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.

My MIL was always right wing but this is next level. GB News has turned her into a nasty, racist and she is paranoid and scared.

I wish we could block it. She is so unhappy

Same here. Its shit isnt it. My Dad said he could NOT come to an important family event because there are no hotels available due to refugees and asylum seekers. This is in city thst has 11800 hotel rooms so capacity for 24000 people.

I think that is partially the issue with the BBC.

Back in the good old days the BBC didn't have that much time for news. A couple of hours a day. It was just enough time for them to repeat the bare story, and not much else.

Then when 24 hour news came along, what to do with all that extra time ?

The answer was, analysis and opinion. And once you start straying significantly into that area, the potential for accusation of bias and actually being biased increases massively.

So the BBC has turned from an organisation that was generally respected for just reporting the facts, to an organisation accused by many of political bias.

My ex was like this about London. He'd never been and was convinced that he would have his wallet stolen by someone on a bike, that his hotel room would be broken into and all this things stolen and that London was full of yobs and hooligans hell bent on knifing him.

He came with me on a work thing to London and when he'd been once and not mugged or burgled or stabbed, and, in fact, he had quite a good time, his view began to mitigate a little bit. So it might be that getting your mum and dad out and about a bit more might help them see that the world isn't quite burning just yet.

Ugh yes this one. I can’t get a hotel in lake como in August because of the fact it’s lake como in August. According to my mum it’s because of asylum seekers 🙄

My favourite one so far has been that a parcel I had was delayed. I had a grumble because it had taken about a week to get to me - “oh it’s because of the boats”

urmmmm

i wish I could. I’ve just invited him to Silverstone 2027 and he’s “not sure it’s safe” 🥴 I went to London and every single text I sent was met with a response of “careful, they’ll knick your phone!”

Just gift your parents a subscription to the Guardian and the audiobook of "the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists" and that should put them on the straight and narrow.

The OP’s parents are adults. They are entitled to make their own decisions about what they want to do all day. If one of my children started rabbiting on at me that I needed to get out more, I’d be very unlikely to say ‘Oh, you know, you’re right.’ On the contrary, I will keep on doing what I want because I have my own brain. If they are showing genuine concern about my mental health, if I have been slipping into a depressive state without realising how bad I’ve become, then I will greatly appreciate their concern. But if it’s just a general idea of getting the oldies out of the house because they’re watching too much telly, then they can mind their own business.

Do you live with them? If not, how do they know everytime you go anywhere?

People with GW anxiety will be freaking just now, it is fucking hot, not really normal for the UK. My opinion is, best move is switching the screens off (I will stop typing into the internet soon) go out into nature and read a book or something, anything to take you away from Digital World.

I do tend to tell them if I’m off on a trip - someone should be aware of my whereabouts! I’m single and live alone.

Do they read the Daily Mail?

I used to work at a supermarket and served customers who believed in every word of the DM like it’s a bible and talked to us about it

“oh as it’s in the paper it must be true”

The telegraph

Adults have every right to live their lives as they see fit. If that involves stewing in their own misery then legally they can.
But it's also completely normal and appropriate for their loved ones/friends to care and not want them to sink into the swamps of desolation. It's normal for people to care about other people. The OP is a daughter asking for advice on helping her parents. That's not patronising. Ironically it's part of our "traditional values" GBNews is always bemoaning the loss of. You are right however, the OP can't force her parents to do anything they don't want to do and unfortunately that might mean she has to instead distance herself a little if the constant despair is affecting her.

YANBU to be concerned @goslowly, GB News is the UK RTLM.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_T%C3%A9l%C3%A9vision_Libre_des_Mille_Collines

YABU to block it though.

are you saying that what people say in their own homes should be monitored and sanctioned?

It’s one thing using parental controls on a child’s phone, computer etc, but you can’t do that to people who are in their 60s! Im 68 and would be deeply offended if my daughter censored what I watch. My husband often watches GB news and I usually leave the room when it’s on, but I would never ever tell him he can’t watch it!

I agree with this. It's not new, either. Over 40 years ago a friend of ours told us that his mother, a white woman married to a white man who'd lived all their lives on the Kent coast, an area with an almost entirely white population, had been saying things he thought were factually incorrect and offensive about immigrants and members of ethnic minorities. He tried to point this out and she told him he didn't know what these people were like. He lived in Inner London in one of the most ethnically diverse areas in the country. He taught in a university on a course that attracted students and researchers from all over the world. He had lived abroad. But she believed he wouldn't know what 'these people', i.e. people who weren't white and/or British, were like, whereas she did based on what she'd read in the Daily Mail. Extraordinary.

People can use the OFF switch, it is a personal choice.

Maybe mum and dad should tweak OPs internet so she can no longer access the Guardian.

OP I haven’t rtwt but my take from this is to be alarmed at the time they are spending watching the telly and sitting down. This is extremely bad for their mental and physical health, and it does sound as if their sanity/common sense is being very adversely affected.

People used to do this in the 80"s as well, nothing new.

Good grief.

lol I don’t read the guardian

No, I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying that lots of people don't want to have to listen to constant rants about boats/ brown people, especially when it's at the expense of any other conversation. Also that we should call out any extreme views/ challenge and not just sit still silently and pretend it's not happening.