Tori, Philadelphia (1/09/21)

I lost most of my family to Fox News and Trump

My family was always a little more on the conservative side when it came to things like money. My dad wanted to know where his money was going, and wanted to make sure that he saved whatever he could. But he had always taught me to be good to everyone. I was raised to treat others with kindness. I was never stopped or shamed into not being me. And my dad would tell me that he was glad I didn't take shit from anyone and stood up for myself.

As the years went by, I noticed that my dad seemed still pretty on the level, even though I found my beliefs differed. I started to disagree with him more about some political stuff, but my dad never seemed to care all that much about some of the social conservative agenda. He would shrug and say that that was their business, not anyone elses. Then something changed. It started with little jibes and off color jokes. Stupid, somewhat offensive things that you expect from a guy in his 50s that grew up when off color humor was just the norm, thinking of movies like Animal House and the like. Stuff that their kids would eye roll at and that wouldn't really fly today. He wasn't serious, right?

Well.... Looking back, who knows now? He started to watch more Fox News. I would tease him about it, and he would call some of the far right commentators looney. Everything seemed to be okay, albeit, I hated that he was watching Fox. But as long as he was watching our local news, too, then everything should have been ok. But then.... He stopped watching the local news. "Too liberal" he once quipped to me. And that's when I started to watch him slip, fast. He started watching more and more of the people he not so long ago called looney. He went from making fun of Trump attempting to join in Republican debates to suddenly believing that he was "perfect". He started to say more things that made me angry.

I will never forget that the man who once told me that gay folks getting married was fine....and now all of a sudden he thinks gay people are terrible. I screamed at him for that hypocrisy. He stopped saying things in front of me about politics. For a while, anyway. But I hear all about it from my brother, who stands with me, shocked and saddened.

But my father isn't the only one. We watched, one by one, as family members started to tell us conspiracy theories in hushed tones because who knows who is listening, and now suddenly societies ills were because of minorites. I watched my grandmother start whining about how black people always won on the game shows she watched. The sweetest woman I knew was just.... Saying and believing horrible things. All of a sudden, people they never seemed to have a problem with, now were the enemy. It broke my heart. Had most of my family been this selfish, hateful, and horrible all along? Had they fooled me, my brother, my sister, and other family members so easily? How had we been spared the same brainwashing?

I weep because I don't know what to say. How to confront them. How to undo what damage has been done.... Or if there's anything that can be done...

Breanne, California (1/09/21)

My already rocky relationship with conservative dad has only gotten worse from Trump's rhetoric.

My dad was always Republican as I grew up and my mom was independent but over time she has grown more and more republican. Now she is almost as bad as my dad. They have both been radicalized by the rhetoric of Trump and Fox News and they watch people such as Ben Shapiro. It’s steadily gotten worse and worse. We can’t discuss politics peacefully anymore. I’m independent and have progressive views, I really lean left.

They think I am brainwashed by “fake news”. My dad tries to bait me into arguing with him by loudly saying things like “I wish I knew a Democrat so I could punch them in the face”. Two days ago after trump incited a mob to attack the capital, my dad was threatening to kick me out. They blame that attack on Antifa even though it was Trump supporters and they also repeatedly say how antifa and BLM should be labeled as terrorist groups. I am so ashamed. Unemployment is high right now and I do not live in a safe city. I have nowhere else to go right now.

I just want peace but my dad is provoking fights, calling me a “baby killer” and a socialist. When I have asked my parents for sources backing what they are claiming, they get indignant and tell me I am being disrespectful and that I think I am smarter than them. There is so much anger and fear in them but nothing I can say can bring them back. Most of my extended family is also hardcore Trump supporters so I feel really alone. It’s a little reassuring to see I’m not alone but also so disappointing Trump’s rhetoric did this to so many other families.

Caroline, Tennessee (1/07/21) — (re: QAnon)

My father’s slip into right wing reality

I found this site by simply googling “Trump is brainwashing my dad”. I knew I couldn’t have been the only one experiencing this, as many middle aged Americans have expressed this *out of touch with reality* mindset through their social media (primarily Facebook) openly. I joke sometimes with my friends about the crazy conspiracies my dad will share sometimes, but lately it’s not so funny anymore.

Not too long ago I called my dad to express my excitement for getting into my Master’s program, and for a minute he was his normal self, a proud and congratulatory father. As the conversation progressed however, he started to inform me about how the college system being “so liberal” is going to brainwash me, and how the Biden administration is going to make it harder for me to succeed post graduation. Normal political stuff at first, until he sprinkles in talks of aliens, reptilian world leaders, and talks of China poisoning our canned goods.

My father is convinced that Michelle Obama is a man (?) and sends photographs that anyone could see are photoshopped of the “effects” of the COVID-19 vaccine. He is terrified of modern medicine, and takes only liquid silver sold and promoted by Alex Jones. My father has amazing insurance through his employer and could treat any medical condition for very little cost, however, he refuses to go to a doctor for check ups and gets angry at my sister or myself if he sees that we have been to the doctor (we are on his insurance still).

My dad is a truck driver, and has been for 33 years. He works nights, and all he listens to on his 8 to 9 hour drives across the country are right winged podcasts like Alex Jones, and conspiracy theory videos centered around Donald Trump, QAnon, and the new world order. He has no friends anymore, just his girlfriend who feeds into his rhetoric. Most recently they attended a Trump rally where my father, aunt, uncle, and cousins got tear gassed. I fear for his mental and physical well-being every day, and I worry he will never come back to reality.

