[F]rom 7pm to mid-afternoon the next day, every day, Fox is pure, stupid, unvarnished rage for the old and the ignorant.”
Thomas Nichols
Well, of course it is, and we make note of it near daily around here, and have lots of company in doing so. In fact, I can just run off some “first names” and be understood; Mika, Joe, Rachel, Nicole, Lawrence, we say similar stuff all the time.
Ah, but Thomas Nichols isn’t a whip smart MSNBC analyst/host, nor is he a word-warrior, up and coming left-wing blogger, he is actually an extremely conservative professor at the Naval War College in Rhode Island. This “educated elite” conservative recently went on a tweet-essay, explaining why Fox News is irresistible to many over the age of 65. (Not all people over 65, goodness knows my parents are over 65 and would use Fox News as comedy or a movie, pure fiction, and are also “young” in that they do not fear a changing world. I am sure that describes many people over 65, including many reading this article, the forever young.)
It strikes me, whenever I watch Fox, that nothing just happens in the world. There is always someone to blame. Old people love this, I think, and I know from writing my book that ignorant people *definitely* love it because it makes the world seem less random and scary. /2
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 10, 2018
That sense of drama really plays to narcissism and wounded ego. “This is all about YOU. Everything bad is happening because YOU are a victim, and others are hurting YOU.” It’s a relentless self-pity machine for drama queens. /4
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 10, 2018
It’s tough to be old. I’ve watched my father and my relatives pass on. I get it. But constant rage isn’t going to help anyone live longer. And from 7pm to mid-afternoon the next day, every day, Fox is pure, stupid, unvarnished rage for the old and the ignorant. /5x
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 10, 2018
Whoa.
There is a lot of truth to digest there, though I think the professor would have been far better off simply focusing upon the ignorant, rather than age, because truly, the common denominator is ignorance. I see the same factors at work with the Alt-right, white, 23 year old male who is angry that he’s making $10/hour, and must blame someone, the same people Fox focuses upon, immigrants, gays, blacks, Muslims, it never ends.
I do understand, the world got “wired” in less than two decades. That’s viciously fast for those who happened to “just miss” the connection – likely why the professor focuses on the elderly. It does seem random, and scary at times. I mean, who “controls” the net? No one, right? Isn’t that the problem? Isn’t that the beauty? That ideas are being sent through strings of 1’s and 0’s from all directions, we all have a voice, the playing field is being leveled, and some simply don’t like it. They preferred a time when only “certain people” mattered, and were heard.
How could the ignorant resist a network that tells them exactly who to blame? It’s always the same people who are targeted. I wrote of tribes earlier today, Fox exists to create and describe the “opposing tribe” to its viewers, the tribe responsible for all the angst, the people they are right to hate, to blame, and we can use first names here, too, Hillary, Barrack, or labels, “illegals,” “gays,” “blacks,” and now inventing new words to describe us “lesser Americans,” their adversaries. We’re “leftists,” which has radical connotations. It also dehumanizes, making it easier to hate, which is another hallmark of tribalism.
I am absolutely convinced that Russia and Russian money is deeply entrenched in our executive branch, and likely some of Congress. Russians didn’t invent propaganda, but they might have perfected it, and the proof may be in the pudding. Look who is president right now?
If Russians are as involved in our administrations as I think the are, then Russians are involved in the formation of some kind of “state media” – that’s what Russians do, it’s in their DNA. Thus, we have Fox in its current format (remember, it was not always quite so Trump-friendly, nor did it used to be as vicious – though all things are relative here, it always had issues.) The professor’s description is haunting when one thinks about the propaganda used by Euro-fascists in the 30s to describe the world then, one mired in depression and seemed beyond hope. It gave them groups to blame, it gave them a tribe with which to align, and a cause to carry forward. It is the same thing here.
Only now, it appears some conservatives are waking up to it. They are some of the strongest voices against this force. Their importance cannot be understated. That is why so many articles I have written lately have focused upon some of these conservatives, Will, Scarborough, Professor Nichols, they are pushing back against this propaganda and tribalism. There is almost no policy that George Will favors that I would support, but I do support George Will’s fight, Joe Scarborough’s fight, Nichol’s fight, to rip the “conservative” facade off the fascist tribalism that underlies the Trump movement.
Exposing Fox for what it truly does, is a necessary check to weaken their movement.
