The Brainwashing of My Dad

I came across this on Amazon Prime. I thought that this documentary was informative, thoughtful and compassionate whilst exploring the creation of the fierce and angry media machine that supports the right wing political machine. It shows the triumph of capital over humanitarian values through the lens of the writer/director's personal family struggle; it shows the toll on her family and others simply and clearly.

I think someone called the machine's proponents "faeces-chuckers" at one point - this elicited a childish giggle from me but it was also a beautifully illustrative example as their stuff sticks, even when patently nonsense or false.

I kept hearing about how strange Fox news is but, as I am in the UK, I was unaware just how uninformative their 'news' actually is. It was really eye-opening (eye-popping even) learning how the process of 'brainwashing' works and its payoffs. It was fascinating and has deepened my understanding of how people become so heartless and why they think that this is a good thing.

Bringing what I watched up to date, it is a bit scary thinking that Fox News want to bring this extreme brand of disinformation to the UK - as if the Express and the Mail aren't bad enough already.

I am also appalled to think that President Trump insists in his tweets that Fox is his main form of 'news'; this does not bode well for the either the US or us in the rest of the world.

This documentary explores the impact that the right-wing media has had upon American politics and culture with one particular family being showcased in detail. In essence, due to certain restraints being removed from radio and television broadcasting, a newly energized brand of conservative populism was unleashed-first on talk radio, and then on television with Fox News. To that effect, the more heated dialogue resulted in more anger among the viewers which in turn caused even more heated dialogue and thereby even more anger. This divisiveness was then used by the Republican Party to secure gains in the elections at both the local, state and national level which has resulted in policy initiatives intended to benefit that particular party to the exclusion of everybody else. Now rather than revealing any more I will just say that the main points brought out in this documentary are factually correct--as is the damage brought upon this nation because of the resulting bitterness, anger and hatred. Unfortunately, although this film reveals several problems the right-wing media has created, what it fails to do is to provide an answer to any of them. Along with that, there were times when the overall theme seemed to lose focus as it drifted from one family dynamic to another. Likewise, I also thought that the childish tone on the part of the narrator was completely unnecessary as well. In any case, while certainly not a top-level documentary, this film does a good job of bringing to light a definite problem here in America and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

The personal story of filmmaker Jen Senko's dad is a cautionary tale many of us can relate to. And it's directly related - we learn - to the disinformation coming from the Right Wing media that has driven so much political acrimony in this country. In fact, the fanatical political divisions in the US are the same ones that divide families on a personal level. By following the thread of American politics and how it relates to the rise of the Right Wing media, Senko builds a solid case. We learn how and why all of this came about.

There have been other films that examined the subject of the Right Wing Media and its negative effects on democracy, but they tend to be dry treatises.

This should be required viewing for anyone who cares about a free and informative media in this country. An important film. And an entertaining one!

I fell under the spell of conservative talk radio when I was out of college and working as a delivery driver. I was bitter and angry that the 4-year liberal arts degree I worked hard to obtain was seemingly worthless. As academia had failed to deliver success, I was eager to find and alternate worldview: looking for something to believe in, or, a purpose. Neil boortz, Michael savage, and bill o'reilly were my guides on this fruitless journey. Their rhetoric was effective because they (1) created an enemy: either enemies to prosperity (lazy welfare dependents, illegal immigrants), or enemies to security (radical Muslims): basically, people I could feel superior to. (2) "real listeners" calling in to share their victimization from political correct "social engineering" (3) the hosts' unwavering confidence and focused message, which is amplified by talking over those people who call in with alternate viewpoints. According to this documentary, these tactics are commonly employed by right-wing talk shows and foxnews (great collage of fox news "journalists" shouting over their guests to prevent them from expressing their ideas). How did I manage to give this up? A combination of things: my parents always had fox news on in the house and I grew annoyed at the lack of critical thinking and one-sidedness. I found that my media choices were putting me in a category of people who deferred to their tribal mentality than think critically. I began to see these media hosts more as propagandists than informed critics (Michael Savage's assertion that Obama attended an "Islamic Madrassas" in Indonesia--a country I had some personal knowledge of--was laughable). This documentary was enjoyable as it helped me understand how my political identity went on a certain path for a brief time

A fantastic and accurate representation of how it feels to be a family member of someone who has become brainwashed and a worse human-being due to right-wing propaganda. The personal story hit home for me, while the facts presented are undeniable. The other people in the comments that voted it 1/10 are clearly still brainwashed, despite this fantastic documentary showing very clearly what is actually happening to them - which poses the question of: did they even watch it? I doubt it.