For years now I’ve been able to laugh off my grandparents, FOX News and brainwashed Republicans in general.

But my roommate’s interaction with her parents changed things for me.

Her parents told her that they were scared. They were scared because something serious was underway in America, that a revolution was happening that threatened to destroy the entire country and that it was serious. They told her that Marxists were on the brink of pulling Biden to the Left, and that they were legitimately danger.

I usually laugh this off, but something struck me: they weren’t angry, or grumpy, or bone-headed, like I usually imagine Republicans. They were legitimately afraid, and perceived themselves to truly be descending into a national emergency, one that FOX News has completely manufactured.

I used to laugh off people that said FOX is paving the way to Fascism, or Drumpf = Hitler. But I’ve come to comprehend that fear, not anger, was the driving motivator in Nazi Germany, and now understand that FOX is pumping sheer terror into the American public at levels only possible in modern society.

I don’t really think FOX is a laughing matter anymore, because I begin to understand how an American public this afraid could condone Nazi Germany level atrocities under the impression that they were saving themselves.

    • Gorn [they/them,he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      1·
      4 years ago

      Sry, Chinese room is a thought experiment about the existence of consciousness in computers lmao

      Someone is sitting in a box, who doesn’t speak Mandarin. But they have a giant book that tells them what to write and send out of the box based on every single possible written Mandarin message that someone puts into the box. Like a computer. From the outside, it looks like you’re communicating with someone who speaks Mandarin; but the person inside the box doesn’t not know Mandarin.

      It’s like how chuds don’t even understand half the shit they say, they just regurgitate talking points in response to other talking points. It might seem like you’re communicating with them, but they don’t actually speak Mandarin.

      This is especially true in canada where american talking points just actually don’t even make sense there.