So in a blog post at FrumForum (it's like Penthouse Forum, minus the sex), a writer details a phenomenon called "Fox Geezer Syndrome."
It's when your elderly parents become politically energized, thanks to watching so much Fox News.
Richmond Ramsey, a pseudonym for "wussface," slams his mom, thusly:
I don't know when it happened, exactly, but she began peppering our conversation with red-hot remarks about President Obama. I would try to engage her, but unless I shared her particular judgment, and her outrage, she apparently thought that I was a dupe or a RINO. Even though we're all conservatives, I found myself having to steer our phone conversations away from politics and current events.
...It wasn't that I disagreed with their opinions - though I often did - but rather that I found the vehemence with which they expressed those opinions to be so off-putting.
And so your parents are embarrassing reactionaries, cuz they chose Beck over Oprah.
Look, Ramsey has a point - for many people Beck has been an energizing influence. But he hasn't turned the elderly into pitchfork-waving neanderthals. Some, thanks to Beck, are reading more, and buying more books. And some are investing in food storage. I bought an underground trampoline made of gold.
The gist in this condescending piece: your parents are stupid because they are easily swayed by tv. And because they never had strong opinions before, their current emotional state must be manufactured. Unlike, of course, their more sophisticated offspring - who are young, pragmatic and smart. Pop's just cranky, old and reactionary.
And of course, the blogger must bring up the Tuscon shooting. Yep, maybe you should worry about mom and dad, since, "passion is the enemy of clear thought and...the prerequisite for mob rule."
Man, what a dumb thing to say about the folks who gave you life and raised you.
And who might also drop you from the will.
As an aside---I'm one of those geezers, however my children have been avoiding me their entire lives. It's not that I'm opinionated--I'm just opinionated.
