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.

OPs parents might not even be "boomers". There are Gen-Xers in their 60s nowadays.

There are some very unpleasant people on this thread.

OP I hope you get it sorted soon. It’s very sad.

And here we are again. It's the hated boomers. How much tax do want them to pay, you dope? Many of them have paid tax on income for over 50 years and many still pay it. Sorry if it's not enough for your grubby little mitts but PAYE is PAYE. Who the fuck is killing anybody with student debts? It's a sodding choice FGS. I look forward to you telling me how us oldies are destroying the young with a lack of services. Has there ever been a more whiny, whinging , forever complaining generation than yours?

Yes, you are whining now. In your million pound home demanding cuts to everything and keep out immigrants to work and pay the taxes to keep you in your no doubt free mobility scooter.

How is the need for a policeman or teacher needing a degree make it a choice to go to university?

But yeah complain about the boats, complain about young people, complain about lefties and everything else but it's the young that are the problem right?

Ok that's fair, I'll stop sorry

My million pound home? You're out of your tiny mind. If my home's "worth" £180000 that's being optimistic. Some of us live in the north of England. And yes I am whining because I'm sick of an entitled generation blaming everybody else for their perceived ills and , of , course it's always the so called boomers who are to blame in their eyes. Jeez you're even jealous of somebody with a mobility scooter. I have a working pair of legs though so your silly generalisation is misplaced. Don't be a bloody teacher then if all you're going to do is witter on about fees for ever and ever. And if you think those coming across on boats are going to save the economy then you're delusional.

It works on a similar principle, dopamine hit. It's addictive. And not just through drugs.

That there were no riots in Belfast and no one was burnt out of their homes.

They habitually lie that other media and particularly the BBC are not covering stories. Even when the stories are all over the news.

I posted this earlier in the thread at the request of a PP.

Also, I had never heard a presenter, nevermind a journalist, tell guests to "Shut Up".😱

It happens regularly on GB News. I've just seen it happen live.😬 With Nana Akua.🙈

I agree. Really bought out all the racists and the sort if tripe GB news is spouting. Exactly what op is concerned about. Brainwashing is alive and real

You are ageist and have an entitled attitude.

Racists??
I am sick and tired of all the haters on here who hate and resent the older generation. And want to control them. If the parents were 18 year old offspring, posters would be screaming and shouting that they are adults who should be allowed to watch whatever they want.

Confession: shock! Horror!
I watched GB news last night! Fetch the smelling salts.

The item i watched was about white working class boys, a cause close to my heart. Other channels have covered the fact that white working class boys have been failing in schools for generations.

The chap being interviewed and quoting facts was black! Shock horror! What was a racist channel doing interviewing a black expert?

Tony Blair is responsible for some of the underperformance. He pumped money into inner city areas in London and the Midlands. Educational standards improved there. He totally ignored Northern areas such as Sunderland and Newcastle. Educational standards haven't improved in those areas. (Hopefully Andy Burnham will change that).

The best performers in education are Asians and middle/ upper class white boys. I was interested to note that African boys perform much better than Caribbean boys. I hadn't previously been aware of this. Though it makes sense. White working class boys are bottom of the pile. This is a well established fact.

Two causes of this which were discussed were the lack of government funding in areas where it was needed and the lack of parental support within different classes.

Asians want their kids to do well, as does a certain type of white person. Africans coming to this country generally want to make a good life for themselves and want their kids to do well. Eastern Europeans weren't discussed but they have always been keen to take advantage of educational opportunities. Working class parents, generally speaking, aren't interested in their kids education and offer very little support.

The above are all facts. Not lies. Educators have been aware of this for years. The only answer seemed to be to throw more money into white working class areas in order to compensate for the lack of parental engagement.

There's some food for thought for all the bleeding heart lefties on this thread. Now you can all tear the item apart and say what is so dreadful about it.

P.s. Bridget Philips on taxed private schools in order to invest in state education. She didn't. She's just made things worse.

Where's my entitlement? Please explain. The ageism you talk about is retaliation. Or maybe you think that all us older people should take the criticism and shut up? I mean, how bloody dare we stand up for ourselves against ridiculous claims?

Where's the racism on this thread? Some of these replies get more ridiculous.

I doubt it, ofcom regulate them too. I think your parents need a hobby. Spending too much time focusing on everything negative in the world will make make them angry and anxious. Get them out of the house, rather than controlling what they watch.

