Fox Geezer Syndrome
Richmond Ramsey describes something I think many of you may have experienced. He calls it “Fox Geezer Syndrome.”
Or didn’t. I don’t know when it happened, exactly, but she began peppering our conversation with red-hot remarks about President Obama. I would try to engage her, but unless I shared her particular judgment, and her outrage, she apparently thought that I was a dupe or a RINO. Finally I asked my father privately why Mom, who as far as I know never before had a political thought, was so worked up about Obama all the time.
“She’s been like that ever since she started watching Glenn Beck,” Dad said.
A few months later, she roped him into watching Beck, which had the same effect. Even though we’re all conservatives, I found myself having to steer our phone conversations away from politics and current events. It wasn’t that I disagreed with their opinions – though I often did – but rather that I found the vehemence with which they expressed those opinions to be so off-putting.
Then I flew out for a visit, and observed that their television was on all day long, even if no one was watching it. What channel was playing? Fox. Spending a few days in the company of the channel – especially Glenn Beck — it all became clear to me. If Fox was the window through which I saw the wider world, for hours every day, I’d be perpetually pissed off too.
I have read that the Fox News audience skews to a much older demographic, especially the evening opinion shows. Is there something about O’Reilly/Beck/Hannity that appeals to older people specifically? I’ve always wondered if the repetition and certainty about a complex world is a major part of the appeal.
Tags: Fox News, Frum Forum
That generation in between the Greatest and the Boomers never really had anything goin for them. Their older brothers (and sisters) saved the world and their nieces and nephews fought for civil rights and changed American culture. Middle children of history as Mr Durden would say. They like Foxed news because it plays to their “we’ve been kept down all our lives” delusion. That is the main message in Billo, The manatee, and batshitboy…. that all these white, mostly christian-americans are, in fact the victims of the minorities who have the NERVE to suggest that America is unequal. Most of these people never really did anything special with their lives, but they see people who look different from themselves doing great things all the time and, of course, they blame “those people” or “the gumment” anyone but themselves. Fox just tells them what they want to hear.
I think a lot of this has to do with the kids today mentality found among many, but not all, of the elderly. It’s like the changing of the guard – a time when the children grow up and start being in control. This can cause friction in the family, which includes everything from when to give up the car keys and personal finances to hosting holiday dinners.
One of the things FOX does is hark back to “better” times – Read: the past generation. It constantly confirms that the older generation did it right, and their kids are messing it up.
It played out starkly with the Obama election. The age split between McCain and Obama was obvious, but look at the age split between Obama and Hillary supporters.
WHAT generation between the Greatest and the Boomers? The Boomers were the CHILDREN of the Greatest!!!!
GYHOOYA!!!
I’ve put a child-block on Fox News so nobody in this household can tune in to it. It is, afterall, a form of pornography. ;o)
you’re right capt…. but im talking about the younger siblings of the greatest generation. Too young to serve in WW2 and also too old or too conservative for Woodstock. They didnt stop having children just long enough for a nice clean generational split to occur.
They are the forgotten generation who has a chip on their shoulders that no one ever honored them. Talk about entitlements. Now they have their Tea Parties and their rallies about how hard their life has been without a month to honor them, or scholarships based on their ethnicity. Never mind that most of them celebrate ignorance and stay willfully uninformed. That is the real reason for their economic stagnation. They just assumed because they were white, they would get the “American dream” They feel cheated because they never really got to live in “old school America” that Glenn Beck misses so much. That long forgotten blissful place where the white privilege wasn’t just present (like today) but institutionalized.
That is the age bracket currently at the top rungs of power in this country. Not just elected, but electors. G(F)O(X)P news caters directly to the worst impulses of these people so they get ratings, donations, and votes.
I would like to just put it out there that not all of the elderly manage to get corrupted.
My grandmother who passed away 3 years ago (we’re talking greatest generation)was awesome. I took her to vote in 08 and had to go in with her to push the buttons because she couldn’t reach in the chair. She asked me push all the dem buttons except Castle. Then reconsidered and told me to switch to the D because she wanted to “teach all those republicans a lesson”. she also “didn’t see what the big deal was with all the gays wanting to get married”. She actually got more liberal the older she got.
of course, she didn’t have cable. too extravagant.
Oh, phooey, ben. Our national dialogue is not controlled by sibling rivalry, and the bulk of teabagging nuts I see quoted are Boomers… and Vietnam vets. The craziest people going to Washington are uninformed young people. Look at Ryan, Bachman, et al.
Analysis #fail.
Ryan, Bachmann young? And uninformed?
Maybe newly informed and oblivious to the history of their lives.
And Ben I’m still confused.I usually agree with you.