Anonymous, Virginia (1/07/21)

Dad couldn’t condemn the invasion of the Capitol because Trump didn’t.

My father has always been conservative but loving. I’ve never thought he was racist or bigoted, just the normal amount from growing up in a mostly white and Indian mountain town in the West. He was in the military for 25 years and got out, but he started changing pretty quick around that time. He worked as a government contractor and there was always a Fox News blasting somewhere in his office.

Around the 2012 election he starting listening to talk radio and Fox News and vilifying Obama. I don’t think it was because Obama’s black, because my dad has never really been racist. But soon he was calling President Obama an American-hater, and evil, and evil Muslim, and he wasn't an American citizen, and that he hated white people and all sorts of shitty things. Once he was elected president, my dad would always feel like we were on the verge of a civil war and that Obama hated America and was trying to destroy it.

We have always owned guns for sport and self defense, but my dad started hoarding ammo and buying more handguns at this time. He even started hoarding food and water in the crawl space of his house. He became obsessed with being self-sufficient for the coming collapse, but was secretive about it as if we didn’t see him buying a generator, batteries, ammo, and food. None of it made any sense. He lived in a large suburban household with enough land for a vegetable garden and maybe 10 trees. did he really think he would be constructing fortifications holding the line against chaos from this house?? He got kind of out of shape, which certainly would be more limiting than not having 3 months of MREs.. but kept hoarding. He would stay up late listening to talk radio and wake up early to watch it. He was like a teenage boy who had just discovered porn, always sneaking off to consume his secret media. His neighbors don’t talk to him anymore, some of our family have stoped talking to him too.

It all came to a head for me yesterday when the right wing Trump rioters breached the Capitol building. When Trump issued his weak response which didn’t condemn the rioters actions, my dad couldn’t see what was wrong. I mean, it seems almost every politician of both parties and foreign politicians knew that our Capitol building being seized by an armed group for the first time since 1812 was a huge shameful deal except for Trump, and my dad followed Trump. It’s like Trump can do no wrong.
He has started saying racist things to me and sexist things, and will listen to his talk show with earbuds even while I try to have a conversation with him. I just want my dad back, and I want him to understand that he’s being lied to.

Morgan, Georgia (1/07/21)

I’d always known, but now it's so obvious

In the wake of Trump supporters desecrating the Capitol, I eavesdrop on my parent's conversation. I want to think they are good people, maybe just a little misguided, but after listening to a conversation that would never be spoken in public, I can no longer, with confidence, say that they are good people. A few days ago, I was in the car with my mom. We have had heated conversations before, but after a short trip to Trader Joe's, her disgust for individuals waving Raphael Warnock signs was apparent. She said, in her most southern voice, that she'll pray for them, and that they are dumb. She hates to say it, but that's what they are. She knows I voted for both left-leaning candidates. She knows I voted against Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, and yet she sits behind the steering wheel, calling, by extension, her own daughter dumb and brainwashed.

Fast forward to a few days later, overhearing her on the phone. I was not even trying this time to hear what she was saying, but yet her voice carried itself into my room. She says, "Vice President Mike Pence knows the election was rigged and he's doing something about it, I heard it on NewsMax." NewsMax. My parents no longer watch Fox News because it was infiltrated by the liberals, as they say. This is where my ears perk up, I stay quiet, knowing that a fight never ends well because of my evidence, fact, and logic fall on deaf ears.

Today, the day after terrorists attacked the Capital of the United States after their leader told them to fight. I stand in my room close to the door. I am eavesdropping, however disrespectful it may be, I still have my head pressed to the crack in the door, hearing what my father is saying.

My dad and I used to get along so well, he was a hero to me. In the past years, 4 years to be exact, the image of a kind-hearted, ever-concerned man is replaced by an angry, hateful man with a facade of care. He says that the terrorists were right, he touts off falsities as facts, and as I stand by the door in my room I think to myself, how did it get here.

How can my parents confidently say that they love their neighbor but condemn BLM protests, but cannot and will not condemn terrorist in the US Capital building? How can, after being provided mounds of evidence, still insist that there was election fraud? Then I think, I think to the many times I have been told to be careful around those different than me. To make sure that I stand by what I believe in. That the United States of America is the best country in the world and if I don't like even one thing about it, instead of speaking about my dislike I should just leave. That everything Trump says is fact and truth, but others who speak out against him are traitors to America. That they won't even watch Fox News because they are brainwashed into thinking that it is somehow the new liberal media.

It's sad that I can't even try to find common ground with these people I love dearly. My mother being the true victim of compliance. It is with exhaustion and true, deep sadness that I know my parents are lost causes and victims of the right-wing extreme media. It's truly heartbreaking to hear the hate spewed from them. It is heartbreaking to know that if I was not their daughter that they would see me as an enemy, even being their daughter, they do quietly see me as one. I hope one day this cult-like mindset will dissolve and the ever-present, in the past 4-years, the brainwashing of those close to me will end, but with no end in sight, I am heartbroken and sadden to see that my parents have ultimately become the victims.

