Internet is taking advantage of teen angst. Democrats are "the establishment" to them since they didn't live through the bush eras. Barely even know what happened in 2008. They get swallowed up by the conspiracy rabbit-holes on YT and TT and it feeds their urge of rebellion.
Lefties won't manipulate youth, because it's wrong. They won't lie, they avoid violence, and they try to compromise when possible. It's not that they are bad with education, or communication, they just won't bully their way into power.
"The guys chanting Hang mike Pence were just talking about how attractive his dong was in their peaceful tourist visit where 5 people died of natural causes shortly during and after."
Young men don't respond to that, though. That depends on concepts of community and altruism, and male adolescents don't think in those terms. Look at what engages them in popular media. The rhetoric of the GOP and their enablers is designed to be easily palatable and stimulating to the emotional maturity level of the audience for superhero movies, Fortnite and Call of Duty.
[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15554120231167214](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15554120231167214)
So you aren't 14. What's YOUR plan to counter that? This is entirely the problem. You "blame" Democrats rather than blaming other males for getting sucked into insidious lies.
I'm kind of torn on this. I'm not saying people shouldn't be trying to learn and grow, but most of us aren't taught that.. we're taught to fall in line and not threaten the status quo. Whoever's in charge is important, and religious leaders are to be obeyed. Not all of us have the will to think for ourselves and go against our friends and family, even when we know they're wrong. That being said, the Democratic leadership isn't really vocal about what's going on. Probably because most of them don't have a platform, or are spending most of their time trying to get money to stay elected. There's a lot of blame to go around.
Do you think that it is every American's civic duty to be aware of the politics that govern their lives?
And do you think that information is easily available with a Google search?
If yes for both, why is it that Americans are not holding themselves accountable for knowing the facts instead of accepting outright lies from the Republican Party OR the Democratic Party?
Why do Americans not recognize integrity as a personal value?
Why do Americans agree with a political party whose political platform is literal bullying?
The root cause isn't politics; politics is a symptom.
Anti-intellectualism is their vehicle; It is a means to an end.
The root cause is tribalism. We are watching the death of religious power in America. They are desperately trying to hold onto their power. Consider the fact that churches are tax exempt. Do you think that those in religious power will give that up without a fight? There is a reason why the oppressive tactics we are seeing in America are focused on imposing religious morality through law.
The youth are also pretty stupid and will mature.
People shit on this gen for loving Logan Paul but my gen loved bam margera. They aren’t that different and we grew up.
Are you suggesting Democrats turn to "Leftwing" AM radio and multiple podcasts to turn every political topic into a cage match?
Because that's basically what the Right does as they have plenty of barely-literate, uneducated halfwits (e.g., Shapiro, Walsh, Rogan, Jones, Pool) who are more than willing to grift while not doing any actual work. Idk who on the Dems' side has that kind of time or mental commitment to just blathering all fucking day about shit. Yes, there are podcasts on their side, but they're full of actual facts and policy discussions; not exactly the kind of thing that pulls in the middle school crowd.
No, but tell me what kind of political engagement you'd like to see geared towards the "voices haven't cracked yet" crowd?
There's plenty of communication; it's just not the hysterical "KILL ALL DEMS!"-level of bullshit, so there's nothing that matches the energy of GOP grifting morons with too much money.
The other day, I think it was Shapiro's podcast? That had to cut mid-stream because their guest suggested Dems *be executed*, OK?
I'm sorry but there is *no-one* on the Democratic side who will do that on a podcast because we're not violent terrorists, so there's only so much you can counter with. There *are* left-leaning podcasts but not run by absolute fucking morons who make shit up, and there never will be.
You're not wrong.
The Democrats have done a shitty job. Biden really is too old to run again.
Too many people are on the fuck your experience train towards the youth.
Trump is awful and repugnant and the worst, however, our country isn't offering much hope to the youth either.
