Hacker News Reader

Comment by patall | Hacker News Reader

I would probably prefer if my grandparents (~80) watched TV for 6h a day. Instead, they spend a similar amount of time on their smartphones, reading conspiracy blogs. And recently started to prepare for the imminent doom. Only thing worse would be an elder with dementia that is constantly shopping on amazon...

View on HN

I expect consiracy-based TV shows are also available. Though possibly not to the same degree of nonsense you get on the internet, I suppose.

You can start with Ancient Aliens if you'd like.

Fox News is close to a conspiracy-based channel.

Not completely wrong, but I feel like they've retreated towards the center in recent years as the more far-right channels took over. Fox News has generally been less than enthusiastically MAGA and focused on the traditional conservative talking points: culture wars, border crisis, etc. with resistance to things like election denial, Trump worship, etc. (commentators like Carlson and Hannity not included in this assessment, of course)

I’m not sure how you could talk about Fox News without including Carlson and Hannity.

"Fox News" is about an hour of airtime, not counting major events when the whole gang is at battle-stations. Then, for decades, it casually rolls into several hours of increasingly sharp opinions that have become anti-democratic, beyond dog-whistle racist and nearly seditious.

That sh1t is dangerous. Nothing new for Murdoch, but this is the 21st Century and everyone in the US has easier access to firearms than baby formula. This is on top of the clearly toxic workplace as evidenced by all the settlements and suits we actually know about.

Poison to truth, in a nation of laws, is NOT something I'm thankful for.

To be fair, at age 80, doom is probably fairly imminent.

While the average lifespan (American stats) is about 79, if someone makes it to 80 their average lifespan is 88.

My 70+ parents are the same but the other way—obsessed with all things Donald Trump and getting angry about him. Hours and hours lost to a politician they despise.

(edited for clarity)

Sorry to hear that.

It could be the opposite of what you're thinking and that they are not actually Trump fans, but getting angry about still having to deal with Trump. This describes a lot of the older folks that I know.

Yeah, that's what I meant, wish I was clearer.

Sorry, what I mean is that they are obsessed with hating Trump. Countless hours devoted to hanging on to and getting worked up over every bit of information about a guy they despise.

Extreme risk of getting off-topic, but I've been really wondering what Trump fans think of Trump's announcement of candidacy in 2024 and it's nearly impossible to ask people nowadays. Are your parents generally positive or negative on it? Did they like DeSantis last week and now think he needs to stay in Florida?

I can't imagine trump fans being anything except positive about him running again. Why would they even be negative?

Sorry, what I mean is that they are obsessed with hating Trump.

I think GP meant their parent's are anti-Trump. Mine are as well, but ironically, during Trumps rise and presidency, I noticed them starting to act quite like mirror images of (what I imagine to be) their Fox watching right wing peers - driven to nightly flights of righteous indignation by MSNBC or CNN, increasingly conspiracy minded and less concerned with non-political news/life.

Exactly matches my experience.

I like how you had to clarify that your parents hate Trump because other commenters immediately assumed they liked him, even though 90% of attention Trump gets is from people who dedicate most of their headspace to hating him.

Same. I try and talk with them about finding better ways to spend their remaining days. I guess it just feels good or something.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com