A Traumatic Experience

Yesterday I had a very traumatic experience that left me shaking.  Really!  The unflappable me! What was it?  I had to listen to Fox News for about 10 minutes!!!

I needed a test at French Hospital (nothing serious).  I checked in quickly, but then had to wait for a while.  Bill got tired of waiting, and said he would dash to Farm Supply and would be back and would look for me in the same waiting room.  That sounded OK to me, and I continued to watch a home renovation channe.  So, I eventually had the test, came back to the waiting room, and there was a woman watching Fox News.  She turned to me and asked if I could hear it, to which I not very nicely responded that I would probably take out my hearing aids since I didn’t like Fox News.  She not only didn’t take the pretty overt hint, but said that she did like it.  So, there I was trying to convince myself that this would be a learning experience, and that I should just be quiet and treat it as such.

The first segment I came in the middle of, so don’t know what set them off, but there were two people talking about how Obama’s (no title) executive orders were unconstitutional, were thus illegal, and were his way or the highway.  Nothing about the 291 executive orders George W. Bush (W) signed, or what they contained.  Nothing, for example, about the executive order Bush signed on 10/08/2001 creating the Department of Homeland Security.  Nothing about what executive order President Obama had signed, though as I said I came in late, but only how awful President Obama is to be signing these orders.

The segment ended, and the next one included a Republican Congressman from some State back East (where I live everything is back East).  I think it was Ohio.  Anyway, the subject was voter fraud, and how it was very necessary to curtail voting in order to stop voter fraud.  In the discussion it left me with no doubt they were talking about stopping brown, black, young and old people from voting.  They did everything but blatantly say that it was necessary to keep “those people” from voting because they would not vote Republican, and any other vote was fraudulent.  And with Obama and the left-wing so awful it is absolutely necessary to make sure there is no voter fraud.  Nothing about how very important voting is – for everyone.

I could feel my blood pressure start to go up, but not to worry.  It is low anyway.

The next segment included John Bolton, former Bush appointee to the United Nations, and a very “interesting” person with a radical right-wing religious perspective discussing the recent events in Yemen.  There was nothing on what had led up to the problems; nothing about anything the Yemeni government had or had not done to prevent the problems.  Only that it was Obama’s fault; that he didn’t know what he was doing; if only he were someone else, and on, and on.

But the final straw started out with a sort of hysterical introduction that federal employees had been caught watching porn on their work computers.  Then came, “Federal employees watch porn on their work computers, and are wasting your tax dollars, etc…”  At that I came unglued.  The segment started out with the proper setting that federal employees had been caught, although it did not mention whether this was two or two hundred, or two thousand.  But by the time it got to inferring that all federal employees watch porn, I was livid.  It was another right wing attack on legitimate government.  There was no corresponding study done on how many private-business employees watch porn.  The study needn’t include Fox News employees because in my opinion they were spewing porn the whole time I was watching. 

At that point, I told the lady that I deeply resented the inference that all federal employees watch porn because my husband had been a federal employee, and I could assure her that neither he nor anyone else in his office had ever watched porn.  At that point I left the waiting room and went out into the hallway.  Fortunately Bill arrived about 2-3 minutes later, so didn’t have to stand there for any length of time.  When he realized how pissed off I was, we went to the cafeteria.  When in doubt, feed me!

It was so obvious to me in that 10 minutes that this is where the current divisiveness in our society is coming from.  It was hate and fear, hate and fear.  I was so angry to the point I was shaking because to me this was a form of evil.  I don’t use that word lightly, by the way.  A deliberate distortion of the truth for either personal or political aggrandizement is evil.