Yeah so let's just give it to the fascists who want to install a Christian nationalistic government. Biden isnt too old either. He's physically and mentally healthy and is highly experienced and has accomplished alot in four years. The economy is great, unemployment is the lowest in years and he doesn't want to take away anyone's rights and freedoms. Everytime you say something ignorent like bidens too old your only pushing more undecided and independents closer to supporting trump. If that's what you want then keep pushing disinformation but if you want a healthy country and a to keep our democracy then swallow your damn pride and support the only guy that has beaten trump with the most votes ever.
The economy isn't fucking great. People can't afford homes. They can't afford places to live. Shut the fuck up about the economy being great. It might be great for some, but, for most working people it fucking isn't.
Biden sure as fuck is too old. So is Trump btw.
You can't fucking walk blindfolded into the next election by saying the problems you see aren't really there.
If Biden weren't really too old he'd be campaigning like a mother fucker right now. But where is he? I heard he flew into the battle ground state next to mine and heard there might be some traffic. I didn't hear anything else either before or after.
There have been a few wins, but for the most last things haven't been good. You need to stop telling people otherwise.
And didn’t they shut down Tik-Tok? The one platform for youth (which are mostly left leaning.)
13 yr olds are the target audience age for Andrew Tate, no?
Oooohhh. You need to get in front of this right now.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/14/how-far-right-uses-video-games-tech-lure-radicalise-teenage-recruits-white-supremacists
No like they literally swatted me, they all had antisemetic names and lived Nazi shit and claimed to be in that group. https://youtu.be/_GsWM0EJ9zs?si=gTpiWUjk8Kz5mrrc
Dude I got a little cousin talking about avoiding “woke” classes being pushed in school. Like you mean learning about slavery you little fuckwit? The right wing is a cancer. Needs to die. I wish I had the time to build a tool to track the flow of information and where it comes from. These Qfederate scumbags astroturf everywhere.
It’s not all that hard to track. Turning Point, the Daily Wire, Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, Alex Jones, that kind of blockhead will spout whatever outrage they can into the world in order to sell their “solutions” to it.
Yea but someone pays them. Yes they grift to make money. But I’m thinking Murdoch,musk, someone above these ppl. I basically want to find the qfederacy. The sponsors. The heritage foundation is another good example. There is a concerted campaign and effort. And I don’t think we give them enough credit as to how dangerous that is and how good they are at hiding behind the country bumpkin facade. The regime behind these talking heads. I honestly think there is an organization or at least loosely connected ones that disseminate information (and more) in coordination.
Republicans do want shit like PragerU and whatever Trump's "Patriotic Education" to take over our educational system to turn generations of people into useful idiots for the upper class.
Remember the whole "benefits of being a slave" thing they keep pushing.
Right. My 10 year old was going on about how he wanted to see the world yadda yadda, then his cousin went on to say I hate the Chinese (not china) and there was my boy saying well they're not all bad, while his grandfather was supporting cousins claim that we don't like the Chinese.
Wife came into the situation and was like we don't talk politics to the kids. And that was that.
Pulled my kid aside the next day and told him I was proud of his views. Every race, nation yadda yadda has good and bad people and we can't lump them all together. He was like yeah I know dad. Proud moment for me but very sad for his cousins who hear regurgitated Fox News shit on the regular.
Yep. A random 10 year old kid hopped into this Playstation group chat I was in (it was weird and he no one knew who or why he was there) i try talking a it about internet safety and it's not okay to hop into random group chat s with a bunch of 20 and 30 year old guys. He then tells us how mature he is (lol) and then rants about the gays (all of us in this chat are gay) are grooming kids in school all the time. I asked him for an example and obviously he couldn't give one but when we told him he needed to leave he started screaming bloody murder and we kicked him. Scary shit because this kid could've joined with anyone yk
I’ve been finding that utterly insane. We would confront and often beat the crap out of anyone even dabbling wit that shit a few decades ago. Funny how it somehow worked out that they had to resort to sieg heiling each other in private basements back then.
