I live in a red county and am surrounded by conservative neighbors. It’s pretty exhausting hanging out with them, because they’re constantly mad/afraid of something that literally is not happening. A few weeks ago, I had a few too many drinks and told one of them that they need to quit letting things dictate their lives that weren’t real. He didn’t take it very well.
Yeah, people generally don’t like questioning the version of reality they based their lives on. Too much thinky-work. At least you tried.
Especially since “our” reality is just “given” to us by lying MSM, but their reality given to them by Faux News is somehow different…
Logic, not even once.
Not all news sources are created equal and you should always keep in mind what the motivations of sources are when deciding which news to trust. But treating it as if Fox News is the same as reputable sources like AP or Reuters is a pretty bad argument.
Fox News was literally created with a Republican strategist as the CEO with the goal of reporting news with a conservative bias. They have argued in court that no reasonable person would take their commentators have said on-air as facts. There have been polls showing that Fox News viewers are less informed than people that consume no news sources at all. They recently settled a lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for nearly a billion dollars for knowingly spreading falsehoods on-air about the 2020 election.
At the end of the day, Fox News is a terrible source of information. The response I often hear to this is “well what about CNN?!” To which I’d say, sure don’t watch that either. Try to find a reputable, neutral source like AP or Reuters and you’ll be much happier and well informed since they’re not trying to sell you fake news stories that make you angry and engaged.
Also how Fox News is apparently not “mainstream” despite being one of the most watched corporate news channels all over the USA.
They also can’t shut the fuck up about it
And if you try to tell them it doesn’t happen they insist their father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate saw it with their own two eyes.
I’ve found the best way to talk to people like this is to come more from a place of caring than from rebuke of the content itself.
“Dude, you seem really bothered by this stuff. What’s it like living in fear everyday? Assuming all this stuff is true, what can you do about it? If you can’t do anything about it, then why worry all the time? You sure there’s not something else going on that’s causing this upset?”
A lot of these people who subscribe to extreme views are hurting in ways that are completely unrelated to the extreme content they consume. Most likely some type of trauma or experience or relationship that is resonating with the consumption of this content.
I’ve used that opportunity to point them to FOSS and other privacy tools. But most don’t want to take control of their own data. None of them have switched to Arch Linux yet.
Despite their love of fearmongering, Fox News also flat out tries to cover up things that are actually happening if it is done by them, like Roger Ailes’ sexual harassment of Fox News’ woman employees.
And this even pre-dates Fox News. SNL from 1995: Old Glory Insurance
It seems like they’re trying to map out utopia by building a fence around it to keep it out.
nah just hammerin nails, using power tools to put in screws here and yonder
“news”
“Americans circa 2011” --> “Qaddafi doing genocide”
A new report by the British Parliament shows that the 2011 NATO war in Libya was based on an array of lies.
Less than a decade after “Iraq has WMDs.” Now there are open-air slave markets in Libya and two of their dams just broke and killed thousands of people.
Nailed it!
This is Canadians, IMO. It’s like we’ve internalised bureaucracy. I work with volunteers, and I have never met board members more concerned with making rules to prevent things that no one is doing. “Yes. That would be a good rule, IF we were having problems with people doing that thing, but we’re not right now, so let’s table that until that problem actually arises.” Such good imaginations.
Y u watching Fox News?
Nobody says OP is. They might have loved ones who are or be bombarded with links or just following media critics or anything.
Sounds like OP had afternoon tea with my grandmother.
I spent an afternoon at my in-laws, who watch Fox 24/7, fact checking the nonsense spouted. They were not happy with me.
I really only get this shit third-hand (occasional visits to my parents, and they tell me about the stupid shit said by one of their close friends, who has the crazy fears and politics put into her head by her Trumper son), and it’s exhausting then.
I cannot imagine living an existence where I’m subjected to it daily.
I’m very thankful that I work in an office where political shit is expressly forbidden, that at my last job, my Trumper coworkers usually at least tried to keep it to themselves, and the one job I worked with a true conservative lunatic (like…it would be zero surprise to me if I saw the news tomorrow that he’d shot up a place or barricaded himself in his home and had a standoff with govt agents) was well before the trump era.
I don’t always watch Fox News but when I do it’s on Comedy Central
you should read Gab it’s hilarious
Thanks. I’ll check it out.
Ahhh! my eyes!
Where else are you going to find deals on colostomy bags and shitty pillows?
If you have shitty pillows you might want to check your colostomy bag.
Always online people:
Things that don’t actually happen in reality:
Amusing that you have almost 2200 lemmy comments.
well here’s a comment for you, satan’s maggoty cum fart. i hope you are well.
Thank you.
I hope you are well as well.
You know I hit a nerve when you felt the need to go to my profile lol
It’s a good thing these things that are not happening are happening.
Yeah, like the white replacement theory, the “Biden Crime Family” led by an old man that is somehow a criminal mastermind at the same time he isn’t mentally competent, or how someone is coming to take our guns away, or the liberal teachers turning their students gay, or all those stolen elections, or the dozens of other stuff normal people laugh at conservatives for blindly believing in like a bunch of sheep.
I’m with you on everything but the whole guns thing…they most definitely are always try to take firearms. You’re naive if you think otherwise.
Ooohhh nooo big bad Biden come to take our guns away
Member that time he said to bypass due process and confiscate any gun with a bump stock immediately?
Oh wait that was the other septagenarian
Seriously, these fucking people. Very few democrats that people take seriously are advocating for taking away guns like Trump did. Gun control? Absofuckinglutely, but if you don’t believe in gun control you shouldn’t believe in drivers licenses or criminal background checks or any other kind of government regulations, either. Like moronic libertarians.
