Andrew Lester, 84, was described to his grandson as having become radicalized and immersed in Fox News before shooting teenage Ralph Jarl.
kansas city star I spoke with Lester’s grandson and reported:
“But in the last five or six years or so, I feel like we’ve lost contact,” he said. As far as going right wing as they do election-denying conspiracy theories and COVID conspiracies and disinformation, they’re further down the right-wing rabbit hole and buying Fox outright news, lines like OAN and much more. I feel like we radicalized him even more in terms of.”
Ludwig said his grandfather was immersed in “a 24-hour news cycle of fear and paranoia.” “And the NRA pushed to ‘keep your ground,’ insisting you have to protect your home,” he said. “When I heard what had happened, I was appalled and shocked that it had happened, but I didn’t believe it was true. I saw him doing that,’ I thought.
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It’s appalling that Lester got so radical that his family could see him shooting an innocent teenager who went to the wrong house to pick up his siblings.
Radicalization of older Americans viewing and consuming conservative media is a problem that has been studied for years, but radicalization has been linked to the retention of misinformed political beliefs. Fear and paranoia moved into actually shooting innocent people.
Fox News, OAN and Newsmax make money the same way the NRA sells guns and Trump and the Republican Party judge voters. Fear is the driving force behind conservative movements.
Guns and a conservative media culture that feeds people nothing but fear and paranoia are a dangerous combination.
Fear of commercial industries on the right is damaging nations and killing people.
Jason is the editor-in-chief. He is also a White House press pool and a congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a BA in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy with a specialization in the social reform movement.
Awards and Professional Membership
Member of the Association of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association
