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.

So, because it hasn't happened to you or your husband, it hasn't happened at all, it must all be made up?
That's not how it works. You realise you're not everyone, right?
Some are more susceptible than others.
I don't think it's helpful to frame it as just a "boomer" problem though.
It's anyone isolating themselves, or vulnerable whilst spending time in echo chambers online/reading only one "viewpoint" whether it be "left" or "right".

I'm genuinely finding it really interesting that a lot of the posters taking umbrage with OP and defending or missing the point when it comes to radicalisation are regular and vocal feminism board posters.
It's a lot to unpack and it's getting late, but I do think radicalisation works on a lot of people by using the same arguments for both "boat people" and "trans people." Like a playbook?
They're taking over/ protect your women and children/ etc.
It's a real problem and people just don't see it, or have their head in the sand. Or are too far gone themselves maybe? Who knows 😕

You CAN'T change the subject with this type of person though, that's the point!
They'll literally turn it right back round, no matter the subject.

Careful quoting from the telegraph - if it’s not the OP’s approved news list, she might come round and cancel your subscription because it’s damaging her argument.

If OP seriously can’t communicate with her parents in any way any more she can remove herself from that relationship, sad as that may be. It’s utterly bizarre to suggest tampering with someone’s television to control the source of their news so it aligns with your beliefs.

So call us all racist if it makes you feel better. Call everybody who is a left leaning guest on the programme racist. Call every MP who is interviewed on there racist. Call every news article racist. I could go on, when really I should have just laughed at the absurdity of the original question.

If it was watching GB news or anything else if someone tried to call me racist though I would say ''ok I am rascist and what now?" they are the ones with the problem not me, what to they expect the person they are accusing of being racist to say or do ''gee who'd have thought you are so much more intelligent than me you can get out of bed while simultaneously removing the broom from your backside" what do they want the outcome to be?

That poster is fully signed up to Reform/Restore/GBN. Don’t waste your time attempting a logical discussion 😏

It's hardly surprising that GC feminists who feel lied to (and lied about) by many parts of the media have some sympathy for GB News who have been more willing than other channels to present their views fairly.

Brilliant. 😃😃

Yep. Its a relationship problem, although OP has presented it as a TV problem.

Agree. The op will get validation on here and her parents can do similar with their friends. The op can decide to work on the relationship or let it go. But withdrawing to yes you’re right spaces will just cement the separation.

GB News is regulated by Ofcom so they are quite strictly regulated. They can’t just say whatever they want nor can they peddle conspiracy theories as though it’s truth. The regulator would shut them down.

If your parents are shouting for politicians to be killed then it’s likely they’re consuming extremist content elsewhere which is radicalising them. Of greater concern is why two healthy 60 year olds are doing nothing else but watching TV all day.

FFS have you heard yourself? You sound like a kid in the playground...don't play with them, play with me and whose side are you on? Some of the up your own arsedness on here is off the scale. Your bigotry and snobbishness are sickening attributes. You've no room to talk anybody down.

Do it! My FIL has gone the same way with the French equivalent, C News. It’s hate propaganda designed to make people feel angry. He’s ridiculous - lives in a detached house with a pool in a completely white, wealthy, rural area, got a bigger state pension than our combined family income (from a life long civil service job at the state owned electricity company), and still angry about immigrants and vegans for some reason. His own parents were immigrants!!!

Yes,
But there's also a certain irony in the fact that you can find threads in the FWR section about the negative effects of trans ideology on young people especially the narrative that they are under attack all the time and the ramping up of fear/anger against anyone not in the ingroup. Eg the use of statistics about the murder rate of trans sex workers in South America to make teenagers in the UK feel unsafe. The dishonest tuse of statistics. In particular the constant bandying about if suicide statistics is unbelievably unhelpful. As is the encouragement to spend more time online/with like-minded people which can isolate people more and lead to them being less in touch with reality etc. the constant victim hood narrative.

But there's no awareness that this sort of isolation and victim narrative can happen to other age groups. Including middle aged people and including older people. Just being over the age of 60 doesn't make one immune and it's not ageist**/patronising to acknowledge that. I think some people are reacting with hostility to the OP because they are at the GB news end of the political spectrum and therefore her concerns hit a nerve. Whereas if she was talking about her parents being radicalised into left wing fear based politics, or extreme anxiety about global warming, or anything else they would be more likely to recognise it as a problem.

**Also surely calling someone agist is shutting down debate and will inevitably lead to everyone becoming more agist in revenge? Isn't that how it works?

As others have said, they aren't. They got round it by arguing that they are an entertainment channel not a news channel so aren't held to the same standards by offcom.as eg the BBC, ITV news etc. But if you find it entertaining then there's no harm watching. But it isn't a news channel and doesn't want to be.

I think that OP can absolutely think that they are wrong when they talk about shooting the people in small boats, immigrants and basically anyone that isn't white. Even for right-wingers, advocating political violence is an extreme position to take. It's can't make for a pleasant visit for OP.

Do what? Control someone else's TV? You seem very angry about your FILs living circumstances which you say are better than yours. Are you sure it's the TV programmes he's watching that's making you so bitter?

No. Its nothing to do with whatever end of the political spectrum. OP suggesting she gaslight or coerce or trick her parents is abusive.

Perhaps many FWR posters understand the dynamics of control and coercion.

This thread wasn't really about a particular news channel, but about OP and parents' relationship.

I say what I see. When people post regularly, you see their bias and their prejudices 🤷🏼‍♀️

Laughing at the poster who talked about right wing nastiness. There's a reason I mentioned Charlie Kirk and the vile comments his murder attracted. Antifa's antics in the name of the left, hoping Trump is killed, praising Palestine Action Group who are now proscribed terrorists, being too lazy to understand there's no difference between anti-semitism and anti-zionism. All in the name of the intolerant left. Their raison d'etre is all about shutting down anything or anyone who makes them feel insecure.

Do what? Control someone else's TV? You seem very angry about your FILs living circumstances which you say are better than yours. Are you sure it's the TV programmes he's watching that's making you so bitter?

So if you were murdered by a far-right activist, your dad would think that it served you right? He wouldn't grieve his own daughter but would support the killer?

JFC, if he really means that, you can't have a relationship with your parents any more. He sounds fucking scary and unhinged.

I’m not bitter, we are very lucky and have a great standard of living. I’m giving the context that he is extremely well off, and extremely isolated from the issues that make him irrationally angry. His only experience of these issues is through his tv. Since he’s become more and more sucked into this channel he leaves the house less and less. He’s basically a recluse at this point. His fear is making him very unhappy.

A lot of posters are suggesting OP has a calm discussion. Experience with my FIL is that no discussion at all is possible because he just goes off on an angry paranoid rant at the most innocuous comment.

Wouldn’t work with my FIL, but if OP is able to easily block her parents tv and they aren’t tech savvy enough to realize, I think she should do it. No different from trying to keep an addict family member away from drugs.