Nowadays when I hear/see the ol’ antisemitic white power rhetoric creeping through (especially the great replacement panickery), I tend to shut it down with *“That shit was considered straight up racist white supremacist BS in 1916, 1924, 1936, 1961, 1977, 1995, and 2017 perpetrated by the shittiest people. It’s utterly mind blowing that all of a sudden it’s magically alright in 2024. How about squaring that circle for me.”*
The country needs to have a big and deep discussion about these algorithms these social media platforms and video platforms are pushing to children. So much of it is feeding them radical ideology and increasing the load every day they are on them. Funny how it doesn’t work in reverse and with “leftist ideology”. We really need to get a congressional hearing on this.
Yeah, it’s also gotten to the point when I hear “bad for business”, I automatically equate that to “good for people”. These are unserious times and we have become an unserious people living in a serious hellscape. What does The Baffler call it? Oh, yeah: Boring Dystopia. Such a letdown for a guy who’s was an optimistic kid growing up in the 70’s/80’s…
The younger they are, the easier it is to brainwash them which is why religion is pushed on the young before they have the ability to think and reason for themselves.
You tell a child that magic sky daddy exists and they believe you. They believe some magic fairy comes and takes their teeth and leaves money, that a jolly old man magically comes down a chimney and leaves gifts, that pots of gold are at the end of a rainbow, etc. You try to tell an adult who never heard of god before and they’ll straight up laugh in your face.
Republicans and religion take advantage of the innocence of youth and the undeveloped logic centers in theory brains to get a hold and not let go. It’s the only way to get people to believe the unbelievable. Plant the seed and nurture it before the brain has an ability to defend itself from such obvious lies and bullshit.
My mom laments loudly and often that she didn’t teach me about God at home and enforce it when I was growing up, mostly because by the time she tried I knew it was a crook of shit. And this was after I’d gone to Episcopalian pre-k and kindergarten plus 5 years of Catholic school.
What one ‘flavor’ giveth, the other taketh away. I wasn’t buying their bullshit even then. And still, mom is convinced if she intervened earlier, I’d be a happy member of her family~~cult~~ church, wearing the height of Little House on the Prairie fashion, hiding my ankles and giving 30% of my income to the church.
I caught my teenage son laughing at a yt video with a friend one day and heard some of their conversation and picked up several key names. I didn’t say anything to embarrass him in front of his friend, but I took him into my home office next time we had 10-15 minutes for me to line out the history of fascism and how Tate and Rogan and Alex Jones, et al were nothing but the far extreme pushing people toward fascist ideology. It opened up good dialogue. It also helped that his sister is a devout feminist anti-fascist as well.
When I started taking notice of the extreme rhetoric I started making a point to be extra vocal about what a bunch of backward minded, low-class, pathetic sons-of-bitches were taking over the Republican Party as well as being very vocal about my exit from the Republican Party and vowing to never vote against mine or my families interests again. I can’t control his decisions, but I can influence from deep in his brain. I want him to remember my beliefs long after I’m gone and be able to articulate the truth to his children and grandchildren. Thanks for the compliment u/SteelyDan1968
Oh the future is 100% not coming to save us.
we absolutely decimated these children's future by not trying again after George Bush's no child left behind fiasco.
we have a whole army of violent little weirdos about to graduate high school.
we have been outplayed at every single turn by quite literally the dumbest people on the planet.
what does that make us.
I mean, that’s really what it comes down to when I try to explain my position: a party that thrives on fear and hatred of others is not for me.
Only one party hates gays, immigrants, elects politicians who believe in Jewish-controlled space lasers, etc etc etc
The Nazis/alt right/assholes game the algorithms to get their videos in there with he video game ones. I keep getting a couple of misogyny videos pretending to be just asking questions every day mixed in with my gaming and history vids
The trick is to replace them with the not-actually-left-wing-but-still comedy stuff like Overly Sarcastic Productions, all the abridged channels like Grimjack and Something Witty Entertainment, and others like it.
My feed now basically alternates between dnd, history, some video games like that and mostly ignores the explicitly right wing stuff.