Megan, Miami, Florida (1/07/21)

Parents Lost

I️ am a 90's baby with gen-x parents who are children to baby boomers. I️ was raised in a working class (but middle class) conservative republican household. I️ was raised in the church and maybe it went over my young head, but I️ never felt like I️ was in a super-polarized home. My dad was a Reagan republican because he came to power as my dad was in his critical developmental years and my dad was a business owner. Then there was an incident when I️ was in elementary school. It was during the Al Gore election mess, in which my dad got into such an ugly fight with my friends dad, that I️ was not permitted to see her again. I️ was heartbroken.

In hindsight, this was the turning point. I️ had never heard racism from my parents growing up. I️ had many black friends and never heard anything unusual in their direction. Truth be told, I️ did not know racism existed. I️ had been so sheltered from that in my 70% white town. Then I️ turned 16 and I️ fell in love with a black boy on the football team. Mind you, this was the year Obama was running for president. I️ came home excited to tell my family and my father exploded. He then left the house for hours. Upon arriving home he threatened to divorce my mom and locked me in my room. Once he cooled down, he explained to me why he felt the way he did and banned the relationship. Obama era was a turning point too. Rush Limbaugh and Fox News is the only sources of information he inhaled. They accused him of being an illegal immigrant, of being the anti-christ. My dad screamed this all 8 years. He felt oppressed. He became increasingly intolerant to anyone who did not see things his way, using racial or classist slurs.

Then Donald Trump came along. And the rest is history. My parents are entirely delusional. They lap up every right wing conspiracy theory Trump and the right wing media put out. I️ saw this darkness in my parents and jumped ship as soon as I left for college. My brother, 7 years behind me, was not so lucky. Upon seeing my left leaning views, my dad ensured to brainwash my brother; who by the way, has developed right in the middle of the Trump era.

I️ am writing this the day after right-wing extremists sieged the Capitol in an attempted coup. My parents excused this behavior, actually saying BLM is worse. They really believe that. When I combatted this, my dad threatened to cut me off and write me out of their will. I am writing this from a sad and lonely place. It is so hard to see them entirely out of touch with reality. My reality and their reality is no longer the same. I️ cannot help them. They are so far down the rabbit hole, I️ am sure they will never get out. I️ can see the gradual brainwashing of my parents, creating willfully ignorant humans who actually believe they are in the right. It makes me sad. Deeply, deeply, sad. And although you cannot excuse human error, I️ do know they have been preyed on by the right wing media. Preyed on, strategized against, and maintained by fear.

Shaun, Philadelphia (1/08/21)

Different Dad

Grew up in Florida. My father was one of the most accepting peopleI knew in diverse South Florida. He had a line, "I don't care who I live next to as long as they mow their grass." Now with work years being in the rear view, I'm starting to see a different man. This was a man that had not voted in 50 years. Now things have changed. I asked why, the answer was I have my time to look into these things now. I hear the start of hatred in my father now, voting for a man also years before he would have seen as a fool and pawn. Sad to see and hear how twisted in just a short time, a year or so.

I miss my Dad, the caring guy that loved all.

Daniel, Spain (11/3/20):

IT’S HAPPENING HERE IN SPAIN, TOO

I'm in Spain. We have a very similar problem with extremists here (and it has taken a turn for the worst with the Steve Bannon-financed party "Vox", along with its right-wing extremist media). My father is actually falling in this brainwashing.

Please, consider as a future project to broaden the viewpoint to, at least, the EU. Also, please, consider having it translated and purchased outside the US (I can volunteer to do the translating part, even).

Jennifer, Florida 10/30/20 — (re: QAnon)

Thank you for helping me make sense of my father's behavior

I stumbled across your movie on Amazon. In the past 20 years my father has become increasingly unhinged. As a kid (I’m 48 now) my parents never really spoke about politics other than we are catholic therefore we must be republican. If my parents had any prejudice, they never showed it. Although I do remember a conversation with my mother when I was 16/17. She said now that you are old enough to date, please do not bring home a black man, your father would be very upset.

There were little signs here and there that my father (who worked and went to night school to get his masters) felt like the forgotten man. He was in the army reserve, was involved with the Knights of Columbus, however, when he was laid off in 1990 he completely changed. With the internet just becoming a household staple, he would stay up late at night listening to some really crazy stuff...like about UFO, past life regression, tarot cards—things that are taboo in the Catholic religion. We changed it up to my dad just killing time.
It was around Y2K where he started to get paranoid. Stock piling food, batteries, water, guns. He was convinced that we would be fighting people off for these things. And as we all know, y2k was nothing.

When his end of the world scenario didn't play out, he felt let down again. He said I’m white, I have my masters’, served my country, yet I'm still forgotten. He stays up late listening to Rush and Alex Jones. He got increasingly more paranoid about the internet, the government tracking him.. but somehow it always seemed he was just joking.

Since 2016 his behavior has become downright scary...he has called me a communist, a baby killer. He has no trust in doctors (he is my mother's caregiver, she is dealing with Parkinson's and Alzheimer’s) he sends emails every week either about preparing for civil war, he sends QAnon conspiracy articles, he is convinced Covid is a scam. He thinks he is in some secret militia. I've asked him several times to please stop, but he doesn't. I've never once talked to him, or even had a conversation about my political believes. He tells me since I do not support Trump im a traitor, I support child trafficking, I’m a Fascist and an anti-fascist.

This past weekend was the most concerning. He sent an email (with a video of catholic priest preaching why Biden is evil), he wrote...that my family will be rounded up and put in a FEMA detention center for being Democrat and went on to give the address of one nearest to our home.

