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The Brainwashing of My Dad?
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>The Brainwashing of My Dad >>A filmmaker explores the radical change of her once Democratic father to an angry right-wing fanatic after his immersion in talk radio and Fox News. She discovers this to be a powerful phenomenon that has divided families across the nation.
> In their mind they have no reason to, they are financially comfortable and everyone else can just fuck off to them.
I found this on Amazon by accident looking for a different documentary...
I find that it helps explain the mentality. It doesn't fix or change anything (except for the guy who they changed, and his entire family and all of his friends I guess).
It's available to stream if you have amazon prime:
I'm in the same boat dude, my dad has gone off the deep end.
Unfortunately he can't be talked to. And when this is all over the 65,000 arrests don't happen, etc etc, he'll just move on to the next conspiracy.
A lot of the craziness we see is the direct result of media influence. Everyone who wants to know more about the Republican mindset and why so many older people suddenly seem to become ultra-conservative conspiracy theorists should watch The Brainwashing of My Dad. It's free on Amazon if you have Prime. Definitely worth the watch.
The Zeitgeist is hyper tuned to Russia, almost to the point of whispers. You can feel it walking around public places. The Coehn/Trump Klan is the wedge and hammer tactic. Plant an idea, make it up, whatever.. then just hammer it on Foxic (rhymes with toxic) News for a few weeks, see if it sticks, then put another wedge in. This is Putin's strategy to split this country. Watch Brainwashing Dad (FREE on Amazon with ads)
I understand the boredom and wanting to listen to something.
I will not do talk radio
The Brain Washing Of My Dad is an interesting documentary on Amazon Prime.
A woman's father goes from a life long decent guy to a hateful anger fetishist listening to talk radio on long car trips.
Years later after retiring his radio breaks and his wife asks the cable guy to remove Fox News. His personality started to return to normal.
Talk radio is simple inculcation.
No thank you.
You can watch it free with ads on Amazon: [link]
I heard this movie helps with dealing with people like your dad. The film maker had the same experience you're describing and made a movie about how she dealt with it to get her Dad back. [link] Good luck, there are way too many people in this situation.
> most of the (Fox News) viewers are super successful people and smart in business. It’s amazing to watch.
Dude, WTF are you smoking? Don't confuse an exceptionally high viewership among the elderly with "super successful people and smart in business". Elderly people are notoriously fearful of any change and distrustful of minorities, so they like Fox News because it feeds these fears and distrust and tells them they're right and everyone else is wrong.
This is not something "super successful people and smart in business" crave. This is what your racist uncle craves, and just because he grew up in a better economy and has had longer time to save and invest doesn't make him "super successful people and smart in business".
It just makes him old, fearful and bitter with a better retirement account.
You admit though, that your dad really fell under their spell after he had a stroke, so you're saying that in his weakened, debilitated state he found himself more mentally susceptible to the Fox News messaging?
You've proven my point.
To understand, watch The Brainwashing of My Dad, it's free on Amazon Prime.
That is like asking why people start to smoke or continue to smoke. Even though it is expensive, disgusting and causes cancer, they're addicted.
If you ever have time, watch The Brainwashing of my Dad.
Sadly, that has been all too common of a story and you're not alone.
I don't know if this will help you any but maybe give this a watch, it's a documentary called "The Brainwashing of My Dad," it's about how the filmmaker's father became radicalized by Fox News and other right-wing media and how she got him back. You can watch it for free on Amazon.
This sounds eerily familiar to the recent documentary The Brainwashing of My Dad. It is streaming free with Amazon Prime.
A filmmaker explores the radical change of her once Democratic father to an angry right-wing fanatic after his immersion in talk radio and Fox News. She discovers this to be a powerful phenomenon that has divided families across the nation.
You are not the first or the last. Watch "The Brainwashing of My Dad". Watch The Brainwashing of My Dad | Prime Video (amazon.com)
I think that's definitely part of it. But there's a part of me that thinks he's also had his brain warped by the Right Wing media machine over the past 10-20 years. Sort of like The Brainwashing of My Dad.
Additionally, I've basically lost who I thought my family was over this. It's admittedly on my "I need to watch this" list, but there's a great documentary that I plan to watch called The Brainwashing of my Dad ([link])
I truly have lost my father to radicalism in the last 8 years. I had to explain I still fought for women's reproductive rights despite a medically necessary hysterectomy even though I shouldn't care anymore since (and here I'm unclear) I (a) wasn't enough of a woman anymore to care or (b) couldn't have kids so I didn't have a dog in the race (so to speak). It's all horrible.
> I'm not remotely qualified, but surely that much of a 180 suggests some kind of serious mental breakdown/trauma?
Watch The Brainwashin of my Dad to understand how it happens.
