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.

Factual? The Guardian? Has everyone forgotten Cologne?

The Guardian also believe men can be women and has driven out superb female journalists who don’t believe in gender bollocks.

GB News was the only platform giving airtime to GC men and women for a very long time.

Social media these days means people can search out news or opinion pieces that matches their own points of view meaning they only hear one side which just reinforces that belief. If everything they watch is telling them people on small boats are coming over, getting free houses and jumping the NHS queues, they'll believe it as there's no counter argument.

I watched a young university student talk to right wing conservatives in Texas about being LGBT. Their belief was it was a choice and a sign of societal decay. His reaction was to ask them, if sexuality is a choice, then when did they choose to be straight. One woman in particular responded with, "I guess I didn't choose, I was born that way".....the split second she said it....you could see her face change.

Obviously that's a very particular scenario, but it made me realise how important it is to talk about things. Don't argue, don't tell them they're wrong, just talk and offer another perspective.

Huh?

it’s nothing to do with their age. Just the vile shit they spout

Are people really arrogant enough to think this way? If the OP goes ahead with this gross interference in other adults' lives I do hope they change any will leaving her and hers without a penny.

100% - totally agree and well-said. I cannot believe that anyone can ratify controlling someone's parents like this - it's also very infantilising which is doubly gross. @goslowly I recommend you move to China because they love controlling mass media there - maybe you could get a job working for the government and then you can block everyone's right to freedom of speech and expression and consumption to your heart's content. Cannot believe you came on here to ask this - and I hate GB News with a passion.

Dammit I'm obviously doing being in my 60s wrong according to some people. I need to stop being compassionate and worrying about the younger generation and the rise of the far right and hatred, and start hoarding my unearned wealth and hugely expensive house (which obviously, as we all did, I got for £25 oh, plus MEGA pensions.) I'll sign up for 'Every Over 60 is Definitely A Boomer Fascist' weekly asap.

A lot of the posters here don't understand radicalisation and how it works.

Oh, my dad got like this in his 80s, a right pain in the arse - I certainly wouldn't advocate banning news channels though. Censorship doesn't tend to the answer They aren't children, and all it achieves is fuelling the idea that we "lefties" are censorious patronising idiots who can't cope with "the truth". In other words, it's an approach that just feeds the beast.

And I'm fairly sure GB News don't actually say what you're claiming they do; killing lefties, really? Can you point to the report where they have actually done that? As others have said, there are various news outlets of all political persuasions whose reporting standards have also been far from exemplary: both the Guardian and the Beeb have gone very downhill on that score in the last few years, imo, and I do wish they'd pull their socks up, as all that does is feed their opponents. And people are allowed to have different views. Echo chambers exist on both sides of the political divide, have you ever considered that?

My 80 year old mother watches GB News occasionally along with other channels including the BBC but has somehow managed to allow us to be mercifully free of the angry political rantings my father subjected us all to. TBF, he'd been on about Europe since Maastricht, and wasn't generally racist, so I don't think GB news or even Farage et al come to think of it had much to do with that. He did have far more right wing friends as he got older though. Oh, and I found the Express to be way more of an issue than GB news, he became an avid reader at one point

Some people get fixated on things, some people don't. I'd say it's probably more to do with the views of those they hang out with than a single news channel.

Quite! My dad is 80, my mum is 77 and neither of them would ever consider watching GB News, nothing to do with retirement. What a bizarre thing to assert when there is so much evidence to the contrary. They don't vote Reform either!

To be fair, on MN this is exactly how lots of women treat their husbands/partners and then are bleating if he reciprocates!

If they were being manipulated by a cult, would you try and block the cult's access to them? This is the same, they are being brainwashed by fake news.

It’s completely different - the OP isn’t dealing with two minors who still have developing brains.

On the off chance this is a real message and not generated for a mumsnet discussion on control/ banning/cancelling, let me say this:

Banning seems to me to work as a temporary measure but it drives issues underground where they fester and expand. As a general point, I believe the way ahead is to persuade not ban.