I'm having a very hard time coming to grips with all of this. In ways it felt like his behavior changed overnight but watching your movie and putting together clues of his behavior over the last 20/30 years it makes sense.

Jennifer, Kentucky 10/22/20

Losing Family as I Find Them

I was adopted at a very young as and was always on a quest to find biological family members. Fast forward about 35 years and I finally found them!! I had a wonderful reunion with a sister I didn't know I had, as well as talking on the phone and social media with other various family members. My sister and I hit off really well, visiting each other's houses and families in our respective states! Then came the election and Trump. Now we don't talk, she posts asinine theories and racist rhetoric, as does the rest of my bio family. She won't listen to reason, doesn't appear to have compassion, and posts vile and horrible things. I'm so heartbroken, my quest has all ended up a mess and I feel like just letting her go so I can keep my sanity.

My mother became a Republican to piss off her liberal sister and mother

My very un-political mother left to spend a summer with my liberal aunt and grandmother in Arizona and, while she was there, just to be argumentative, she decided she was a Republican and she went all in. That was about 20 years ago and now she's a huge Trump supporter. Political discussions are absolutely off limits when she is around me or my sister, but our husbands will sometimes argue with her and it's clear she has no real ideology other than "liberals are bad." She talks about Bill and Hillary Clinton like they're America's most dangerous criminals, conveniently ignoring anything within the current administration. It's depressing, since this isn't the mother who raised me.

family bonds have been strained and, in some cases, broken because of brainwashing

My dad has always been staunchly conservative, but after he got re-married he and my step-mother still were not rabidly right-wing. Political discussion at that time in our family was superfluous, the focus being on enjoying a warm, loving, cohesive family. They got their news from The McNeil / Lehrer Report and Firing Line at that time. That all changed with Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. Suddenly every issue became black and white to them: Anita Hill, homosexuality, the plight of poor Americans, education, affirmative action, feminism, the Clintons, and every liberal policy decision since the 30s- you name it.

When Obama became president they bought that book "Duped," and my step-mom brought it to a family gathering to emphasize her point to we Democrats in the family. We became unable to discuss any current issue without acrimony. My middle brother, who had been steeped in the Austin hippie culture of the early 70's, quickly changed his politics and personality after he started to climb the corporate ladder and watching Fox, and his once close relationship with our nieces began to fade and they now are completely estranged. My older brother, also once an Austin hippie musician, held out longer until he became a realtor in the early 2000s. Both brothers got their conceal carry permits. My older brother and his wife started drifting as he became more angry and bitter about liberals and all liberal positions, claiming all of the usual stuff like Bill Clinton is a rapist and murderer, Obama will take his guns away etc.

Fast-forward to Trump and Q-anon. Both of my brothers are completely eaten up by these cults, and they have recruited our step-mom into Q as well and maybe my dad as well, though I wouldn't know because he absolutely will not engage in political discourse with me. Q-anon has turned my brothers into more extreme absolutists / raving lunatics, and I suspect that they think I am part of an axis of evil or something, even though I have done nothing in my life to warrant that but vote Democrat. They believed that Covid is all a hoax, and that the virus was unleashed on purpose to bring down the world economy and hurt Trump. Where we used to catch up on the phone, that has all but ceased. I honestly don't know who they are anymore, and I don't think I would want to know their core beliefs anyway. My older brother and his wife are now separated and he is estranged from his daughters.

i miss my family

My parents used to be reasonable, they used to point out the faults of both sides. Everything changed when Trump became the nominee. I saw my father slowly become racist and a strange hatred for anyone different from him. My father hated Trump in the past but suddenly his mind changed overnight. He started hating anyone that was against Trump even candidates he once supported, only to hate them because Trump told him to.

My brother and I tried to prevent the situation by making jokes around my father just to show the entire thing was silly, but it kept getting worse. I feel like I don’t know who my father is anymore. My father has called me a socialist several times because I disagree with Trump.

It’s so frustrating to see someone you love to become racist and quickly to dismiss anything they see as different. America is truly split; the far right has managed to split families.

My father WORSHIPS TRUMP LIKE A GOD AND threatened to kill me

Your documentary and the stories that have been shared really spoke to me. My parents were life long liberals and always disavowed racism and xenophobia. My mother was Mexican and had been the victim of racist attacks in the past. My parents believed in equality and social justice. My mother passed away and her death broke my father. He became hateful and powdered by rage. He began obsessing about politics and Trump.

He watches Fox news all day, often screaming and yelling at the television. He has become completely radicalized and often spouts white nationalist talking points. He says terrible things about Mexicans and immigrants. He has betrayed everything that he and my mother once stood for. He constantly talks about politics even though my sister and I are progressives. He belittles our opinions and worldview. I tried to set boundaries and told him I don't want to discuss politics with him but he persisted. He would always bring up Trump and find a way to throw in a few personal insults. Everything Trump says is gospel. Any dissenting information is dismissed as fake news.

In our last conversation, he told me I represented everything he hates. He called me brain washed and a cunt. He followed up his barrage of obscenities by saying he never wanted to speak to me again because I don't support Trump or respect his beliefs. He threatened violence against me, my dad actually threatened to have me killed. Then he topped off the abuse by saying I was a mistake and I am no daughter of his. I haven't spoken to him since that argument. I don't recognize him anymore. I lost my dad to the cult of Fox news and Trump.

