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Family members take Glenn Beck and Fox News seriously... need help! : politics

My family members (and I) are Christians and mostly conservative.

Because of that, my family has basically held anything Fox News says as an absolute truth, and Glenn Beck is their favorite news person, by far. I was sent this link that has clips from Glenn Beck's program that says Obama is trying to create a one-world government.

I laughed at the article, and my mother told me she was worried about me, and how she must be a failure of a parent to raise someone that didn't believe what Fox News said.

Whenever I try to come up with any rebuttal, the standard response is, "they're brainwashing you" or "it's because we let you go through the public school system." It's frustrating to see my family believing garbage.

Does anybody have any neutral , well-thought-out responses to any of this stuff, or examples of how Glenn Beck is an unstable nutjob? I'm not looking for pro-Obama stuff or democrats' talking points;

I just want to find something to provide them with that works on their level and isn't full of extremist, "wake up sheeple"-style garbage that's often found on Fox News. Any help would be appreciated.

Get them to smoke some weed!!

Then they might like Glenn Beck more! Either that or they'll turn off Fox News in favor of AquaTeen HungerForce...

No. Kill yourself.

No one cares about your stupid family.

People have asked this a million times already about their Conservative/Christian/Racist/Whateva families.

Too bad. Solve your own problem if it bothers you so much.

Why not point out all of the times that Fox News has been verifiably wrong about something.

Such as labeling Mark Foley and Mark Sanford as Democrats or saying that the other media outlets didn't cover the 9/12 protests.

The problem with Beck is that he finds examples of things that are very far left and calls them democratic, then he takes things that are democratic and calls them far left.

He finds things that everyone can agree with and says this is conservative, then he takes things that are far right and says this something everyone should agree with. This makes people think that an unpopular extreme left idea is common democratic thought and a popular democratic (well polished and thought sound by many ) idea is too extreme to support.

At the same time he attempts to associate popular conservative ideas with the republican party and pull people to the right by opening them up to more extreme right wing ideas. And, hey I'm not saying this doesn't happen on both sides of the aisle.

(Who hasn't heard all republicans being accused of supporting something that only a few of them support?

It's less common that they are wrongfully accused of this when they're in the minority because they tend to stick together though.) Back to my story...

I think Beck inserts his propaganda and hate in between the real events.

He ties good things to his allies and bad things to his enemies using insinuation with little fact.

He has practiced this and is very good at it. It's ok to disagree with your relatives.

Just let them know how you feel and let them know that if they would rather listen to bottom of the barrel entertainment than news that's fine with you.

The problem with Beck... But that is just one of his tricks. He'll also make baseless accusations, then when no one wants to respond to him (because he's being a jerk), he tells his viewers that no one has responded to his accusations, and asserts that this proves they're true. He'll also take people's Quote: s way out of context, so far out that it changes the meaning.

It's hard to respond to that, because often his viewers hear it in the person's own voice.

And it's a difficult argument to make "Yes, Obama said that.

But in the larger context of his speech...".

If you try to explain that to one of the Beck faithful, they might just hear "Yes, Obama said that.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You could tell him how he might have raped and murdered a young girl in 1990.

There is no "neutral" way to respond to someone who is verifiably wrong.

Demonstrating that they are incorrect is not a partisan affair.

They're either right or wrong. mediamatters.org keeps an eye on FNC's bullshit, so I'd keep an eye out there. But honestly, you're probably fighting a losing battle there.

Fox has a really great racket going.

They tell people that they are the only unbiased news source, and that other outlets of information are 'biased' or 'indoctrination'.

Once someone actually believes this, their perception of FNC is protected from logical scrutiny.

Any facts, statistics, etc.

That are presented to them will be dismissed out of hand, because they've come from "biased" sources. I'm a liberal.

But I'd like to think I posses the presence of mind to be open to other people's points of views, which is why I've actually purposefully watched/listened to a lot of FNC, and particularly Glen Beck. But I have a rule.

Any time I hear a news "fact" that truly shocks me (from any ) news source, whether it reinforces my beliefs, or challenges them, I check it.

Use the Internet, lookup the facts behind the soundbite.

And a majority of time, maybe 6/10, the fact is bullshit (or obviously skewed for effect).

I find that when I listen to FNC/Beck, that percentage increases significantly.

Tell them you're gay, they'll never speak to you again, and you can go live your own life for a change.

Here is what I sent: Just be careful what you read.

Fox News and Glenn Beck are fueled by POLITICS and money and try to bring faith and Christianity into the picture to distort the minds of innocent Christians.

Beck (literally) cries on TV to play with your emotions, and exaggerates stories for ratings.

They do whatever they can to get into your head.

They've got a good thing going for them by telling viewers that they're "fair and balanced" when they are anything but -- they run on fabricated stories and politics alone! An example of how they're run by politics -- Glenn Beck says that Barack Obama is a racist against white people (video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuq-j_uDYbc ).

Guess what? Viewers believe what he says without taking a second thought, and they associate Obama with being a racist, even though he's not (look, I don't agree with Obama on 99% of what he does, but calling someone a racist with no proof just for ratings is a little underhanded, don't you think?).

And as a result, people won't vote for or support whoever Fox News targets, rumors and smearing comments are spread, and their political goal is accomplished.

30% of the American public now believe Obama is a racist. You are saying I am brainwashed, but you need to be careful what you read and listen to (notice how I'm not telling you what to listen to or read -- I'm saying go find other sources!) before accepting these news CORPORATIONS' (their #1 goal is PROFIT, which they make by getting high ratings and selling advertising as a result, which occurs when they say something controversial) messages without a second thought. To set things straight if you are confused: I don't favor any major political party as there is major corruption in both, and both are fueled by money and greed.