What’s next, a license to make toast in your own damn toaster?
Either I peed off some libertarians or /s is needed
I can buy a car without background checks, I can buy any car I want at any age without a license, I can transport it anywhere in the country, and can drive it on private property without insurance or a license.
Can’t do that shit with firearms, so please stop with your ignorance about gun control.
Yes, also cars are a problem too, thank you for pointing this out. There are way too many cars, it’s unsustainable. Not even talking about the earth right now, motorways with fucking 8 lanes and there’s still traffic.
Also: cars don’t fit in your pocket and can mow down everyone in a small room without warning. Usually manslaughter requires a lot more noise and at least some kind of runway to build up speed.
Please stop with your ignorance about gun control.
Yea cause electric cars are quite…and guns are super quiet…lol
I’m all for mass transit btw…but that isn’t what we’re arguing about here.
Guns and cars are two totally different things.
They are so different that any comparison between the two is moot.
Yes because I’m brought them up lol
Remember the AWB?
O and where did the OP say anything about shit Republicans encroaching on the 2nd?
Want some more whataboutism?
They’ve been coming for your guns for decades. And are not even one step closer.
So either you’re wrong, or the people coming for them are so absurdly incompetent that you have nothing to fear. And I’m saying that as someone that absolutely supports them coming for your guns.
So you just proved my point. You are on the left and you want my guns. Just because they’re failing at trying to destroy the 2nd doesn’t mean they’re not trying.
Can you read my dear friend? He didn’t prove your point.
deleted by creator
So what you’re saying is owning guns doesn’t make you feel more secure?
they most definitely are always try to take firearms.
Republican president Donald Trump passed the most comprehensive federal gun control law in decades, and he did so through executive order without Congress passing any laws.
And Obama eased restrictions on guns in National Parks, but those are just facts not feelings.
Yep and he’s a fuckin dick and so are the other Republican trash heaps who act like they’re pro2a. The Republicans aren’t for the 2nd.
If the left and the right are taking your guns who are you voting for?
There’s the paradox of American politics. You can vote for people who are probably fucking you over somehow, or someone who can’t ever win.
Lol are you fucking daft? Look up “Trump gun quote”. He literally talks about taking guns away. Something no democratic president has ever said.
Lol fuck trump and the Republicans, they’re not for the 2nd, but this isn’t about the Dems vs Republicans. This is about the left wanting to take away the firearms.
What specific legislation did the Dems introduce that attempted this “take my guns away” you’re referencing?
*crickets chirping*
Haha, yes it’s what I expected.
I’ve lost a handful of rights over the last couple years, and none of them have anything to do with owning guns. Maybe you’re worried about the wrong things.
We’re going to take the firearms first and then go to court, because that’s another system. Because a lot of times by the time you go to court … it takes so long to go to court to get the due process procedures. I like taking the guns early…
-Donald Trump, 2018.
That…doesn’t contradict what he said, at all. All it shows is that Trump counts among the “they” in question. And I don’t think anyone has ever claimed Trump was strong on 2A stuff. TBF, Trumps not strong on anything other than finding ways to bill the federal government for his secret service detail projecting him.
It’s really generally a bad idea to assume all of someone’s positions based on one of their positions. Real people don’t work that way.
Right, so the hilarious way conservatives fucked themselves and each other by stockpiling ammo and paying 5x the regular price for it because of OBAMA was a really smart move.
???
Well the thing is right wing chuds are worried about things that are definitely not happening. However it’s a good good thing that these things are happening, were they happening, which they are not. So it’s very bigoted of the chuds to be worried about things that are not happening but should they happen which at this moment they are not it would be a good thing if they were to happen yet clearly they’re not happening.
???
Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?
It’s fucked up that I understood you more that the other guy 😂
???
This is he the ai uprising begins
Exactly!
He’s just being an idiot.
It’s not happening! Jeez. But if it was happening it would be good. But it’s not happening so don’t worry about me openly campaigning for it start happening. Stop spreading dangerous misinformation, IT IS NOT HAPPENING. (I am doing everything in my power for it to start happening as soon as possible).
So you are behind the great exchange that’s totally not happening or better you would be behind it if it was happening?
??? ?
This really isn’t difficult to read at all.
It’s not happening, but would be good if it did.
They’re just saying that same thing over and over. Where is the struggle?
Look all I am saying is that these things are not happening. It’s a good thing they’re happening were they possibly to happen and in some ways they have happened and this is a good thing but not in the exact ways that the chuds are worried about so it’s silly of them to be worried about these things that are simply not happening and it’s good they’re happening if they were to happen which is my hope but just to state very clearly are currently presently not taking place in the ways specifically described.
What?
He’s saying liberals or whoever the Boogeyman of the day is, are actively working to enact the things fox news is yelling about. So it doesn’t matter that the things haven’t happened, because the bad people are trying to do it.
Of course, this usually comes down to one of two things. No, “the bad people” aren’t trying to do anything and they aren’t bad. Or, the thing they are doing is being misrepresented to scare the audience.
It’s dangerous misinformation to say that these things I am campaigning for to happen and would be good if they happened are actually happening.
So just relax, turn off Tucker Carlson, have some calming camomile tea because the thing that isn’t happening is about to start happening soon because I used all my political power to make it happen but it’s not happening at this moment so it’s dangerous misinformation to say it is happening.
I think we’re getting closer and closer to something coherent with each iteration. Give us another and someone else might be able to figure out what you’re trying to say.
The AI Language Models have gone rogue
Which horrible things are you talking about? And who’s campaigning to make them happen? Please actually start making sense.
The invisible boogeymen are living in your head
Well, duh. Where else would invisible boogeymen live?
Here are more of those downvotes you were looking for.