My Evangelical Parents

Thank you so much for creating this film! My relationship with my parents is extremely strained. They LOVE Rush, Fox News, and Savage. I have countless examples of how horrible they act including:

-Most recently sending me an "informational" packet about how evil Muslim people are
-Telling me that if I date an African American, then I'll be 80% more likely to get pregnant before marriage (I'm half black)
-Stating that they do not want to give their credit card number to the casino buffet because they don't trust, "the Indians"
-Telling me to watch out for the one world government that will come out from COVID (which they believe it is a hoax)

A dear friend from our punk rock days now introduces me to new acquaintances as "my friend, the liberal

The hard part about growing older is losing friends to illness and old age. Not seeing nieces, nephews, and the children of friends for the same reason. I grew up with a Republican father and an apolitical mother. My earliest memories of politics were the assassination of JFK, the desegregation wars of the American South, and the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill. Watching the film of Nikita Kruschev pounding his shoe on the table, duck & cover drills, radioactive snow was informing me by the time I was 7 years old.

I feared the creeping threat of communism. As I got older those worries were tempered because hey! The Beatles. Elvis. And my father's Christianity led him to salvage school books at the white school. I rode with him to take those books to the "Negro School." 

My parents fretted over the influence of rock music, but they were Southern enough to relate to early rock'n'roll. Just avoid the blues! Jokes about black nannies who took a nightgown and a razor in their purse on their night off lessened as the sixties went by. But I don't think the opinions changed, they just stopped being told as much. 

My friends and I embraced the music and attitudes of late sixties caring, sharing, open-minded hippie culture. Accepting Jim Hendrix and those blues guys was easing me into understanding that skin color was not an issue. The summer we lost Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King was a heartbreak for all of us. And my friends, we objected to the war, to Nixon, to all of corruption even as our men friends enlisted or got drafted to serve in Vietnam.

My father voted Republican and so did some of my friends. But it never became a hot topic, voting was just something citizens DID. My friends didn't especially hate the military and most of us identified with John Lennon's message much more than Sweet Home Alabama.

Now, in 15 or so years since Fox took off the gloves, and ceded the liberal cable position to MSNBC, the change inot my friends is shocking. A high school reunion is marred by old friends who sneer and call me out because I vote Democrat. I point put that they have a pension thanks to their lifelong membership in a union and they call me a commie. Men my age who dodged the draft religiously in the sixties and never volunteered for service now say any disagreement about American military strategy is an attack on the "fine men" in the military. There is no pleasant sharing a beer and conversation. Social events are minefields, as if the cheerful optimistic nature of our youth has been drained out of them. 

A dear friend from the punk rock days now introduces me to new acquaintances as "my friend, the liberal," with a tone that implies she has to hold her nose to tolerate me. It is bizarre. 

The common thread in this shift from laid back tolerance is talk radio and Fox News. The seismic shift seems to have been Iran Contra hearings, when some of us saw Fawn Hall and Oliver North as sneaky, lying, seditious right-wing creeps. But others saw them as loyal to Reagan, Kissinger, and Haig. Cable News and Fox especially. The folks who listened to Rush Limbaugh for laughs, like me, turn out to have friends that bought his entertainment shtick. Now the divide is so wide, social events require warnings, quick whispers to watch out for the moment they get drunk enough to start in on the evil Clintons or whatever. 

It's a lonely world for a Midwestern older liberal.

Rafi from Denver

MY FATHER DISOWNED ME BECAUSE i’m not not like he is

My father has always been a racist liberal-hater, since I was a kid in the 60s - he took me to John Birch society meetings when I was 6 years old, and he's been a hardcore Dittohead since Rush first erupted. Needless to say Fox was like manna from heaven for him, and he adores tRump.

Christmas eve, 2014, I made the mistake of visiting him, and within 5 minutes of walking in the door he unloaded on me, telling me he hated me, and had always hated me, because I stood for everything he hated. I took the opportunity to confront him about his decades of alcoholic violent abuse of me and my mother [RIP], and to tell him that he was a pig-ignorant bigot and that the feeling was mutual.

It was a great feeling to re-open all those old wounds and let the truth come out. I have since retired and moved to Thailand, and probably won't go back. The USA is broken, and we can thank the fossil fuel / pharmaceutical corporations for doing it. It's heartbreaking, to watch the whole thing, to see the planet being destroyed before our eyes and humanity being degraded, but I've lived with it all my life, so I'm used to it. I have a little garden and my piano, and soon it will all be over. Thanks, Fox! Apologies for not ending on a happier note....

Michael C., Fort Worth, TX

A NEIGHBOR ASKED THEM TO LEAVE THEIR PROPERTY AND NEVER COME BACK

I was positive that once Hillary Clinton won and became President in November of 2016 that the madness that I had seen descend on my fellow Republicans and fellow Conservatives would finally be lifted. The 2016 election cycle had strained many relationships that my wife and I had built up over the years. I was shocked that we were in the minority of the people we went to church with and our neighbors. How could people be accepting this as the new normal?

When I ran for office, first for Congress and then for Justice of the Peace I expected that the vast majority of my friends, neighbors and church members would put away their politics to help a friend. I was thinking that people I would need to help block walk, phone bank and write postcards would come from friendships I had built over the years. None of them did. A few of them even campaigned for my opponent even though they would have loved to vote for me if I were still a Republican.

