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Is it really the old people being influenced by TV or are they just voting the same stuff they have all their life not caring at all about what's going on?
At least in Germany the 60+ year olds are almost impossible for the far right to reach as they are firmly sticking with the center parties. They were also the only age group where the center parties didn't lose voters over the last decade while they lost most of their voters to different parties on the political spectrum
If the mainstream media had no effect the right wouldn't have spent 40 years dismantling it.
It certainly has an effect on the population that isn't stuck at voting the same over and over
Believe it or not even conservatives need their opinions validated. It's the reason anytime I talk to my father I'm given a straight up manufactured republican talking points.
Here's a little secret, they aren't that smart. They are the reason the Nigerian price scam exists to this day.
Deprogram the TV, by blocking certain channels.
Deprogram the parents, by blocking certain channels.
(* Until they buy a new TV, because the old one is "broken"!)
Gaslighting is awesome!
For nearly a decade now I have been telling people to use the parental control to block their parents/grandparents ability to watch these channels.
God knows the vast majority of them are near totally tech illiterate
This will probably make them break down like little babies who don't get any more ice cream, giving many of us a perfectly legitimate reason to infantilize them the way they've been infantilizing us most of our lives.
The best and most effective way to break people out of the fascist doom-spiral is to block all channels of information that make them mad and whose purpose is to arouse feelings of rage, as you have suggested, and instead push them towards things that make them happy.
I remember one Reddit user said that they blocked all the right-wing Facebook groups on their grandfather's computer, and then subscribed him to golfing and fishing groups instead, which over several months caused him to be a happier and less politically extreme person, whereas before, politics was all he thought about.
Yep, agreed.
Problem is that the people I was close to were so incredibly addicted to being angry that it was all they knew.
They'd lie to my face that they'd given it up and then later drop some new nonsense on me, I look it up later and oh dear god its QAnon bullshit I've yet to hear about.
Also, I feel its worth mentioning that a similar kind of thing can happen to ... basically extremely neurotic, self centered leftists as well. I've know people who became tankies to the point they were just as delusional and emotionally unstable as QAnon morons, and also some people can truly overdose on becoming every possible kind of victim to the point that you can't say anything to them without them interpreting everything as uncharitably as possible, masters of inventing excuses for all of their bad behavior that turn anyone pointing out their bad behavior into an evil bigot.
If you've ever met someone who basically never goes outside and has been consistently using Tumblr for a decade +, you probably know what I mean.
The TVs are only a part of it, what really winds them up is the radios. The Right has deeply consolidated a hold over talk radio since the hip youngins mostly get their listening entertainment via podcasts now.
Luckily for us rush is dead. Sure there are others to take his place but he was the original he created the entire space and the rest are imitators.
Oh yes, let's swap one bad source for another. Ayn Rand is in essence just a modern libertarian that was born 50 years too early.
I was just saying because that's their fucking thing, not because I give a shit about her.