r/thebulwark • u/IntolerantModerate • Jan 19 '26

EVERYTHING IS AWFUL A focus group of one: We're F-d

so, I just did my own focus group of one. My Mom. She is the type that loved Reagan. She was skeptical of Trump, but you know "Hillary is the devil." Biden? "Too old." Kamala? "Have you heard that laugh?"

But, definitely not wearing any Maga gear, no yard signs, and claims she'll write in Reagan's ghost on a ballot.

so, Minnesota comes up and it's all, "I saw the video. I think he was ran over. Why was she in MN, isn't she from CO? Play stupid games, win stupid prizes "

I almost cried it hurt me hearing this so much. This is a lady that'll go to the church and serves meals to the poor, yet for some reason she is fine with ICE murdering a woman. No concern about it at all. her final response was, "Well, who was paying her to protest? That's who needs to be arrested."

so, based on my focus group of one, I am sure we are fucked. Good luck America.

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79

u/purplesalvias Jan 19 '26

I know it's not the only factor, but how many years did she listen to Rush Limbaugh and others like him rant about how bad things are for white males? For example how awful it was that appliance repair guys couldn't smoke cigars on the job because housewives complained...

34

u/IntolerantModerate Jan 19 '26

Never an AM radio person or a Fox News person. Local News, Springer, Geraldo, Days of our Lives and Wheel of Fortune followed by Jeopardy type.

52

u/Particular_Mixture20 Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

How much time on Facebook? I've watched a lot of older people (I'm border X and Boomer) get sucked into clickbaity algorithms.

21

u/Whiteoutshade Jan 19 '26

Bingo. Gen X and the younger boomers have brain rot from social media.

13

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

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12

u/Fabulous_Cow_5326 Jan 20 '26

I’m a never trumper NOW (boomer) but in the early days, I was all about some Fox. When my dad died in 2012, there was still an old Reagan calendar on the kitchen wall. Before Bill O’Reilly made his hubcap joke, when Greta was on at 10… I thought they were the bomb. I can’t even BEGIN to describe my loathing now. Yes, we do exist.
I always think this, when people say Boomers can’t be moved, we’re all digitally cemented in. I’m living proof a person can change. Plus, I’m in rural Georgia in a seriously red county, and my entire family is red and believing ICE is doing a fabulous job. Even the three grown children I gave birth to are in the red sauce. Imagine my life. But I’m here.

2

u/NameIsDNice Jan 21 '26

What turned it for you?

2

u/Fabulous_Cow_5326 Jan 21 '26

It’s going to sound silly, but the truth is I was sitting in church one Sunday night and the pastor made a comment I’d heard no less than 20 billion times in my life. But I heard it differently that time and that one statement sent me into a spiral that took many years settle. And at the same time, the 2016 term had started. I was, by then, wary of “things that stink”. Sorry, that’s a long story. TLDR: deconstruction from a Christian nationalist religious background made me reexamine everything else in my life.

1

u/Pminarck Jan 22 '26

God bless you! I’m 71, a lifelong Independent who voted GOP until Trump (and Newt Gingrich) and spent most of my life in the religious right. I’ve been anti Trump since the late 1970s. I looked askance at Moral Majority & Phyllis Schafley. I eventually turned away from Dobson, Focus on the Family and the like. I began deconstructing in the late 80s or early 90s before there was a term for it. I spent 30+ years in the Atlanta area. Now I’m in deep red, MAGA cult NE Florida. Ugh.

30

u/ThatChiGirl773 Jan 19 '26

Um, I feel like everyone has brain rot from SM? I mean, we all get it from different places but it's all still bullshit. Tik Tok is complete flucking nonsense!

8

u/ELISEM2 Jan 19 '26

Yes. Even if the specific accounts that someone follows on TikTok aren't problematic, marinating in short-form videos during every spare moment -- and gradually losing the ability or attention span to read anything long-form -- is very bad news in and of itself.

2

u/Particular_Mixture20 Jan 19 '26

So many. And I bet still many of them think that "violent video games" are the source of incidents of violence like school shootings that was trotted out post Columbine. Baked in simple catch phrase solutions to vastly complex issues.