Thread by @fimoculous

I haven’t related to a story quite so much in a while. “I hate what [Fox News] did to my funny, compassionate dad. He spent the last years of his life increasingly angry, bigoted, and paranoid.”
nymag.com/intelligencer/…

There are parts of the country where Fox News is culture. Literally all culture. My parents haven’t gone to a movie in 15 years. It’s all-consuming.

And listen, you can hear me complain on this very platform that NYC/DC/SF/LA has its own bubble problem. I even sometimes call it an empathy problem. But the scope is nothing compared to the Fox monoculture. It’s completely totalizing.

I’ll hafta delete this in an hour, but I wanna say... it’s simply infuriating that my kind, lifetime public servant mother suddenly needs to give voice to her feelings about Colin Kaepernick.

Colin Fucking Kaepernick! She has no idea who that is! Who the fuck convinced my mother she needs to spread Colin Fucking Kaepernick memes on Facebook!

40 years working in public schools and the instant she retires, she becomes a different person. She lives in rural North Dakota and has never once had an opinion about immigration. Now it’s an obsession!

I’ve seen people use the word “cult” and it’s a dangerous term. It takes away agency. It’s effectively telling your parents they have lost their faculties. They’re in the 60s!

Early 60s! And I look away, like they’re senile. It’s just so frustrating. I have no idea how to confront them.

My parents now live in a large house with four TVs. At some point, they stopped turning them off. You can walk around the house, and they’ll all just be on. They play Fox News 24/7. It’s like an airport from hell.

North Dakota is the only state with no voter ID laws (yeah!). My mother has been a public official for elections for 30 years. She knows LITERALLY EVERYONE who can vote. The district has a few hundred people. But she’s now convinced it can be gamed. Who convinced her of this?

WHY DOES MY MOTHER HAVE OPNIONS ABOUT AOC????

Here’s a meme she shared on FB. It runs counter to everything I know about her. MOM, how on earth do you have opinions about AOC?

I’ gonna delete all of this because I’m a coward. I really have no idea how to talk to her about it without damaging our relationship.

But if someone out there really wanted to create a valueable non-profit, you know amwht it would be? How To Talk To Friends From Home About Politics. HTTTFFHAP. It’s not catchy, but it could save the republic.

Just to clarify this point for anyone who raised eyebrows: ND is the only state with no voter registration laws. You can just walk in and vote. It’s kinda awesome.