You should really watch The Brainwashing of My Dad before you automatically blame the Democratic party. The right-wing propaganda machine was started decades ago. They have intentionally steered the narrative. They exhaust their opponents by throwing out so much BS, that you can't possibly debunk it all. The only way out of the quagmire isn't more messaging, it's tearing down the fake news/propaganda apparatus.
You may be interested in the documentary on Amazon The Brainwashing of My Dad.
Talks a lot about how Republican media shifted and became so toxic and full of crap resulting in it suckering in a lot of older people who thought they could trust the news. Same outcome in that story that the guy eventually saw through it after being exposed to less biased sources.
It kind of worries me when we attribute this to mental health/depression, my mom and I suffer from the same genetic mental health issues (bp) and we're on polar ends of the spectrum and I've been on-off depressed my entire life, same as her. I have a lot of liberal friends going through some of the worst bouts of depression they've ever had right now and they aren't becoming trumpers.
I live in the middle of downtown and help the unhoused at food kitchens on the weekend and she spends her time ranting and raving about hlilarys emails and other "lib" stuff on Linkedin (which I'm so close to deleting finally) to all her conservative boomer colleagues from her beachhouse in rural florida.
I think it's something much more related to being susceptible to indoctrination or believing conspiracies, some character, thinking or personality flaw leading to straight black and white, non-nuanced thought, refusing to do your own research or question that of others, and completely refusing to be empathetic toward someone outside of your own upbringing.
I just have a hard time believing that a psychiatrist or "curing" depression is going to have any effect on something like this, is that ever even their MO? To rid someone of indoctrinated beliefs? I go in and tell them why I hate myself and they ask me why I feel that way.
Unfortunately I know a lot of rich conservatives that love Trump and I wouldn't consider any of them depressed, hell their lack of empathy makes navigating this 2020 hellscape way easier than it is for me, it's like a cognitive dissonance barrier.
edit: Have you read that book on Fox News indoctrination? I haven't but I hear its good. I guess theres a video now I'm going to watch now ; [link]
"The Brainwashing of My Dad" (2016):
> IMDb: 6.7
> Runtime: 1h 29min
> Summary: A filmmaker explores the radical change of her once Democratic father to an angry right-wing fanatic after his immersion in talk radio and Fox News. She discovers this to be a powerful phenomenon that has divided families across the nation.
>
> Directors Jen Senko
Starring: Matthew Modine, Jen Senko, Frank Senko
Genres: Documentary
Subtitles: English [CC]
Audio languages: English
>
> Note:Travelling or based outside United States? Video availability outside of United States varies. Sign in to see videos available to you.
This looks so interesting but I am not in the US nor on Amazon. However, thought to share if anyone wants to watch who wasn't aware of its existence.
I found the the documentary The Brainwashing Of My Dad to be interesting.
It has a well researched history of the right wing along with the producer's personal story of her loving level headed father turning into a right wing rage junkie.
The transformation started when her father had nothing to do on long drives but listen to right wing talk radio. His personality started reverting back to his old self after he retired, his wife had the cable tv fixed to not include Fox/similar stations, and his radio broke.
I couldn’t comprehend it until I watched this document on Amazon recently called “the Brainwashing of my dad.” If really makes sense how these normal people in my life became full of hate the last decade.
If you have Amazon Prime you can watch it for free. I've seen it, it's quite interesting. It illustrates how the media, especially right wing media, has become a propaganda machine.
I highly recommend watching "The Brainwashing of My Dad" if you have Amazon Prime
This doc does a really good job laying it all out cohesively. It goes a lot deeper than Roger Ailes and talks about the John Birch Society, the Powell memo, the dismantling of the Fairness Doctrine, the Telecommunications Act, Grover Norquist's Wednesday Morning meetings, etc. which all contributed to the current media landscape
> Our populace is just dumb.
Brainwashed, not dumb. They're mentally conditioned.
I'm really thinking that it isn't helpful to say that people are dumb when it's possible for anyone to have fallen into that trap.
I think what gets underplayed with this thinking is the reason they're racist pieces of human garbage. This is due to years and years of exposure to extreme right-wing media, starting with Rush Limbaugh, through Fox News and now Breitbart and freaking InfoWars. They're brainwashed. It's not the most well-constructed doc ever, but The Brainwashing of My Dad does a pretty good job of illustrating the problem.
That documentary is perfect for you then.
This film covers it in detail: [link]
Might not be exactly what you're looking for but the documentary The Brainwashing Of My Dad hits hard.
It's available for free on Amazon with ads or ad free with Prime
Relevant Amazon documentary - The Brainwashing of My Dad
I also have a father that has been radicalized by the internet
I highly recommend this movie. You can watch it for free here:
https://www.amazon.com/Brainwashing-My-Dad-Matthew-Modine/dp/B01C6AFDM6
The subject of this movie got better. He had to go to the hospital for a couple of days (I forget why), and his wife unsubscribed him from all of the crazy emails and signed him up for ones that were more positive. When he came back he didn't even miss them, and a couple of months later he himself was like "wow, I was really crazy and mad all of the time".