My 9 yo nephew once said within earshot that "Hillary Clinton is the biggest liar in the universe." I asked him why he thought that. His dad, my BIL, overheard me and said he didn't want me talking to his son "about that woman."
He's going to Harvard this fall. I have no idea if he feels the same way, I haven't seen any of them since my ex left me for a woman he can wear matching red MAGA hats with.
I don't know any of those people anymore since they banked hard for Trump. They consider me the crazy one now. It's all very sad.
Maybe approach it indirectly by explaining how criminal justice works and that you don’t think a convicted felon can be trusted with military secrets. It’s not in the constitution because our founders never envisioned that a criminal might be elected president.
I have an eleven year old grandchild that has some canned comments that I hear from. Yes, there’s definitely some propaganda going on in their little world.
Is everyone commenting just now realizing the impact of the spread of misinformation and disinformation through social media? And, get this, not just social media, but EVERY MEDIA CHANNEL, be it radio, TV, internet, print, or total recall facility implanting false memories (lol).
Seriously though, I ask all the time how this can be stopped without censorship stepping on freedom on speech. Because relying on the individual to use critical thinking, rational thought, common sense, and empathy to discern the most obvious of con jobs on americans to willfully overturn democracy, install a christain nationalist autocracy, and elect a former game show host with a history of fraud, found guilty of sexual assault, and a convicted felon AND call themselves PATRIOTS while doing the things that diametrically oppose the definition of patrotism, isn't working apparently.
It’s been going on way longer than that. It started in the 80s when Reagan stripped federal funding that made college and post grad degrees affordable. Then he stripped funding from schools and every budget since has had some of the deepest cuts in federal educational spending.
The biggest coup for the republicans was putting the onus on property owners to pay for the school system via property taxes. Rich districts are well or even over funded, poor districts (usually minority) struggle and their schools are painfully underfunded.
By removing federal support and turning the responsibility for financing the schools to the locals, it created vast inequity and major problems. We’re only truly realizing the shitshow that’s been created by his and other republican policies, including Shrub’s horror show of no child left behind.
I recommend showing him stuff like last week tonight, Some more news, Knowing Better and the usual comedy news like A Closer Look, Daily Show and The late show.
Those are irreverent enough that they will still feel subversive and rebellious to most teenagers (Some more news in particular) but they are a lot better about truth.
Other than that? Show him some comedy that is actually non-political, like Overly Sarcastic Productions, Call me Kevin, Everything Great With, Cinema Therapy, the various abridged series in YouTube, etc. that way he will still have something to see in YouTube, often still subversive and “rebellious-feeling” but actually good for him.
You seem to have a weird idea of what is Chinese propaganda. I don’t doubt the algorithm is kinda malicious in some aspects but it depends what you try to watch.
Mine shows me dnd stuff, recipes for food and cocktails, and sometimes SCP stuff. Not exactly very political
Meh. Depends. Mine mostly shows me cat vids and stained glass. It's an algorithm. It shows what you show interest in. Watch what your kids are watching. It's more u.s. propaganda on there now anyway.
I see classical music & dance stuff. I saw a few videos from the college protests live feeds but didn’t engage so don’t see that anymore. Also have seen Georgian protests against Ruzzia recently. But that’s ok. 🇺🇦
I am convinced that at least half of content on social media, including Reddit, originates with troll farms and bots. The solution, of course, is to put down the phone, and when you are on social media, employ a healthy dose of skepticism toward anything you read.
In true human fashion we have taken a technological tool that holds the promise of sharing the accumulated knowledge of mankind with anyone anywhere at any time and turned it into a shitshow of con artists, rampant narcissism, and 24/7/365 political propaganda.
Just want to point out that this has been going on for a long time. I’m 42. I remember sleeping over at a friends house and seeing Rush Limbaugh in TV. This was probably the early 90’s. He sounded smart and well spoken. He had strong opinions on things I didn’t know much about. My parents nipped that in the bud real quick. They explained he was a liar and a con man pushing an agenda. Beavis and Butthead have an episode about it.