There were a few Republicans who had personally been sued by my opponent and had vowed to vote for and even campaign for me if he won the primary. When he won, they changed their mind because, and I quote “voting red is more important than what happened to me personally”. It was at this point that I realized that there is a lot more than ideology at work with these people. It is like they have joined a cult.

Since the election of Donald Trump this cult-like mindset has even gotten worse. We had a neighbor of ours who we have known for years ask us to leave their property and never come back because of our political/religious views. Just to give you some context, when the wife went into labor early it was my wife who delivered their baby.

Over the course of two years, my wife and I have lost many connections we thought were unbreakable. The good news is we have made so many newer ones and have been so blessed my run for office as Democrat when I had only been one for two days. The irrationality, the anger and the tribalism that is so actively promoted by the right-wing media has done tremendous damage to this country. I am hopeful that we are able to reverse it.

Kelly from Florida

WHEN SHE SAID SHE LIKED AOC SHE RECEIVED DEATH THREATS AND INSULTS

I managed 15 community Associations in Florida. The Trump supporters started really misbehaving. I had to buy a gavel just to keep control of the board meetings. I ended up in the hospital with high blood pressure and chest pains. I had to have blood pressure meds increased. I have a lot of funny stories. They were stressful at the time though. 

Then, online I just made a statement that I liked Alexandria Ocasio/Cortez, and received a lot of threats including death threats and many other insults. I made copies and screen shots of all it.

For a while I would deliberately antagonize them just to see what they would say. I got quite a few to apologize. 

HERE’S ONE:
”Oh, you mean all those economist’s with their bought
and paid for fake Harvard, Yale, Oxford phd’s that
never saw it coming, yeah everything will be just fine”

OR THIS LOVELY ONE:

“Me V you are just another comic pinko fagot traitor who
deserves to be put on your knees and executed for treason!
I’ll give you the best advice you ever got: take your liberal
socialist nonsense to church and beg God that you
never run into me! You’ll get a real close look at the
barrel of my 45. etc.” (I can’t put it all here but he ends with:)

“MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

Anonymous from Washington State

HER PARENTS WERE HIPPIES. NOW it’s like someone body snatched them

I feel the same way about my parents. They raised me to be accepting of all people. We were raised in the Bay Area and they had very liberal beliefs and were both hippies in the 60's. In the 80s that all changed. I know those were hard times and especially in that area. The crime wave of that time scared them and they moved us to Alaska to be near to relatives. Ever since then, they became Christians and everything changed.

Now, they are increasingly closed off, closed minded, and say stuff that shocks me about other people. They live in a constant state of fear that the apocalypse is coming. They've started to stockpile. It is deeply saddening and scary. I don't know what to do. Every time I try to talk to them about it they get angry and start to yell. So, now we just avoid all political conversations just to keep the peace but it is there simmering. It really is like someone body snatched them. I know some of my friends feel the same way about their parents too. You are not alone!  

Alison, FL

HER BROTHER, A Ph.D, IS BRAINWASHED

My brother and I are estranged. We have been for many years. I’ve often thought that if I were to legally “divorce” him, I’d name Fox News as co-respondent and perhaps add right wing talk radio and Rush Limbaugh. We grew up in a Republican household, but when JFK became president and I began my career as a public school teacher, my political views shifted and I registered as a Democrat. That didn’t cause any ripples in my relationship with my parents or my brother. Sometimes we’d engage in playful banter, but never anything unpleasant. That changed with the dawn of the 21st century. My brother turned into an angry old man. Our political discussions grew heated and when I’d post a well thought out and carefully researched political articles on my Facebook page, he’d leave caustic comments. We eventually agreed to “unfriend” one another and avoid talking politics.

During the last presidential campaign and in more recent emails he called Trump an asshole and a twitter jerk, so I assumed he didn’t think much of Donald J. Trump. After Trump had been in office for 6 months, my daughter came for dinner and our conversation turned to my brother, her uncle. I said I thought, considering his comments about Trump, that he wasn’t one of the president’s loyal base. “You obviously don’t see his Facebook page,” she said. "On Facebook he’s a 100% behind Trump.” The next afternoon my curiosity got the best of me and using my husband’s laptop I snuck in the backdoor of my brother’s Facebook page. There I saw an image that’s burned into my brain and haunts me still—one those placards you can lift from political sites. There was Donald Trump in his military school uniform looking all polished and proper juxtaposed with a photo of young Barack Obama clowning around wearing a jaunty hat at a careless angle and smoking a cigarette looking degenerate and a bit dangerous. I don’t know what the words on it said because I clicked out of there before I could read it.

My brother’s an intelligent man—an all but dissertation Ph.D. physicist—yet he’d posted something so illogical, so obviously propaganda. I thought ‘he can’t know why Donald Trump’s wearing that uniform. He can’t know Donald Trump’s father shipped him off to military school because as a teenager he’d become incorrigible. He can’t know that for years before that young Donald had been in trouble in his neighborhood for bullying and harassing other kids. He certainly can’t know he misbehaved early on hitting one of his primary school teachers.