I know. It's appalling that anyone would think to try and control what their parents watch on tv! There seems to be so many entitled idiots around nowadays who think their opinion is the only one allowed.

All news channels are regulated. If any were spouting hate they'd be taken off air. Gb news is just like Good Morning Britain and Sky News. Chat/gossip shows with news bulletins thrown in.

We need to remember that as the vast majority of people, we have more in common with each other than the backers of channels like GB News. They want us to turn the pitchforks on each other instead of turning the pitchforks on them. We need to stop fueling the culture wars. This is another culture war and we can stop this.

Good to remember that two things can be true at once too. Older people have both worked and paid taxes for decades, and have been luckier with housing - try getting a council house now, and house prices have gone crazy. My house has gone up 5x since the 90s selling price. Younger people have had more materially comfortable childhoods and the cost of essentials like housing has skyrocketed out of reach and university education is much more expensive than it was even 20 years ago.

Help your parents see something other than the TV.
Take them out to a nice family pub for a meal.
Visit on a sunny day and suggest walking in their neighbourhood to a park.

Make gifts to them always an activity like ..
Tickets to a show.
Membership to a local stately home and garden, or zoo.
A day at the local country show.
Cinema tickets.
Craft materials.
Golf club membership
Trampoline with net walls.
Budgies in a cage for the end of their garden.
Two hens and a hen house.
An electric bike.

So what's to be done about it? We are where we are but to keep blaming the oldies for the ills of the young is getting tiresome. We were just born earlier than them into a far less materially comfortable world. Drastically less. Things are relative. Cheaper homes but £12 a week wage. Food and clothing relatively far more expensive than today etc. As for GB news which is after all the thread subject...you can't stop people watching the channel just because you don't like the content and you think it's causing division. The answer is not to watch. The OP is concerned that her parents are being brainwashed by the channel and I think the concern for her parents is genuine but it's a legal channel.

I'm not saying people shouldn't watch GBNews. But it isn't regulated like other news channels.
In short there was a court case because Offcom wanted to sanction GBnews for breach of it's impartiality laws because it had politicians (eg Rees Mog) hosting programmes on its show. GbNews fought them in court and won their case by arguing they were predominantly an entertainment channel, not a news channel, and that the shows hosted by politicians were current affairs shows.

Whatever one thinks about BBC news bias, I can't think of any shows hosted by active politicians. Eg Ed Mili and doesn't have a weekly show where he talks about the importance of Net Zero. Other channels have politicians as regular guests (Dianne Abbot for example) or ex-politicians. But if they wanted to do what GBNews does they would need to argue they weren't news programmes.

So good for GB News. But they are very categorically NOT regulated like a news channel. They won the right not to be in court

Personally I think having the word News in their name is confusing so I understand why you would make that mistake.

Or maybe you weren't? I see you refer to it as a chat/gossip show. But then if you weren't confused, saying "all news channels are regulated and if any were soiuting hate they would be taken of air" is irrelevant really. Because what would happen to a news channel doesn't apply.

Exactly.

OMG! The whinging and whining when the Winter Fuel Allowance was removed except for pensioners on Pension Credit was ridiculous.

Pensioners whose pensions were large enough that they were in the 40% tax band, who would boast that they would just put the WFA towards a holiday or a meal out were throwing their toys out of the pram in disgust.

These are the same people who call people claiming UC or PIP work-shy scroungers but according to them it's obviously different when they receive the WFA because, apparently, they deserve it and have earned it.

First thing to do is to recognise it, and then stop ourselves from doing it. Every time I see the anti-boomer stuff,I try to remember that it's divisive and that's why it's being promoted as although there are legitimate concerns about the cost of living now, if we are too busy fighting each other, we aren't looking at other things like how inequality is going up and the effect on society. Same applies to the anti-millennial/Gen Z stuff too, we need to having a go at each other and look at why an increasingly small subset of society are doing very well whilst the rest of us are struggling.

It was less materially comfortable but the basics like housing were covered. Clothes were more expensive but lasted much longer. Everything is polyester now from Primark and Shein to higher end. The quality is crap.

Children have more material comforts and activities, but I have no idea how they are ever going to afford housing as adults. Renting is extortionate. We bought in the last 20 years and we couldn't afford our own house now. This is probably a good calculation for anyone who bought 20/30+ years ago to make - what would your pay be today, what is the house price now and could you afford it?