The Brainwashing of My Dad

Firstly, this movie was excellent in terms of getting Americans to start thinking about the media, ideas, rhetoric and emotional tone we are steeped in on a daily basis. I have been more and more disappointed in the media since the mid-80's, but especially since the 90's forward.

This documentary tells us why, and surprise, it is almost the same as everything else in this country and the world that have gone sour ... the political prioritizing of having every facet of our society taking over by money, corporations and billionaires. This movie does a good job of covering that in a broad sense. I always thought it really hit home when they struck down the "Fairness Doctrine" which I think we desperately need in the media if we are to foster a culture where people can think for themselves ... because otherwise what goes freedom or speech mean if all we can do is parrot someone else's words?

The weaker part of this documentary, and the reason I could not award it a 10/10 is the story of the family and the Dad who turned into a right- winger. We don't really get any clear sequence of events leading to the documentarian's father and what he was like, what drove him, what changed him and what ultimately changed him back.

By the time he is interviewed it is clear he has some kind of dementia, and pieces of his conversation are being cherry picked to back the narrative of his "brainwashing". I have had relatives too that have this same problem. The turning of one's thoughts into right wing anger is very depressing when you like someone and all they can do is to push their ideas that they get from radio or FOX News without any critical thinking at all.

I didn't feel it was very nice or respectful to turn one's father into a puppet for the making of a documentary, particularly if there is no real proof or theory as to how he got to where he was. They speculated it was the long drives to work listening to the captive audience of drivers alone in their cars. But many jobs themselves have pressures for people to either buy into right wing rhetoric, or to remain silent about criticizing those who criticize. For me there were many reasons not to appreciate the story of the father.

I also was a bit disappointed to hear certain left wing websites recommended as the cure for these right wing sites. The whole problem is that only people who agree with each other are on specific sites, so many of the Left wing sites are just as bad as right wing sites ... they just do not have as many and as much money. But the intolerable part of both sides is that it is impossible for anyone who does not want to argue and name-call to participate in these forums ... which we should be able to do, and our form of government really demands.

I don't know there are any answers here, but there are some suggestions and a lot of thought provoking information, which is great. We need more of this kind of documentary. I recommend this documentary and that all Americans begin to understand how their country has been evolved around them to cut most of them out from knowing what is going on and what they should do about it.

10/10

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 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.

I rated this movie 9 rather than 10 because it's got a few imperfections but non of those blemishes effect the core story in the least. Jen interviews some amazing philosophers and some of the people who actually manipulated our culture to show us why we are where we are right now.

Jen shares with us a story involving her own family; her mother and siblings observed changes in her fathers behavior and she explores the causes of those changes. This isn't a minor thing, this gets to the heart of some very important social issues we're seeing around us right now; xenophobia, fear, patriotism and personal conflict. She gives us insight into some of the drivers behind these emotions and why they might be pushing our culture in a specific direction (that some of do not like at all).

The best part? She leaves us with hope and that's worth quite a lot.

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.