Posting that placard insinuating that Trump was the straight arrow kid and Obama the feckless fuck-up seemed beyond irony. Then it dawned on me. Of course he doesn’t know about Trump’s past. He watches Fox News. He thinks the NY Times and the Washington Post are liberal rags and NPR is left wing propaganda. Fox tells him so. That’s how “alternative truths” take hold—people just don’t know and are easily misled when they dwell in the fog of Fox. In the process, families like mine are torn apart and so is our nation. In this case, one of Trump’s overused expressions fits. Sad.  

Melissa, PA

DISABLED COUPLE ON ASSISTANCE HURT OVER FOX WATCHER DAD'S ANGER AT THOSE PROGRAMS

I love my dad but he LOVES and sadly believes Fox "News". Thing is, my family only survives with the help of assistance programs. As you can guess, Fox news viewers kinda hate said programs. While he agrees we deserve and need the help, he still talks in general about them and it’s hard to not take it personally. Plus, if they cut those programs we will be hurt.

I hate having this big wedge between my dad and I. My parents divorced when I was super young, and I was always really close with my mom. She was my best friend until the day she died. After I lost her, I realized how much I wanted to have the same kind of relationship with my dad. And I got that. I don't want this to drive us apart again, and honestly, it might.!

Whitney from St. Louis, MO

HER THERAPIST GOT LOST TO THE RIGHT-WING CULT

I have lost so many good people in my life to this phenomenon you depicted. I had a therapist for years that suddenly became a right wing advocate. I noticed anti-Muslim rhetoric on her Facebook page (yes I was snooping) and she keeps saying I'm being lied to by the liberal media, that Hillary has a kill list, etc. I have heard so many others like her repeat similar phrases and sentiments. It is heartbreaking and scary. Especially with our current political climate. A friend at work gave me your documentary. Thank you for bringing light to this terrifying cult like madness going on. I'm grateful for the sane voices out there right now!

Anonymous from Maryland

A SHOCKING CHANGE TO A BELOVED COUSIN

Dear Jen,

I am writing to thank you for your wonderful film, I am sorry to learn of your fathers passing, but you have shared him with all of us, and made him a hero to everyone who has lost someone to this rabies of the airwaves.

I hope you don't mind if I take the opportunity to tell you a story. My cousin grew up in a Quaker family that sees political involvement as a matter of course. She grew up in the extraordinarily liberal enclave of Tacoma Park, a place that lovingly embraces it's nickname, The People's Republic of Takoma Park, and where you can buy olive drab T-shirts emblazoned with a red star reading the same. Her father is from an upwardly mobile African-American family of pioneering surgeons, pilots, and chemical engineers. He attended art school and had friends in the Black Panthers. Her mother is the kind of Quaker who is a little suspicious of political movements and really makes skepticism into a kind of art. She is a bit of Elizabeth Warren and a bit Cherry Jones. (I assure you all this is important for context.)  

Four years my cousin was normal, she watched John Stewart, adored Bill Maher and hated George Bush. But as you have said in your film, something changed. Maybe it had something to do with Obama, or maybe it was her interest in NASCAR. Before you know it she was picking fights with people because they didn't want to hear about Alex Jones, she had InfoWars stickers on her car, and the mention of Hillary Clinton would send her into a rage. Most of her family is exhausted, for some reason I can sometimes challenge her rants without escalating them. Perhaps my familiarity with Jones' conspiracies gave me credibility or had a soothing effect. Perhaps it was my assertion that there could be a deeper conspiracy, one in which Alex Jones is the agent rather than the passive reporter. (Did I mention that it all got worse after my cousin got a new job as a driver?)

I just wanted to share with you that there is an African-American woman from a radical Quaker family in Takoma Park Maryland who has gone just as crazy due to prolonged exposure to these people. It puts the lie to the long held notion that a lost (white, male) privilege, rather than cynical exploitation, explains the rise of these treacherous demagogues. And your film, and your father's story, gives us all hope for our loved ones. 

C. from NJ

HER DAD BECAME A STRANGER TO HER, THREATENING TO KILL HER

Dear Jen Senko, 

I just wanted to thank you for your documentary. I'm sure you get your fair share of fan mail, and I have no doubt it rivals some of the hate mail in your inbox. Please know this is being written in gratitude. 

Had I known this film was being made, I would have loved to have been a participant. Prior to seeing this film, I had felt all alone, having witnessed the very same metamorphosis in my own family, in particular, my dad. 

He and I always had a bit of a strained relationship, but he drastically changed when he quit drinking and moved away from the hippy persona he once possessed, finding comfort in the arms of the born-again, evangelical Christian community. Slowly but surely, the car radio helped incite his fear, then the TV incited his hatred, before I knew, I stopped knowing him, the guitar playing, rock music loving jokester. 

He's gone now. Two and a half years. But about three months before his death, he actually did kick me out of his car in a fit of rage I had never known simply because I mentioned Sweden paying their citizens to go to college. I felt like you and I shared a dad when in the first few moments of your movie, you discussed your dad threatening to kick you out of his car. My dad became a racist bigot who cursed me and disowned me even though I was the only person driving him to his cancer treatment appointments. He often cursed me and threatened me on the way to those appointments. He kicked me out of his house for reading a book on meditation. 

Since his death, I've become more of an activist who now works with several organizations that fight for the Separation of Church and State and Womens Rights. I do this with my father in mind and know if he were still alive, he would hate me more than anyone in the world. 

