Through the Looking Glass: Unmasking the Deception of Fox News
Usual afternoon in sunny Florida. Gus, my lil' yappy companion, chewing what could be mistaken for his favorite toy - another remote control. As I lay by the pool, I can't help but flick through the headlines on Fox News, an old habit that persists like some ghostly specter. Seeing the headlines, I feel an immense sadness overtake me, it's as if I'm gazing into a distorted mirror, reflecting back the person I once was: filled with uncritical belief and spite for the 'others'.
Headlines such as "Billie Eilish, Mark Ruffalo slammed for wearing red pin linked to brutal murder of 2 Israelis in 2000", and "Trump bests Biden by 4 points in Arizona" unleash a flurry of emotions - a spectrum I hadn't truly known until my epiphany. It's a reminder of the hate-mongering manipulation that I once doted on religiously. Reminiscing about my past self, it dawned on me, the content of this far-right news outlet is fundamentally an unforgivably distorted, cruel narrative.
Fox News, and networks like it, masquerade as beacons of truth while constructing a sophisticated web of fear-driven half-truths. A web designed ingeniously to lure the unsuspecting and maintain narratives of a new-age 'Crusade' - a march towards a theocratic America, gatekept by the wealthy.
Their representation, or rather, misrepresentation of facts and figures, serves a much darker purpose than simply being deceitful. It is a calculated attempt to divide, segregating the 'rights' from the 'wrongs'. Fueling a rightwing dogma where figures as diverse as Trump, Eilish, and Ruffalo fit into a single, simplified narrative. This narrative perpetuates fear of a changing, increasingly inclusive society, one where ideas of LGBTQ rights aren't just wishful thinking but a reality.
The carefully manufactured narrative subtly hints that Christian-nationalism, in its most hateful construct, is the antidote to the so-called chaos. Ignoring the excesses and terrifying roots of such hardline ideology and dismissing the possibility of a Shrine to Odin existing down the street from a Baptist Church, they make a dangerous dystopian future seem comforting to some. A future dominated by grand conspiracy theories, trivializing genuine scientific research such as California's electric supply problem, and castigating celebrities who dare speak out against the status quo.
Learning to see through this false narrative was not so much an awakening, but a bittersweet revelation. My journey from being Shelly Goodman, a fervent believer, to Lilith Goodman, a proud supporter of religious pluralism and human rights, was not a walk in the park. It was a battle against the deeply entrenched ideologies that kept me blindfolded for years.
It is saddening. That designed propaganda with so much at stake takes the form of consumable, daily news. It's an irresponsible play on humanity's core values, and the quicker people realize this, the better it will be for a society that aims to embrace diversity, value truth, and denounce hatred.
Let's hope more people have their 'Road to Damascus' moments before it's too late. And for Christ's sake, someone stop Gus from eating another remote control.