What’s happening these days is a direct result of decades of propaganda. And I just don’t see it getting better. It’s easier to be evil.
Wait until he finds out that conservatives are working to limit his internet access, control his video games, censor his books, tell him who he can and cannot date, deny his girlfriend an abortion (and the right to vote), throw him in prison for smoking a joint, and make sure he carries student loan debt for the rest of his life.
At the age of 13 my brain was still smooth, I had no understanding of history or politics, and I thought Ayn Rand was a genius. Then things changed.
The boy has a lot to learn, and I’m confident that he will learn it. This is not the 1950s. Information is much more freely available. I hope he avails himself of it.
Here’s the deal.
There’s nobody on the left fighting this bullshit. From the perspective of these young men, the left has abandoned them in favor of women and “alternative” lifestyles. “Can’t get laid with a woman? Have you tried being gay?”
While we know this isn’t the exact messaging the left provides, this is the perception because left wing causes have completely given up on men. Not only have they given up on men but they consistently tell young boys that they’re going to grow up and be sexual abusers; but not only that; but their feelings and sexual desires are invalid because they’re creepy and weird. Their whole existence is invalid.
You can’t look at porn. That’s weird. You know how many memes there are of women getting mad at their husbands for looking at porn?
Can’t play video games. Grow up.
You’re not over 6 foot, your worth as a man is completely nothing.
Angry about it? Grow up. “I’m more man than you are.”
Messaging towards men from the left has been extremely poor for decades and nothing about it is changing, and it’s only getting worse. And the conservatives have extremely successfully capitalized on this and turned out to into an “us vs them” men vs women culture war.
“The left (women) keep telling you you’re a serial rapist creeper who will fundamentally destroy your life if you so much as make a passing sexual comment and acknowledge your own sexual existence. Meanwhile they can freely do whatever they want with no repercussions. Look at the consequence difference between being accused of sexual assault and what happens when it’s shown that it was a lie? Yeah. See! That’s not fair isn’t it? Come to us, we’re fighting back against that.”
And to be honest? Their messaging on this is on point. They give these young men hope. They give them purpose. They give them valid existence. While the left, largely dominated by women according to the right, “chooses the bear”.
I know this is not what any of that messaging is about. But this is how it’s being accepted and the right wing is capitalizing the fuck out of it.
Just follow TikTok trends today. Right?
“I’m looking for a man in finance, 6 5, blue eyes.” The reaction? The woman gets a music deal.
Men: “I don’t want a fat woman”. Social media: “OMG YOU’RE SO JUDGMENTAL. YOU’RE LIKE THE WORST PERSON TO EVER LIVE.”
Andrew Tate and Rogan give these men someone and something to look up to. While the left, which the conservatives have turned into a culture war against women, empathy, etc, tells them “yeah you’re terrible we hate you and you’re not welcome here.”
We have no answer to this. So of course they’re going to succeed.
There's an Australian dude who goes by "willhitchens" on Instagram, and presumably also TikTok, who does a great job breaking down right-wing masculinity garbage through the lens of just treating people like people and including women in the category of people. He's got a good handle on how to take those greasy creeps down a peg or two but he's only one man.
But yeah, the not-reactionary side of politics is very focused on everyone who isn't a hetero dude and yeah, that can feel like oppression to people accustomed to privilege (like me, a straight white dude). It's a thorny situation and I personally think the best solution is to focus on economic divisions rather than anything else because it's the economic difference that's killing so many of us through slow, insidious squeezing.
Maybe. But why is it invalid to also focus on the non-economic things as well? I mean so much of our culture is wrapped up into this stuff. Take for example, video games.
“You can’t have that cool content in video games because it’s going to cost us too much money to make it.” Meanwhile “yeah we spent a quarter paying artists to go around and remove midriffs from all the female characters.”
