To block GBNews from my parent’s TV?

[goslowly]

My parents retired 4 years ago. They’re both in their 60s, healthy, happy, comfortable financially.

Since they’ve retired they have been sucked in by every single thing they say on there. They can spend an entire day sat in front of the TV getting angrier and angrier. It’s to the point that if Starmer comes on the TV, they shout about how he should be killed.

it’s genuinely starting to concern me. You can’t have a rational conversation with them about anything. I miss my parents, how they used to be before all the conspiracy and anger took over.

I’m genuinely tempted to block it from their tv using parental controls and just pretending it’s some weird fault in their telly. They’d not be able to fix it.

Its not about age though!!!
I am an introvert in her thirties. I like being at home. But I did go through a period of being depressed a few years ago and, while it wasn't caused by it, doom scrolling social media made it much worse. I still spend time online (here) but I also take the effort to go outside into the woods, or just to the shops and to meet with friends regularly even when I don't feel like it. If I spend to much time inside in front of a screen I will spiral.
If you are mentally well and happy then clearly you don't need to get out more. But if you were unhappy or scared of the world and asked for advice, get out more would be my advice. Of course I don't know you so it's not my business. But OP is their daughter so of course she's concerned

Being isolated from the real world and spending too much time indoors in front of a screen is bad for children, it's bad for teenagers, it's bad for middle aged mothers, it's bad for retirees. The only difference is I can impose screen time on my own under 18s whereas for adults (including myself) it's harder for other people to help so "try to encourage them to get out more" is the advice

Not the point of thread, but have you considered your friend´s partner may have an alcoholism problem and that´s the drive behind this. You say he doesn´t live with her so may not have realised the extent of the problem. I worked with someone like this, and excessive social drinking became drinking alone on the sly on ever increasing amounts. She was functional at work, but alcoholised all the time. It also changed her personality from unreasonable and venomous when drunk to the same all the time.

Exactly, and they have been doing it a lot longer and a lot more successfully, the mask has slipped a bit though and it is not as powerful as it once was, probably at ten years or more since I watched bbc "news", but a few minutes a day of any of them is sensible, the bottom of screen news feed while one or more people are talking is a classic hypnosis/brainwashing technique.

OMG you are threatening violence!

Call Prevent!

Thats good. The DM is a bit of a gateway drug to negative thinking though. It rarely covers hopeful stories.

Maybe they could go to a Reform rally, or a TR march?

Which papers do you prefer? For the 'hopeful' stories?

You can't change the subject with people like this, though!
If you try, doesn't matter how innocuous the subject, how fluffy, how light, it's always, always brought back round to "boat people" or "the trans" or whatever.
They're gone. They're obsessed.

In order of probability...

1. This is a made up situation by someone who hates GB news
2. Its real, but blocking GBN makes no difference, because it's a TV channel not an evil hypnotic mind control device. ... ...
3. It's real and blocking GB News drastically improves the parents' views and behaviour.

A big difference is that 24 hour news never used to be a thing! You had the doom and gloom for a set period of time and then that was it. Now you can watch endless doom and gloom on a loop every waking hour (minus toilet breaks). This is just as bad IMO as social media is. This is a completely new thing for everyone, generation Z are the first generation to grow up with it as normal and there have been loads of discussions about the impacts of this. But those discussions miss that, while older generations may not have had 24hour news and social media as children, they are as exposed to it now as teenagers.

Our brains weren't made for sitting in a house watching a screen telling ups how terrible the world is all day. Regardless of age.

Do they really say Starmer should be killed?

I would be deeply concerned for their mental health if they are really saying this sort of shit.

I’m so sorry to hear this OP, it must be really hard for you, seeing them fall into this pit of hatred and anger.

Obviously you can’t actually disconnect this from their TV but I do massively feel for you.

Same here OP between GB News and facebook, they have completely changed. Most recent is organ donation is a conspiracy and that brain death is a hoax.

My father is self treating serious medical conditions with massive doses of vitamin D, and thinks that that Ivermectin (worm medication) is a miracle drug.

That the UN and the WHO are taking over the world through nefarious means.

They have lost the plot.

ETA: yy on the Starmer yelling and abuse. That's also happening in my parents house.

I don't believe it's made up at all .
People like this do exist, where you can't have any conversation without it turning round to "immigrants" or whatever . (Maybe not to the extreme that OP has to put up with, but it's not a great leap to think that some might just have gone "further down the rabbit hole" than others...
It's a real problem, and sticking your head in the sand and not believing it is another.

No papers do hopeful stories that much. Everything is OK isn't really news.
The guardian will run a story one week on how good quinoa is. Then the next week endless coverage about how selfish westerners eating quinoa are destroying Peruvian communities

If you want to hear that the world is terrible, read the Mail/Telegraph. If you want to hear that you are terrible, read the Guardian. For balance it makes sense to read papers from across the political spectrum so that you can hate the world AND yourself.

Some of us knew how corrupt the UN was and still is in relation to Gaza.

I wish I could do this with my mother in law. She has started watching it all day. She has gone from being a happy positive person to utterly miserable. She cancelled a weekend away recently because she was convinced Muslims are going to invade. It's had the most appalling impact on her mental health.

I agree with you OP as similar has happened with my Dad and it just really upsets me that he’s such a different man to be around now as compared to 10 years ago. He’ll do anything, absolutely anything to bring up immigration (managed to do it in a conversation about ice cream at the weekend) and it’s never got debate it’s just an angry, completely misinformed rant.

I’ve tried over the years to gently suggest watching something else for a change and getting the eff off Facebook but he won’t hear it. So now when he starts these rants I just excuse myself; once I did say that if you’re going to shout about migrants all day me and the kids wont come around as it’s no fun - and he did stop then. This is just what I do now - don’t rise to it, and I will leave if it’s around the kids and that does seem to stop him.

Corruption is one thing. World Domination ala Despicable Me is completely different kettle of fish. My parents are full out and proud conspiracy theorists.

I’m so sorry. It’s so tough isn’t it?

@DiscoCherries He’ll do anything, absolutely anything to bring up immigration (managed to do it in a conversation about ice cream at the weekend

😂How?! Sorry, I know it's not funny, it's anything but, I must admit I'm intrigued as to how ice cream kicked him off 😁)
(Oh and sympathies, MIL gets like this)
Actually, second thoughts, don't answer as I don't want to derail the thread which is an important discussion with people reading said reply and wading in with some shite about yes actually they're right and ice cream is all boat people's fault 🙄)

Honestly, it's better than not going out at all. But if this was a teenager who was desperately scared about global warming to the extent it was hurting her mental health I would be saying that doing things that give her a sense of agency over the situation (campaigning) might help but the important thing is to do stuff that's completely non-political, just to get out of the bubble of anxiety. All the world's problems will still be there later after you've gone to get ice-cream with your friends. And I care about environmental issues myself and worry about global warming. But even with that bias it's not healthy to let it consume you to the extent every conversation comes back to it. It means living in a constant state of anxiety where even happy or neutral things are tainted. Although their concerns are different, I think for the parents it's also important to have and do stuff that's not about their overriding fears.
It's not healthy to be this consumed by anything.

They actually YELL at the tv when he’s on the screen! As if it’s some personal affront to them!

Not GB News: they successfully argued that they are an entertainment channel, and so fall outside the OFCOM regulations which apply to actual news channels