Letters to the Editor
-
It's subtler than brainwashing
To those writers who have ridiculed Wil Wheaton for saying right-wing media "brainwashed" his dad:
He didn't say that, and of course, it's not that simple. Take a look at all the letters from people who say it happened to their parents too. Here's how I see it: there is a tendency among some people as they age to become negative. That's why, probably since the cave days, there's a segment of the elderly who complain that things have gone to hell in a handbasket, the young people today are rotten because ... (fill in the blank) and civilization as we know it is about to end. (Fortunately, there are many people who age gracefully and continue to learn, instead of shutting down. I hope to be among them.) The endless stream of invective from right-wing TV and radio feeds that tendency and worsens it. There is no equivalent today for liberals; if liberal TV and radio ever achieved the prominence (and crabbiness) of right-wing media, maybe we would be talking about caustic left-wing parents, but I just don't see it.