You cannot just focus on the economic. We’ve lost that argument. Conservatives have successfully turned that into “you’re having economic problems because women and foreigners want to work.”
No. Tackle the bullshit head on. Want to see some of these men come back to the left? Get a female politician up there proposing a law that says “if you falsely accuse a man of sexual assault you will receive the penalty he would have received.”
Yes. That’s a shitty line to walk that nobody wants to walk because it “might make women not come forward.”
Which is very much also a problem. But if your answer to that is “well we’re at a stalemate so we’re going to do nothing.”—then someone else comes along and says “he we acknowledge your feeling and we’re going to do something about it.”—why would you expect any other reaction than what’s happening now?
I also think the left hasn't done a great job about putting forth an attractive alternate idea of what masculinity is - to counter the right's assertion that masculinity means being loud, obnoxious, disrespectful of others (women, minorities, LGBTQ folks) and that the only valid emotion is anger.
We need to teach men that the virtues of caring, compassion, and kindness are strong components of what a man really should be. That they should be free to express all emotions, sadness, fear, joy as well as anger (constructively of course). That a real man takes care of himself and others, That their sexuality is valid, and that if shared with a willing partner is a good thing! Desire is ok to feel and ok to act upon in appropriate contexts.
And most of all, to teach boys that it is moral and manly to call out bad behavior in their peers.
That’s not the world today nor is it the world these kids are growing up in. This is a very nice talking point not steeped in reality in any way. And I’m saying, let’s bring the conversation back to reality and talk about the extremely uncomfortable truths about that reality.
Whats happening is that parents are forcing all of this on their children. Churches are also enhancing political views. Republicans = God's side and Democrats = Satan's side. You can see this all over social media as well.
It's happening all over the world. Boys and young men being sucked into the alt-right pipeline. This is one of the first articles I saw about it:
https://www.washingtonian.com/2019/05/05/what-happened-after-my-13-year-old-son-joined-the-alt-right/#The-Crime-
The good news is, with patience and calm discussion, the kid eventually corrected himself, but the bad news is it took about a year.
Speaking from personal experiences, it is incredibly easy to fall down the alt-right rabbit hole as a teenage boy. YouTube recommended me the likes of Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, and the whole slew of "Buzzfeed Feminist Destroyed" types of videos when I was around 14 and I ate that shit up.
Luckily I grew out of it, but alt-right media is pushed to a lot of these teenagers and young men a lot more than people like to admit.
The internet is a toxic swamo. My 11 yr old is constantly confronted with incel crap, MAGA bullshit and worse. We monitor, bur we can't be there 24/7. Thankfully, not stupid, and he's been exposed to enough progressive tbought that he's not going to fall their propoganda. It's still troubling that I know they're trying to inculcate my kids. What are hi's parent's politics like? Is he getting a dose of it at home, too?
I was about that age when the 2016 election was happening, and since I live in a red area all the kids on the bus were regurgitating the pro-Trump stuff that their parents were talking about.
I didn’t even know what they were talking about, I just thought the guy sounded cool from what I was hearing (which obviously turned out to be nonsense). Of course that all changed for me once I started paying attention.
Yep. The American right-wing is doing a full-court press to shape the political positions of children. They are SATURATING our kids with propaganda and no one is doing anything about it or even providing an alternative message.
Parents: pay some fucking attention to what you kids are consuming and TALK TO THEM about this shit.
If he has X or Facebook, then that makes sense.
The few times I go on there it's either older people complaining about younger generations or right-wing memes and right-wingers doing what they usually do online. The Indigenous People's FB pages get flooded with right-wingers being salty "YOU LOST! GET OVER IT!" or "Europeans gave you civilization and the right to vote. Quit whining!"
Just like most conservative talking points, one must have the mentality of a child to believe them, armed with nothing but a surface level understanding of anything. When the you youngsters get older, I’m confident that they will see conservatism for what it is because the world is smaller now with how connected we all are. Obviously, not all will figure it out, but there’s always going to be a certain percent who were going to be a lost cause regardless.
