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 dad watches GB News and he's exactly the same, maybe not quite as vicious. Still comes out with some crackpot theories though, like the Covid vaccine kills more people than Covid did. Bearing in mind he's 94, with a heart condition, he'd be better off having the Covid jab, but it's his choice, and if he chooses to sit in front of GB News getting worked up, it's his choice. We've tried to tell him to take a more balanced view, but I think he enjoys getting angry.

Actually, I suspect a lot more people understand it than you think.

Propaganda isn't a one-way street. Generally speaking, many media and news outlets right now have tipped into propagandist tactics. Journalistic standards appear to have dropped across the board. It's a genuine concern and no, it isn't just about GB news or other right wing outlets.

Did they bring you up to be very controlling and authoritarian or is that a reaction against them not being?
They are not your small children and you don't get to decide what they watch on TV.
Get over yourself.

A lot of gender critical people would disagree with you there.

As I say, they do it in a more nuanced way, but whilst they do often include facts and legitimate contrary perspectives in their articles, there's frequently a clear implication that there are things which stupid people believe or consider important, whereas their perspective is assumed to be the right, relevant, intelligent way of viewing the situation.

Look at all of the reporting by and about Freddy McConnell for just one example of that. Not a single word criticising Freddy for fighting for the right to falsify and misrepresent somebody else's personal identity documents and how this may just be a narcissistic and controlling thing for anybody to seek to do.

The BBC is the same; they will often go for gaslighting rather than the blatant propagandising that the lower-brow media outlets do. They too go for the 'problem, reaction, solution' angle - whereas GB News and the Daily Mail & Express et al will simply ignore the middle stage and go straight to 'this is the problem - and this is how we need to resolve it'.

Because then it’s less money for holidays! They wouldn’t dream of it

but that's not taking control FOR them, its taking control FROM them.

All TV news is unwatchable and dumbed down, in my view, but I would defend to the hilt anyone's right to watch whatever they like. OP, how dare you think it's acceptable to control what adults watch? Will you be burning their books next?
Leave them alone, and if you don't like their opinions just see less of them.

This is exactly it. I wish I could just get rid of it and have my parents back

They will also have paid into the system all their lives, and probably feel they ought not to pay.

I don't really care

Why do feel the need to police whst your parents watch? Would you like them blocking things on your TV?

Jeez. 🙄

This has got to be a wind up!

That’s their choice but they can’t complain that a minor issue is prioritised behind cancer and emergencies

Do it

you can STAB people with knitting needles......just sayin

I feel you op. I have relatives afflicted with the same. It's really sad to see them so afraid and twisted with hatred.

I wish it was. I miss my parents so much. I just want to be able to visit them and have a normal time with them.

No, but one way to avoid the problem is to get information from a wide variety of sources.

No, they can complain all they like. It's perfectly acceptable to.
What is happening seems to be an increasing hatred and support for the murder of the Prime Minister and migrants on boats. That's different to a moan about the NHS.

Is it causing discomfort?

I'm in my 60s, and this remark is just ageist nonsense. People are all different..... at any age.

Surely they'd just have loads of right/far right guff pinging directly into their phones 24/7 if they're into that side of things. I don't think blocking GB News alone will stop them having the views they do or seeking out content that reinforces it.

I can understand it must be disconcerting if they never seemed to express those opinions previously. But surely it can't just be that one channel?

Exactly. So much ageism on this thread

I used to have massive disagreements over politics with my parents, but since then there's a lot of views I've come around/wisened up to.

I agree with another poster about how media in general left/right play their part to make everything as divisive as possible. It works for their business model, but not for the country. Unfortunately, the Left HAVE been responsible for lots of extremist views such as men magically turning into women, so the Right has (rightly imo) responded to that with derision. Many right wing views now were left wing a couple of decades ago. So, it would seem to both sides that both are in a cult, which is true for the extremists.

Yes, I said in my first post that I didn't see how the OP could do that. But I don't think that skating over what's happening as 'The Guardian is biased too' is helpful or looking at the reality of the situation.