Teevee rots your brain. "Turn it OFF, Mom!"

[Emit]

I went to my mother's house to drop off her groceries and the first thing she said was that she was concerned about Obama winning. I was really quite surprised because last week, she was talking about what a terrific orator he was and how he had really captured the crowds. She seemed to genuinely like him. Mom lives alone and watches teevee nonstop.

"And his wife, did you here what she said! ..." she exclaims.

"No, Mom, tell me..." I said, pretending to have not known just to get her take on the matter.

"Well, it's all over the news. She said in all her adult life she had never been proud of her country until now ... Do you think it has something to do with the church they go to?" she asked in that gossipy way old ladies sometimes sound.

Thinking she was referring to the claims that Obama is a Muslim, I said, "Now wait a minute, Mom."

"No, no," she replied. "Your sister called to tell me that he belongs to a Black Christian Church that only allows blacks and that is like a Black Supremest church ..."

"Wha'! Turn off your teevee, Mom."

"He also gave this wonderful speech recently and it was plagiarized! ... Can you believe that? None of it was his own!" She added, "Do you think he's just a fraud?"

Now, lest anyone thinks my mother is a racist, let me explain that she grew up very poor in a tiny town in Arkansas, living amongst black families in a neighborhood literally on the wrong side of the tracks (my mother's house backed up against a log yard). These were shanty hut houses with corrugated tin roof tops and bleach bottles decorating their front walk ways. The house she grew up in wasn't much better and was condemned in the '70s.

We went back every summer since I was a baby until I went off to college and Mom taught me to respect people of all colors -- she introduced me to the black churches where we would go to listen to gospel and meet elders there whom she knew when she was young. One of her best friends was an old AA woman named Bobbie who had a gold tooth and spit tobacco in a coffee can. This is not a race thing. Her struggle with race in her family (her father was very racist and sexist) ensured that she would rear us differently, and she did.

"Mom," I said, "I gotta go. We'll talk later when I have more time...."

I just didn't have the strength to get into this with her right now.

*sigh*

[MercutioATC]

1. Living in America rots your brain

We don't fund education. Our whole economy is based on making things easy for people. Our news media values ratings over substance.

Corporate America has won. Unless we fundamentally change how we do things, things are only going to get worse.

Frankly, Obama is (IMO) nothing more than the lesser of two evils, but he IS the lesser evil.

[Nay]

2. Sadly, your mom is an example of a person who does nothing but

watch TV. People of all political stripes, if they watch too much TV, turn into idiots parroting the latest bullshit from the idiot box. It's a terrifying phenomenon, because TV seems to go straight into the lizard brain, and people just start spouting the talking points, no matter what they are or how wrong they are.

[cali]

3. sounds frustrating and it makes me

value my parents all the more. My dad's gone, but both my parents were staunch liberals and people with broad perspectives. They brought us up largely without TV (we didn't even have until I was 11). They instilled in us a passion for books. My mom is 87 and as lively as you can imagine. She's a strong supporter of Obama's.

[Emit]

4. My mother is losing her eyesight, and didn't use to do this

And used to be an avid reader and such. She is, too, a life long Democrat, and used to call and ask, "What is up with what Bush & Co. are doing?

I see a marked difference in her since she has been sitting in front of the teevee -- listening more than seeing, likely. She hates to go outside the house now. It's very unhealthy. I will be sitting and having a long talk with her after this.

Good on your folks, cali. I have three kids and teevee is limited. With my oldest, we didn't even own one, now it's mostly PBS shows like Nature for the kids -- and politics, mostly on line and in print. Even my little ones know and can recognize Obama, Clinton, McCain, Kerry, Bush, etc. My youngest told his pre-school teacher back in '04 that Bush lied, took us to war, and soldiers died for it -- she was an avid Bush supporter! :D

[conscious evolution]

5. TV 's have parental control features now.

[Emit]

6. Are you suggesting I set the control features on my mother's teevee?

lol.

[conscious evolution]

8. Worked for me

She was watching to many riechwing religious channels and it was having some serious negative consequences.

[DavidDvorkin]

7. No one was credulous before TV

Everyone took pains to find out the truth about candidates and didn't simply believe the lies spread by other candidates. Americans were knowledgeable about their own country and the rest of the world, and they were perceptive, analytical, and completely logical. They got all their news from reputable, reliable, and thoroughly honest sources. TV ruined everything.