Right wing media tore my family apart. During most of my childhood years up until I was 13 and growing up in Ohio, my dad was not very political at all and didn’t think liberals were so horrible even if he may have disagreed with them on some things. He was still tolerant of others people’s beliefs.
He spent most of my childhood in the Army and he’s seen a quite a bit of action too. He was stationed in various places when he was in the Army and was last stationed in South Korea for a year from July of 2000 to July of 2001.
A couple months later, 9/11 happened and the world changed forever—for the worse. I was eight when that happened, and I would turn nine the following month just one day after we invaded Afghanistan. Sometime in 2002 he went on his first tour in Afghanistan.
Later in 2003, we invaded Iraq and dad got deployed there. Even when he first came home, he wasn’t too political. It would be another year before he discovered Rush Limbaugh on the radio and started listening to him all the time. Eventually, he started watching Fox News all the time. From there he started to change. He went from an apolitical moderate conservative in the vein of Hank Hill to a right-wing fanatic. By the time the Army moved him down to Texas, he was really into right-wing politics. He was always watching
Fox News, and he spent three hours every day listening to Rush Limbaugh. By that time, he considered liberals to be the enemy and believed that they were immoral and evil. The nightmare got worse when Glenn Beck moved from CNN to Fox. Dad fell in love with Glenn Beck and started listening to his radio show too. I had to hear Rush Limbaugh bash Obama every day. Dad always repeated everything he heard from Rush, Glenn, and Fox News and took everything they said as gospel.
I hated hearing him constantly trash Obama. At that time, I was an apolitical liberal and I supported Obama too. Later when I was 17 and sometime after the Fort Hood shootings happened, I was living with my mom and stepdad. He listened to right-wing media too and I was told I couldn’t watch Wheel of Fortune or Jeopard anymore. I’m not sure why. It was “because I told you so”. I decided that I had to find a new hobby and my dad got me into right-wing politics.
I then became a right-wing conservative and started watching Fox News all the time. I eventually started listening to Rush Limbaugh and after Glenn Beck left Fox and launched the Blaze media, Dad bought a subscription to the Blaze and began listening to right wing podcasts all the time.
Long story short, for 11 years I was very right-wing and supported all conservative causes and considered liberalism and liberals to be evil—just like my dad did. I was also very anti-Obama at the time. I still however had my limits. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I started to become disillusioned with conservatism because all I heard from the right was doom and gloom.
January 6 was what really did it for me. Ever since that day, I never wanted anything to do with Trump, the Republican Party, or conservatism ever again. I started to deconstruct from conservatism and began reeducating myself. I unlearned everything I was ever taught to believe by those right-wing charlatans.
By that summer, I came out as a liberal Democrat and have been one ever since. As for my dad, he’s still a right-wing conservative and he spends all his free time listening to right-wing media and he loves talking politics.
He’s really unhappy that I’m a progressive Democrat and does not like the fact that I changed. Every time I try to tell him the left isn’t so bad, and that he’s being duped by charlatans, he gets very defensive. He also once lost his temper with me when I got annoyed by his podcasts.
More recently, he got upset with me for getting offended by a homophobic meme one of his friends sent him, he thinks that I don’t stand for anything and I’m anti-America just because I reject Trump and MAGA. He doesn’t like that I won’t talk politics with him and tell him what my beliefs are and why would I want to if he thinks liberals are so bad?
My paternal grandmother is into it too. She too made a lot of bad decisions in her life as well and this is one of them. She’s very judgmental, and self-righteous. Both she and my dad claim to be Christian and attend church when their political ideology is anything but Christian. What’s really alarming is that they even believe that conservatism is a Christian ideology. I’m also a Christian and I go to church too and conservatism does not reflect my values at all. So I get the brainwashing but it's still so hard to understand how they can go to church on Sunday and then watch Fox News and vote for Trump on Monday.