I felt like I told my story while hearing everyone else's. Abuse from my dad, threats from the man who I once loved and admired, a man who had become a stranger over time, threatening to kill me, to kill us both while driving like an enraged lunatic screaming inaudible conspiracy theories. I was brought back to it all while watching your film. 

Unfortunately, I see it happening to many of my family members now. But every person who can see this, maybe, hopefully it will help. 

Thank you again for your work. Though it reopened some wounds, it reminds me why I fight. I'm so grateful that you've shown me that I'm not alone. 

DEMOCRATS ARE EVIL TO HER HUSBAND

Hello Jen,

I just heard about your documentary.  Someone shared an interview you did about it on FB.  My husband has been taken over by first, Rush, and then Fox News.  He is convinced they are the only fair and balanced news, that everything they say is the gospel, and that anything sounding remotely different is the “liberal media” brainwashing us.  He is a farmer, uneducated, older white guy…just Fox’s prey.  While he has always been conservative, he was not spending every spare minute listening to Fox or Rush.  I am not conservative and have a Master’s degree in sociology (history, political science undergraduate degree) so I am well educated on propaganda, fallacy, racism, sexism, and the effects of SES in influencing our point of view.  My husband was so convinced that Mitt Romney was going to win the last election that he became VERY angry and wouldn’t speak to me.  He left the house at 4:00am and was just so blown over by it that he couldn’t cope for a while.  Fox News had him.

 No matter how much information I bring him regarding the slant of Fox News, he waves it off as liberal agenda and all lies.  To him Republicans are “good” and Democrats are “evil”.

 He was always a little racist and sexist.  Now, he is a full-blown racist and agrees with Trump on nearly everything he says.

 So, we often watch TV in separate rooms and fight over the radio station when traveling.  It is really horrible what is happening in our society because of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh.

Father cut daughter out of will for being a liberal.

My dad died two years ago at age 92.  His only companions were his dog (whom he neglected), the neighbor across the street, and FOX News.

I was left out, as I was "the other".  That means I'm an atheist, Democrat, anti-American, and dangerous person in his mind.  I tried to look after him if only for the sake of my deceased  mother.   Instead of recognizing my contributions, my father verbally abused me, sometimes belligerently.  I knew better than to discuss politics. 

However, I was serenaded by my father repeating eagerly the last thing he heard Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity say.  And he had a man crush on Newt Gingrich. The volume of the TV was at 10; it couldn't go any higher.  The walls rocked with FOX News.  There was no escaping it.  It was torture to be in the same house with my father.

I said nothing as I recognized that my father had died spiritually while his body remained in the green Lazy Boy chair from the time he got up to when he retired.  And I said nothing as my sister warned me that he would change his Will out of spite.  So I was quiet.

 Like I told you, he died almost two years ago.

 And you know what?

 The idiot neighbor across the street inherited $35,000 from Dad.

I inherited a Life Estate in the house.  I don't own it.  I have to pay for the municipal taxes, upkeep, and repairs.  When it is sold, I will not get a penny from the proceeds; that money goes to four charities.  I didn't inherit a dime from my father. 

I'll always wonder whether my father was independently cruel and malicious or whether he just picked up some bad attitudes from all that RW BS he accumulated for 15 years.

Government agencies have Fox News on their TVs

 My father, yes. He's obviously brainwashed, along with my father-in-law who lives with us.

 But I was brainwashed too.  It all started on 9/11 when I was living within walking distance to the Pentagon. I was always a channel-flipper, but now it was just FOX News.

 A decade later I was living in Tucson, Arizona and decided to get rid of Cable TV. I was always outside and just wanted to save a few bucks.

 No Cable TV = No FOX News

 A few months later, Gabby Giffords was shot. She was being treated for her injuries at a hospital just across the street from where I lived and the news vans were beginning to pile up. So I found a TV and flipped on FOX News...

 I was expecting to be drawn in again. I swear, turning on FOX News again had me feeling as if I was lighting up a cigarette while trying to quit.

 Instantly, it was like the ghost of 'FOX News Past' reminded me of how many years I wasted watching Fox News.

I have 20 years with the Federal Government, and you would be shocked to know the high percentage of TVs within these buildings constantly tuned to FOX News. So you might as well start your next documentary, because it's just the start of the brainwashing.

His Dad was always Republican but didn’t become radical until he started watching Fox News

 Dear Jen:

 I am so sorry I did not know about your documentary work when you were interviewing people who have suffered the same dad brainwashing affliction caused directly by Fox News, right wing radio, etc. Sadly, my father was one of those transformed men who just never came back. We were hardly on speaking terms when he passed suddenly in 2013.

 But here's the bizarre part for me. He was a brilliant, highly educated New York City orthopedic surgeon (and pretty famous in his orbit), and I am an attorney who, for most of my life into adulthood, loved and adored my father. Had him be my best man at my wedding, even though I had and have several very close male friends who could have been.

 Yes, our politics were always contrary. He was a Republican, more Rockefeller New York moderate than conservative (as best that label can be understood today), and I have been a mostly left leaning progressive. BUT WE ALWAYS COMMUNICATED AND DEBATED IN FRIENDLY AND LOVING WAYS, UNTIL FOX NEWS CAME ALONG.

 And then it all changed. He had it on all day and night. He was constantly angry; he lost his ability to argue rationally. Facts as a doctor and scientist seemed to all but disappear. It was really something to behold.

 And then we stopped talking for the most part. And then he was gone...