just went in to the TV room and turned it off. An hour later, he was dead. The constant diet of anger and resentment had kept him alive; without it, life lost all meaning.
Make no mistake, Rush Limbaugh and FOX news are part of the infotainment network. They in in for the money not ideology. I have always thought that Rush Limbaugh didn’t actually believe most of what he said. They throw red meat to the small demographic that listens and watches, once again the bottom line not ideology is what’s important. And it is a small demographic – FOX may be the leading cable news network but only between 1 and 2 percent actually watch it; of course most of the politicians watch. Of course to make money the radio talkers and FOX news are certainly contributing to the political polarization in this country and doing the country a disservice. Of course turning my parents and many others into conspiracy believers is also a big negative.