[a character sits at their desk, in front of their computers, and complains angrily]
Mainstream media? Unreliable, biased, full of fake news, they keep lying…
You can’t trust them!
[changing to a point of view beind the character allows us to see that their screen is filled with other angry characters that look like the main character]
That’s why I get all my news from angry dudes on social media and men’s right activism podcasts
Hey look, it’s my dad… 😑
Mine would have fallen for the same shit if he had lived to see it - makes me glad i don’t have to deal with that, i’m sorry for you and your family, wish you all the best
On paper mine could have. Instead he spent his last years dying, cutting out all his friends that echoed the sentiment of the men his own father flew to Germany to unalive, in disbelief. And he “wasn’t political.” Just common sense. Worked 7 days a week until the end when he went out under water from medical bills, and about to lose the house. No sarcasm, my father was a working class American hero.
Kill. Murder. Execute. Shoot. Decapitate. Dismember. Disembowel.
These are words you can use on the Fediverse. You don’t need to self-censor with words like ‘unalive’ because there’s no corporate algorithm, no shadowbanning and no de-prioritising content based on language. There’s no need to import TikTok/Instagram newspeak.
And then I scroll to this a moment later https://lemmus.org/post/20014498
It’s not mods I’m minding. Still public and permanent
Oh mine was no hero. He was spewing hate and voting far right for decades. Was a drunkard to boot. Went out stumbling in his flat and hitting his head. No heroics here, only wasted years and a broken home.
That sucks. Mine was far from perfect but you got a shit situation dealt and I’m sorry. Hope you grow up a better adult than him
He taught me nothing, but i learnt a few lessons: to stay away from alcohol, to be more empathetic and to put a dampener on the choleric traits i inherited. Also to be left wing and to avoid rash judgment - i definitely broke the cycle.
Sadly it also means living with psychological issues like recurring depression, social anxiety and a personality disorder. But all in all i’m a better human being than he ever was.
Thank you for the kind words.
Yeah mines the one spewing hatespeech on internet forums. He has his own yt channel devoted to his views. I don’t talk to him.
Uh… Take away the ironic “men’s rights” part and you are your dad. Unless you’re actively ensuring your feeds are not algorithm content and the parts of the internet you’re hanging out in aren’t socially reinforcing…
Otherwise, we call these “echo chambers”. And funny enough is that those in them create the most “me vs them” content, all the while constantly reassuring “the audienice” that they’re not in one.
But, yeah. I’m sure I’m wrong and helping your dad to navigate through the ongoing onslaught of media is something you’ve tried.
Edit: GOD DAMN I’m so self- righteous and sassy tonight. Ignore the sass. Get the vibe. A apologise for the sass, but I won’t delete because the vibe.
Point is, you and your dad have two opposing feeds. Recognise that they are feeds and move on from that.
I’n not the person you replied to, but I just want to offer kudos for your edit. Recognising that you didn’t need the snark is a rare thing online now-a-days.
And thank you for calling it out.