Both parties aren't anything like they used to be -- both want to expand the government and their control in our lives.

I like to read up on a variety of sources to find out any little bit of honesty that's left (which is why I supported Ron Paul for president -- remember how Fox News kept him out of the presidential debate?

He was the only Republican who wasn't in favor of bigger government controlling our lives, and didn't fit their agenda).

I pray for our leaders and our country because of how corrupt this world is, and how greedy each politician can be. My point is that that you need to be skeptical of what you read or hear on the news.

If it's something that surprises you (like the story you sent me), look it up in other sources and see what they're saying.

Chances are, it's something thought up by somebody with another goal in mind.

They will try to trick you any way they can -- you can't trust news corporations in this day and age!

It scares me when I hear people say to only listen to Fox News -- that's falling right into their trap.

Remember what their goal is, and remember how many Americans are Christians -- that's a big audience for them!

And Christians probably won't do anything that they think is anti-Christian, so when Fox News puts out pieces that bring Christ into the picture, they're able to mold the minds of Christians quite easily. I love you, and I'm just letting you know what I think.

Get info from many sources and pray for wisdom and discernment!

Tell them to start watching actual news programs and not these "editorial" programs that Beck and O'Reilly have.

Even if they watch Fox, that's surely better.

It's crazy that Beck is even given an audience at this point...

I think it's clear that he's used his DJ entertainment background to create the sensationalism that's in his current "political" show/persona.

He's just out to make a buck.

It's that simple.

He doesn't care about anything he says.

I'm going to write one thing and then I'm going to go to bed: How about how Thomas Paine of Glenn-Beck-Multi-Week-Bestseller-Common-Sense-Reprint fame was an atheist elitist intellectual (Ayn Rand too). That's the biggest thing.

Political rhetoric since Reagan, where the government is "too big" and it is okay to talk about overthrowing the government as long as you're doing it with your buddies and it's because your taxes are too high. I think the problem is that there are a lot of budgetary issues, but people who grew up in the wake of watergate and vietnam believe that the government has special problems that other groups such as businesses and the military don't have. The idea that people who can end up bankrupt if they don't run their businesses right or people who can end up dead if they don't run their regiments in an orderly fashion are sharper on a 'common sense' level than government officials whose pay is guaranteed by the IRS may have merit.

On the other hand, it has been clear both in the financial crisis and in the failure to prepare properly for the invasion of Iraq (the idea to actually go there being the responsibility of an over-active executive branch, a situation that Republicans supported when their man was in office and complain about now) that both of these groups are just as susceptible to the group-think and empty-headed moves that republicans talk about the government making. The point isn't that the United States should disband, and become 300 million individual nations, but rather that if Fox News and all of those guys are right and the government is trying to take their freedoms the response shouldn't be to get rid of the government, but to figure out what the government should be for (according to John Locke, James Madison etc.) and help it to live up to all that it can be. For example, it is true from a conservative point of view that everybody agrees that the government should take away their right to murder, because murdering is just plain wrong, and then that belief immediately maps onto the belief that everybody should give up the right to abort their pregnancies because it's murder. Paying taxes and submitting to laws are also things that we give up to the government.

The difference emotionally for conservatives between watching the government ban abortion and watching the government pass a welfare bill is that in the first case, the government is carrying things out as they see fit and in the second the government is going against their wishes.

Both cases could conceivably take place under a democratic government and in both cases a lot of people get pissed off and live with it, because they live in a democracy. The point is that somewhere down the line the disrespect and healthy dissent and debate becomes treasonous and undemocratic.

The point where that happens is when our president isn't treated like the president and our government isn't treated like the government.

That attitude was wrong when people would take it after Bush's 2004 election and it was wrong when people would take it after Obama's 2008 election. Reaganites have taken valid criticisms of the political system, bundled them together and set them up as a lincoln log house to block out their own cynicism about the world.

The line that 'government' is standing in the way of the 'businesses' is persuasive for people who believe that the world is run by governments and not businesses.

As long as people believe that, it will be easy to stir up populist sentiment that way, just as it is easy to stir up populist anger against the "corporations" amongst people who believe that the world is run by businesses. Edit: I couldn't tell if you were asking for things to talk your family about or other sources to suggest to them that are more level headed, so if you were actually asking for the latter, along with all of the babbling, you can have this link to the Front Porch Republic, a quality website representing conservative viewpoints: http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/ Edit 2: I'm sorry for not re-writing everything so that it makes sense

Keep up with your liberal bullshit, at least you will change their opinion on something: abortion.

It is futile. Cut the damn cord.

Violent, I can totally comiserate with you.

Two general exlections ago, I was sitting across from my folks having dinner when my father (a retired Air Force officer and doctor) brought up politics.

I carefully tried to steer away, as I found myself not supporting reelecting Pres.

Bush. My mother looked me squarely in the eye and said, "You know, you can't be a Chrsitian and vote for a Democrat." My mother in law went off a few months ago about "those bums running things in Washington".

When my wife questioned her about why "they were all bums", her only response was a wry wink and, "Oh, you know why." As for me, I consider myself an "extreme centrist".

I judge everyone and every issue on their individual merits. I think it's just a generational thing.

There is no swaying the odler generations.

I think they're just used to getting their opinions spoonfed to them and independant thought is beyond them sometimes.




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