​
I realize that won't work for a lot of people, but it seemed to work on him.
But you're not alone. And hopefully once everything calms down, a lot of these folks will, too. Good luck to you!
available on amazon as well
For anyone that went looking for where to stream this, it's on Amazon Prime: [link]
I don't know these movie websites don't say that or link to it, ever.
This is free to view with ads: [link]
One filmmaker made about a documentary about what happened to her father after he started watching Fox News.
Watch The Brainwashing of My Dad on Amazon
You should watch the Brainwashing of My Dad documentary with him.
The Brainwashing of My Dad Official Trailer 1
It's on Amazon if you want to watch or share.
Brainwashing of My Dad on amazon right now
If you've not already done so, watch The Brainwashing of My Dad. It explains what you probably already know; but it explains it reasonably well:
Ya pues, siga viendo facebook, 8chan, canales rancios de YT y fox news de ñapita.
Pero te recomiendo estas piezas documentales, la ultima siendo gratuita.
Of course, everyone was once a child. I was listening to an episode of Pantsuit Politics (I actually think you would like it as well as this documentary), and they were talking about, after reading the Mary Trump book, having grace for understanding the horrific family & circumstances that Donald Q Trump grew up in and the pain that must have caused him while at the same time understanding that it doesn't excuse or condone his actions.
The best that can come from these situations is to look at them with eyes wide open, try to understand what's truly going on and, when possible, learn. That's what I meant by it being dangerous to assume they don't know better because that prevents us from learning.
I have the same outlook as you but when I see intentional selfishness, cruelty, hypocritical talking points or behavior, I have no empathy for that self indulgent b.s.
Anyway, I do think your sentiment is lovely and a timely reminder, and we can also be aware of purposeful obtuseness.
I was born in 1976. Growing up in the 80s I remember my parents throwing the word "liberal" around like it was an insult. There was no expansion on what they meant, no engagement with what specifically they disagreed with. Literally just: "Well, that's liberal". It was an axiom. Liberal = bad. There was nothing else.
Being a child at the time, I didn't fully grasp the significance of what I was hearing. My parents weren't the only people I saw do this. Relatives and extended family would say some of the same things. I was too young to know better so I didn't really question it. I didn't know any better, I was just taught that liberalism is bad, and therefore anything labeled as such should be dismissed out of hand.
This all started to change when I was a teenager. In 1992 I was 16 and got a job bagging groceries. Being around the working poor for the first time in my life and without my parents around to interpret what I was seeing in front of my own eyes. And it was amidst that working environment where I slowly started to realize I'd been lied to all those years. Once I saw how the working poor lived their lives, who they were, why they might not like the system that I'd been raised to believe was good and just. My parents taught me that food stamps were for freeloaders. The customers and some of the people working there that had them were decent people that didn't have the luxuries I'd had growing up in an upper-middle class family. There was nothing wrong with these people. I just grew up in a family of means and they didn't.
Now extrapolate the experience I have over millions of people that were raised in similar circumstances. Liberalism has been demonized for literally decades to the point where even self-professed liberals internalize a lot of that without even realizing it. Myself included. I'm so used to fighting on "their" (conservative) turf due to how long this propaganda has been going on.
TL;DR - Blame Roger Ailes. See also: The Brainwashing of My Dad.
This was my first thought too. Movie (on Amazon, free with ads) here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C6AFDM6
Even Bush told Reagan that "Trickle Down Economics" is "voodoo".
When an actual Conservative Republican is able to call out someone from the right wing for being so bad for working Americans, there's obviously a problem.
There really should be four political parties in the US:
- Whatever you'd like to call there type of "political party" Trump is acting like
- Conservative Republicans
- Corporate Democrats (the ones who take lobby money and big corporate donations
- Progressives/"Democratic Socialists" (the ones who believe in capitalism, but don't take lobby money or corporate donations so they don't have any requirement to support anyone except the American public
I wish there were a way to get a Conservative version of Democratic Socialists, but I'm doubting that will happen until after we're able to reset the country so that the current version of Republicans can stop actively hurting this country with their policies.
I would actually really like to think that somewhere out there if a Republican who's capable of being socially aware, who could be a contender in 2024 and defeat the current anti-science/anti-fact/racist/bigoted/patriarchal/sexist/"old white man" Republican party. I don't think that all Republicans are like that, I think the anti-information campaign (aka the disinformation campaigns/propaganda campaigns) have just brainwashed them into believing that they really are the victims in this whole "thing".
I think having the split will also encourage people to collaborate in Congress, too - which will help the constituents a lot more than they are now where they have two people (McConnell and Pelosi), essentially alee to block anything that they don't like it that they're told to not like - which doesn't help anyone.