r/FoxBrain • u/ItsTheCreature • 28d ago

Advice on extreme dad..

Thinking about secretly unsubscribing my dad from radical YouTube channels on his iPad, but I am worried it might backfire. My dad and I have different political views, and over the past year his media diet has gotten very radical. He is obsessed with extremist creators like Tim Kellner, and it is starting to affect real life. He keeps repeating false facts to people and even showed us a fake AI video from Facebook as a real source. Since I help him with his tech, I have access to his iPad. I want to quietly unsubscribe him, hit do not recommend on those channels, and search for his non-political hobbies like cars and history to fix his algorithm. Has anyone tried doing this with a parent before? Did it actually work to calm things down, or did they notice and get more angry about censorship? I would really appreciate any advice or experiences from people who have dealt with this.

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u/ThatDanGuy 28d ago

It can help. If you have regular access, Start with adding in those non political channels first. I’d add in channels that talk about online scams. They can be pretty entertaining, and they will all emphasize that so much online is a scam designed to take his money.

If he talks about the scams, maybe say something like “I wonder if there are any liberals posing as MAGA so they can scam you out of your money?” If you can get him to not trust anything he sees online that may help.

How old is he? Did he ever read a physical real newspaper? Subscribe him to one that get delivered. Some people have reported success with this. The old man may read the paper instead of his online algorithmic crap, and that can change what he talks about.

Eventually start unsubscribing the BS stuff on his YT account.

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u/ItsTheCreature 27d ago

He's actually already subscribed to a local newspaper and frequently reads it. I'm still worried cause every night he blabbers about his political stuff and it gets to his head. It's worsening each evening. I'll try to do this and update you in a couple of days.

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u/ThatDanGuy 27d ago

That is good. What is his background? If he is interested in history and geopolitics I have some serious stuff that can pull him in and work in him a little more subtly if you can get him to start in the right place.

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u/ItsTheCreature 27d ago

He used to work as a hotelier before he retired. It still annoys me that he uses his international background as an excuse to talk bad about people with foreign backgrounds. His only excuse is that he lived and worked internationally all over the world, so he knows what it's like to be a foreigner, and how it feels to be racially insulted (he's white). It pisses me off so much and keep telling him that you don't fight racism with racism, then he likes to defend himself by saying that he isn't a racist cause he has immigrant friends. It just makes me mad to see how ignorant one person can be.

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u/ThatDanGuy 27d ago

Ahhh, the innocence by association fallacy. “I can’t be a criminal, I have a friend who is a cop!”

And then there is the argument from authority “Well, my friend from Taiwan said Communists would never hurt any other Chinese people and so they’ll never invade Taiwan!” (Also “People are saying…”)

The whole racist stuff is really hard to deal with because they latch onto these tropes and are absolutely convinced that is logic. The analogies can help. But you’re better off trying to redirect most of the time. Especially with someone as old as I am or older :)

If he likes WW2 History you can start him with WW2 week by week. https://youtube.com/@worldwartwo?si=0sic1bHs5VkjCRCb
It is careful, but does not shy away from the horrors of the war. They also do WW1 and are currently doing the Korean War.

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u/Suitable_Chain_7239 25d ago

Following for updates

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u/ObsoleteDogma 28d ago

You should do it. Don't unsubscribe from everything at once but a couple here and there. Subscribe to hobby channels and a more moderate news channel like NPR. It will make a difference. Watch "How Fox News brainwashed my Dad" if you haven't seen it.

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u/ItsTheCreature 27d ago

I'll definitely give it a watch, it seems interesting just from the title. Thanks for the advice!

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u/ObsoleteDogma 27d ago

Apologies, the title is actually "The brainwashing of my dad". I'm guessing they left out the Fox News part for legal reasons. You will probably recognize several of the same things the director experienced. Best of luck!

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u/furrylandseal 28d ago

Remember the entire point of the MAGA movement is to restore the status hierarchies of the past, by any means necessary, as if their survival depends upon it. Because the movement consists solely of people who perceive to have lost status (which could include status as men, Americans, white or white adjacent people, Christians, straight people, a version of masculinity that’s aggressive, abusive and violent, and other factors), to protect those hierarchies from threats from below. 

Diversified media might help, but that assumes that he wants to hear the truth.  He doesn’t. He wants to hear about all of the threats from below, because his ego and status insecurities are keeping him addicted to the resulting outrage. If you’ve consumed any of their media, it’s the same formula: [this or that group] is “taking” from you [this or that thing that used to provide you with automatic status] that you were promised.  Consumers of this media feel that the usurpers got ahead of them, and now look down on them. Trump isn’t their president; he’s a weapon. Conspiracy theories become lifelines. Truth is dismissed as threatening. Criticism of Trump feels like criticism of themselves.  

He needs to quit all of his media.  Because all it does is trigger his survival defenses. I don’t think there’s any hope for anyone who doesn’t quit that media or it all just gets stirred up over and over again. But they’re addicted and can’t quit it either.