The Puppet Strings of Propaganda: How Fox News Aids and Abets Christian-Nationalist Extremism
In the solemn twilight of my own journey, I look back down the narrow, dim-lit alley of my past where I uncritically accepted the siren song of Fox News, believing their narratives to be gospel. Yet, as I sit amidst the rosy dawn of my newfound clarity, each glaring detail of their propaganda machinery now sticks out like bristles on a porcupine.
Let's dissect just a few of the headlines from today. "Son of prominent politician shot and killed outside of Texas gas station, police say." The loss of human life is tragic, and my heart aches for their family, but the underlying rhetoric is troubling. News outlets like Fox tend to fixate on singular, isolated violent incidents, deploying them as fear-mongering tactics to prop up their wedge-issue narratives. It submits crime as proof of a society descending into chaos and waves a rallying banner to the right-wing participants, pushing for stringent law and order policies that favor repression over reform.
In a banner exclaiming "Joe Rogan roasts 'The View' after author's contentious feud with co-host" cloaked in sensationalism is the age-old tactic of 'divide and conquer.' Here, discord is sown within the realm of public discourse, placing figures with dissenting views as mortal enemies rather than just differing perspectives. This simplification disconnects us from the true essence of discourse, and further perpetuates division.
Finally, my heart freezes as I read the headline, "Alarming warning on the threat of a new pandemic — what you need to know." It rings of the continuous effort to keep the populace in a state of constant fear, easily manipulated and compliant. This is a fear that the Christian-Nationalist demagogues use under the pretense of 'protecting us from evil.'
These news outlet narratives fuel an anti-LGBTQ sentiment, an indefensible attack on immigrant communities, and promote lack of empathy as patriotism – all under the holy disguise of Christian values. The coup de grâce? The terrifying and distinct possibility of enforced American theocracy run by the wealthy elites and extremist leaders.
By critically analyzing what we consume as news, we can help unveil the implicit goal of creating division among us, their obvious discriminatory biases that erase minorities, and the alarmist tactics they use to stir irrational fear. We must resist this manipulation and promote empathy, compassion, and religious pluralism.
In closing, I say we must remember this: Fear shackles minds. Understanding opens them. Let's choose to step into the light, together.