So…if you believe xyz TV inappropriate (be that GB News or the BBC), why not explain your reasoning to your parents setting out your concerns about the effect watching it has on them? You can even say that you find that it makes them less pleasant to be around.

If they still want to watch it, they have the right to do so. You have made your position clear.

I've never seen anyone advocate that a husband or partner is treated in this way. I wouldn't say it's a mainstream belief.

GBNews isn't a news channel. It is an entertainment channel like Everywhere is Essex, Mersey Wives and the dance and singing channels. Just tell them to ignore it.

so what triggers incels? The recent riots in Southampton? Racism. radicalisation, rioting, none of these are age related neither is being drawn down SM rabbit holes. Old people are not all wise well balanced angels but neither is age a predictor, prerequisite or vector for extreme views.

I absolutely do agree that feeling marginalised, overlooked, "hard done by", and that you don't have control of your life all contribute to extremist feelings but none of those things directly relate to age.

I would talk to them and make them see wishing any one dead due to their beliefs is just as bad as lefties dancing when Charlie Kirk was killed. As far as I've seen GBnews hasn't wished anyone dead.

It's best everyone tries to get a variety of news sources and not just one way or the other. So, no to banning. It's also good for YOU to have your opinion tested every so often.

If they were mentally competent then no I would not!

I have no idea about GB News. I’m not in the UK.
But 2 adults in their 60s, retired and they just watch tv all day.
What a waste of their lives.
So many others weren’t given the privilege of getting to retirement age. 🥲
Off topic I know, sorry.

Don't visit them

Most people don't seem to understand to what extent the media controls our opinions and how we vote. The right wing press, which is most of it including any social media owned by rich dudes, are deciding how people think.
I would block it if it was me and take back some control for them.
Before I did that I think I'd give them an ultimatum, along the lines of if you don't stop saying such hateful things you won't see us anymore.

It is possible they are developing dementia. Maybe they do need monitoring.

But even if it is radicalisation that still wouldnt make it okay to censor the viewing of two mentally competent adults.

Not to mention they'd probably still find some way of fuelling the fire, whether by watching gb news on YouTube, Facebook articles etc. Or just buy a new TV!

My parents are similar so I completly get where you are coming from.

I think Ive worked out that as my parents retired, their 'world' got smaller as they no longer work with a variety of different people from different ages/socioeconomic background/political leanings etc. They no longer see the world as they did when they were working - they were both always busy, talking to someone, understanding other peoples circumstances and just generally being very active in life etc.

Their world is now incredibly small as they dont go out much & they learn about whats going on pretty much exclusively by watching GB news & reading the daily mail. They believe everything that is said/printed and have become very angry at the world and blame anyone who is not white for all the troubles in the country right now as that is what they have been told by these sites.

I would liken it to being in a cult. Their critical reasoning seems to have reduced massively and I think its to do with them getting older (now both in their mid 70s/early80s) and what they watch/consume all day.

My mum now admits that retiring was probably the worst thing she ever did (& she couldn't wait for it to come at the time!) as its made her life smaller and she misses all the connections she had with people each day (she worked in a school). Her health isn't as good now either which will also play a part in how she feels.

I'll be honest that its made me reflect on my plan for early retirement (only mid 40s so Ive got a while to go yet) but I think that sitting around at home all day watching extreme news content has harmed them both but they are adults and have agency over what they watch & read. Ive sort of given up trying to show them another opinion as its not really worth it but I will have my say if its getting too much.

Just want to say that its not just your parents that have become like this but thats what GB news is set up - they want to enrage people about everything and have been extremely successful at achieving their aim!

Out of interest, did they go to uni?
Also if they are well off why not pay for private health care as a one off rather than lingering on NHS waiting lists. Nobody is stopping them from doing that. I never understand why rich elderly people think they have to wait their turn if they can afford not to.

Yep, sit in a rocking chair and get the knitting needles out. No television for you. Just the classical musical station on the radio for you.