But Ben does have a point about a certain group trying to create history. And while the group he mentions may be a little too narrow his point is valid.
There seems to be two types of FOX viewers: Those over 65, who depend on gov. services, and are longing for the good old days to demonstrate how much smarter they were. Buying into FOX is comforting to their worldview. Also, change is scarier the older you get. FOX taps into this fear and exploits it.
And those under 65 who buy into this “Ozzie and Harriet” myth, who will happily take their gov. services when the time comes (because they earned them, dontcha know) and are quite comfortable blaming others for their lack of success/happiness/white picket fence. To them… this is their moment, their Woodstock, their chance to turn back the clock. They thrive on fear, as well, but instead of worrying about ending up in front of a death panel – they’ll be the one’s rescuing the elderly – and armed to the teeth while doing it!
As far as the younger, “crazier” people in office. Well, they’re such good, clean-cut kids who listen to their elders. 😉
I think Pandora is right — Fox Noise appeals to the fear and resentments of a certain group of folks who are available to be manipulated that way. It is one reason that makes it part and parcel of the current GOP — just interested in scaring people enough to give them power.
The younger crazier types may or may not believe their bullshit, but they certainly of the GOP class who treats their office as Reality TV rather than an opportunity for governing.
I am reminded of the words of Ezra Pound who, in his old age was asked why he didn’t have a TV, replied “For tthe same reason I don’t have a sewage main emptying out into my living room.”.
Who is this Ezra Pound guy and what has he got against night soil?
In China, the “Honey Wagon” man is one of the most respected positions in every rural community.
And they are currently KICKING OUR COLLECTIVE ASSES six ways to Sunday.
So FUCK Ezra Pound!
He can GO POUND SAND!!!!
it is a REMOTE possibility that i am a tad off-base, at least with the age bracket…. maybe. Im going to call for an independent investigation into the possibility that i MAY have been slightly wrong.
I still think there is a group… not quite the aging hippies, and not quite the people about to hit their 30s who have no historic identity. They were born into a country without government sanctioned discrimination and because of that, they think everyone was born with the same shot. So they dont get into college and rather than blame it on the fact that they cut school to go to an AC/DC concert, (i.e that personal responsibility every repuke claims to advocate but never practices) they blame the “minorities who get affirmative action and endless scholarships”. They dont get a job in February and whine and complain about black history month. Now they get to turn on Fox News and hear rich angry white man after rich angry white man telling them that they aren’t racist… hell, Martin Luther King HIMSELF would be “ashamed at what the civil rights movement has become”
What’s my point? I dont know. but you think things are bad now, wait until MY generation takes over. Pandora, I know you often mention your kids as hopeful signs of a smarter tomorrow, but im guessing they, unlike most of their classmates, dont use the Jersey Shore as their vision of what being an adult is. I look at what kids are offered as entertainment and then i look at the Nintendo-raised failures that a lot of parents are and i feel like soon we will be wishing for the good old days where sane people like Michelle Bachman was in congress.
Ben, the problem with your analysis is that there have been people who behave as you describe throughout the generations. And there are people all generations today who watch and enjoy Fox. Don’t get your hopes up that once this generation is gone, Fox will go away, too. Ain’t gonna happen.
I have a different take on it — I think that older folks (greater generation if you will — people born in the 1920s-30s) used to watch channel 4 and kept watching even after the channel changed ownership. They were slowly brainwashed, like Richmond Ramsey’s mom and dad, and now instead of avoiding them, their children should intervene. Switch to the cooking channel for a while, or This Old House, or the History Channel, then sneak over to any other news channel when it’s time for the news. (Tape over the channel indicator if you have to.) Do this often enough and when they land on Fox news, it will seem too loud and aggressive. I’ve done it — it can be done. My problem was that my mom likes House and Bones and Idol, now Castle and Lie to Me, and so it was easy to stay on the same channel all night. But we finally got her off Fox News.
Another problem (another speculation) is that older people grew up in a time when news was news — and there was an actual separate segment for commentary, labeled as such. They grew up trusting radio and television newscasts to report authoritatively and objectively, and that’s a world-view that is hard to shake.
My 2 cents from this corner of NoWi.
Ben, the Civil Rights Act, overturning segregation, wasn’t passed until 1964. So this generation you’re talking about would be born in ’64 or after? And therefore… 47? Like President Obama?
Good point about the gang between the G. I. Generation [born 1901 to 1925, more or less] and the Boomers [born 1946 to 1964].
The group in between was too young for Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Duke Ellington and Jerome Kern; too old for Bob Dylan, Maclen Music, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Brian Wilson and Jimmy Webb.
The ultimate silent generation grooved on 1950s bilge.