UPDATE 2: My posting made it to the front page Community Spotlight! Even though I know it’s not about “me,” I’m still flattered that so many people responded to it. Thanx all!
UPDATE: Switched poster to larger version, added Reagan factoid & additional description of the movie
“This country is going so far to the right you won't recognize it.”
John N. Mitchell, Richard Nixon’s Attorney General in 1970
(later jailed for his role in the Watergate cover-up)
I used the same quote in my previous diary, “Magical Thinking,” but I was reminded of it today after watching The Brainwashing of My Dad, a new documentary by Jen Senko, detailing how the Fox News, the cesspool of cable news and assorted right-wing radio propagandists turned her elderly father from a decent human being into a frothing at the mouth right winger.
At first it seems like maybe the guy is getting senile — he’s pretty darn old and his voice isn’t in good shape — but Senko talks to people all over the country who’ve seen parents or siblings turn into seething rageaholics after a non-stop diet of conservacrap from Fox, Limbaugh etc.
Senko goes through the history of the right-wing propaganda jihad that’s so distorted American values over the last several decades. She begins with Roger Ailes — Fox’s future Minister of Disinformation — helping to elect Nixon in 1968, and quotes from a memo written by him: “people are lazy...they want their thinking done for them.” She goes onto talk about future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell and his infamous “Powell Memorandum.” Here’s Wikipedia’s description of Powell’s sinister document:
On August 23, 1971, prior to accepting President Nixon's nomination to the Supreme Court, Powell sent the "Confidential Memorandum" titled "Attack on the American Free Enterprise System" to a friend at the US Chamber of Commerce.[13] It was based in part on his experiences as a corporate lawyer and as a representative for the tobacco industry with the Virginia legislature. The memo called for corporate America to become more aggressive in molding politics and law in the US and may have sparked the formation of several influential right-wing think tanks and lobbying organizations, such as The Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), as well as inspiring the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to become far more politically active.[14][15] Marxist academic David Harvey traces the rise of neoliberalism in the US to this memo.[16][17]
Powell argued, "The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism came from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians." In the memorandum, Powell advocated "constant surveillance" of textbook and television content, as well as a purge of left-wing elements. He named consumer advocate Ralph Nader as the chief antagonist of American business.[18]
This is why I began this diary with Mitchell’s quote: these guys have been implementing their propaganda putsch for decades, since Nixon was perz and it’s not impossible Mitchell was in on the game helping them launch their master plan; he might’ve been speaking from firsthand knowledge when he (sadly and accurately) predicted the future.
(Bonus trivia factoid: At one point they show a Reagan for Prez poster; guess what slogan is under his name? That’s right, Drumpf’s own “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.” The more things change...)
The film is must viewing for any politically progressive individual, although guaranteed it will first make you furious, (a good portion of the film is spent sound-biting Fox “News” lies and then slapping a big “LIE” or “FALSE” atop the picture) then dispirited, but ends with a ray of hope when Jen and her mother help her father get over his addiction—mainly by replacing rightwing news feeds to his computer with progressive ones & unsubscribing him from rightie Emailed newsletters. There’s also a great story from a recovered Limbaugh addict who was saved by accidentally tuning into NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me on a Saturday drive, which led him to All Things Considered and realizing he was hearing actual information instead of fear-mongering hate speech.
Lotsa bigtime talking heads including David Brock, Noam Chomsky, Steve Rendall, Jeff Cohen, Eric Boehlert, George Lakoff, Claire Conner and others appear, and there are some brief animated clips from famous independent animator Bill Plympton illustrating in vivid terms what happens to your brain on Fox News.
The Brainwashing of my Dad opens theatrically in NYC and LA on March 18, & will also be available on iTunes, Google Play and Vudu, among many other streaming services.
Here’s a link to the movie’s trailer on YouTube (wish I knew how to embed video, but too busy to learn right now) — HTTPS://YOUTU.BE/JDD6LEU9SWA