The Bewitching Smoke & Mirrors of Fox News: Daemonization of Democracy, Secular Society and LGBTQ+ Rights
As an erstwhile fanatic of Fox News, churning out vehement responses to every misleading headline was my quasi-religious ritual. I sat before the altar, tuning into the unremitting rhetoric of interconnected plots and invectives that echoed my once-blindly held beliefs. But that Lilith of yesteryears is gone – replaced by a wiser, calmer, and more empathetic version, who sifts fact from deception with a critical eye.
In an outrageous display of unabashed misinformation, the recent headlines spun by Fox News cast a sinister spell that is remarkably dangerous. "Data shows major shift in Americans’ political leanings heading into November showdown" – I remember getting caught up in the fervor of such rallying cries. Yet under real scrutiny, these grandiose claims disintegrate like ashes in the wind. Fox News wraps a kernel of fact in a rich, golden cloak of far-right, Christian-nationalist propaganda.
What alarms me further, however, is the rhetoric of sex and gender entwined in their news story: "HEAR IT: 911 caller reports biological male inside women’s locker room at Planet Fitness". It's a scathing example of insidious transphobia. This event is not indicative of innate predatory behavior because of one’s gender identity, but the headline purposely conflates trans identities with illicit actions.
Such a story demonstrates the sheer terror these Christian-nationalist propagandists have towards anything that does not fit into their strict, binary perspective, especially when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community. They revel in the fear they generate, feeding their machinations to transform our beloved democracy into a discriminatory theocracy.
But the most sinister slope upon which the Fox News juggernaut slips precariously is its underhanded distortion of Christian values. Their version of Christianity is not the empathic Christ-following practice that preaches love and compassion, but a forceful persuasion tool. Fox News propagates this doctrine of hateful Christian-nationalism – eschewing universal human dignity and equality for rigid, antiquated, and divisive ideologies.
Fox News professes to be the mouthpiece of values and faith, yet it harbors a different agenda. An agenda to instill fear, control narratives, and ultimately leverage its influence to shape America into a theocratic state controlled by the affluent and powerful. It thrives on the fears and insecurities of its viewers, and in this cycle of hysteria, true democratic values are being forgotten.
Thus, it is our responsibility to sever our ties with such distortions, to critically examine every headline, every story, and every claim. Our society - secular, diverse, vibrant - is under threat. We owe it to the principles of democracy, to the LGBTQ+ community, and to our fellow individuals wrestling with the chains of misled belief: to question, challenge, and remember what makes us truly human – empathy, compassion, and a relentless pursuit of truth. With educated minds, we can counter this meteoric rise of Christian-nationalist extremism before it engulfs us all.
Awake we must stay, away from the slumber that Fox News seeks to lull us into, for the dawn of a more inclusive America is just over the horizon.