Julie, UK
I’ve always been close to my Dad. I’m in the UK and when Brexit happened, he became really arrogant towards me. We’d always been able to talk, and then suddenly he turned and was being hostile. My Dad is in his 70s and is vulnerable health wise. He has television on all day and will watch what’s recommended to him on YouTube.
One day, he was watching something on YouTube and all I could hear was ‘Immigration … blah blah… immigration…. Blah …. Immigration’ and I thought then - something’s not right. I went and asked him what he was watching, he told me it was something about Steve Bannon and that he’d bought the book.
Immigration had never been something that had previously been of any interest to him. Farage was on the TV and he said that he thought he deserved a medal. ‘Take our country back’ was the rhetoric . Even our next door neighbours were the same. All the while, he was condescending of any opinion I had. So I decided one day that I wanted my Dad back.
I made him breakfast and I asked him why he voted for Brexit, he said it was because he didn’t want terrorists coming into our town. We live in a sleepy town on a sleepy Island with no motorways, no major public buildings.. nothing. So I pointed out that what he was saying was absurd, that he’d been told to fear people. Dad’s not that kind of man - he stops and talks to most people and loves to talk. He has become withdrawn because of his health, but he’s always been really well known and liked. He believes in fairness, in helping people.
We got down to talking about Brexit, and about how, by getting the UK out, it would weaken Europe considerably. I’d told him that I felt European, that my children wouldn’t have the freedom to travel as I had. And I told him that ever since the Brexit campaign, that he had become hostile towards me and that I wanted him back. I told him how it made me feel.
I think if we hadn’t have had that closeness before then he might not have listened. But we did, and he said he was sorry. I asked him to watch The Great Hack so that he could understand what was going on. Once he saw it, he understood.
So now we’re happy again. That day we spent together was difficult, but I got my Dad back again. When I saw ‘The Brainwashing Of My Dad’ I could totally relate. It happens over a period of time. Now I recommend independent journalism in the UK and he subscribes. He’s still anxious, and he still watches daytime TV, but he’s more aware now. He sees it. He’s my social barometer, he tells me what he’s heard on TV and now I see how media is manipulating stories.