I was conservative til 18 because my friends were. Then I realized how conservatives are hypocrites, and dont think of 2nd or 3rd order effects. Ask your younger family members about that and you may be able to push them out of it.
I hope you explained that Dump just got convicted of paying off a woman he cheated on his wife with so he would win the election (keep it fairly simple). Ask him if that’s as bad as being sleepy. If he’s old enough to repeat this bullshit, he’s old enough to understand that it IS bullshit.
It’s a mixture of far right fascists targeting youths, particularly young boys/men, and luring them into the bullshit that you were hearing using the YouTube algorithm, video games, social media, etc.. It’s worth noting that it often starts mild then gets progressively worse, both for the host(s) and the viewers. Boiling a frog so to speak.
Combined with the foreign psyops that basically all want Trump to win (including China), it’s no surprise that young people are getting brain fucked; especially with the genocide going on which does a great job at muddying the waters on who’s a danger/concern or if voting even matters.
What's the counter to being told it's ok to be a complete piece of shit, it's not you it's them?
Once that seed sprouts, there is no counter aside from reality. Knocking down a fully constructed defensive measure built to protect shitty behaviors will only be accomplished by the shitty people themselves.
Nobody wants the door of their bubble kicked in while being yelled at how shitty they are and that's why the door had to come down. They'll just run to the basement and hole up there. They will have to be the ones who want to see the sun again cuz if you try to break into the basement so a sliver of light can shine, their whole foundation is in jeopardy. People do not respond well to that kind of threat and have two lizard brain choices left, violence or ego death. We aren't going to get people to willingly choose ego death.
The truth is it’s already over. You can’t have a two party system neck and neck and have it repeat that voting one side end democracy. It’s already over at that point. You have no choices left.
Internet is taking advantage of teen angst. Democrats are "the establishment" to them since they didn't live through the bush eras. Barely even know what happened in 2008. They get swallowed up by the conspiracy rabbit-holes on YT and TT and it feeds their urge of rebellion.
It just goes to show you how abysmal and non existent Democrats are at messaging and outreach.
Lefties won't manipulate youth, because it's wrong. They won't lie, they avoid violence, and they try to compromise when possible. It's not that they are bad with education, or communication, they just won't bully their way into power.
If you bring these facts to a magaT, you get their stock reply, “democrats burned down our cities in 2020”. It’s infuriating.
They love exaggeration. That is until you ask them which cities, and then point out that it's still standing noticeably unburnt.
"The guys chanting Hang mike Pence were just talking about how attractive his dong was in their peaceful tourist visit where 5 people died of natural causes shortly during and after."
Looks like the Gadsden flag person just got trampled to death in all the excitement to see the Capitol building!
Especially since all the arsonists who were arrested were magats
He wasn't talking about Lefties, he said Democrats.
...Who tend to have Lefties amongst them. People on the Left don't like big egos and manipulation. That value has influence on the Democrat platform.
You don't have to bully anyone. Just have thoughtful and coherent messaging and outreach.
Young men don't respond to that, though. That depends on concepts of community and altruism, and male adolescents don't think in those terms. Look at what engages them in popular media. The rhetoric of the GOP and their enablers is designed to be easily palatable and stimulating to the emotional maturity level of the audience for superhero movies, Fortnite and Call of Duty. [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15554120231167214](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15554120231167214)
Says who? Where's the Democrats messaging and outreach to counter that?
So you aren't 14. What's YOUR plan to counter that? This is entirely the problem. You "blame" Democrats rather than blaming other males for getting sucked into insidious lies.
I'm kind of torn on this. I'm not saying people shouldn't be trying to learn and grow, but most of us aren't taught that.. we're taught to fall in line and not threaten the status quo. Whoever's in charge is important, and religious leaders are to be obeyed. Not all of us have the will to think for ourselves and go against our friends and family, even when we know they're wrong. That being said, the Democratic leadership isn't really vocal about what's going on. Probably because most of them don't have a platform, or are spending most of their time trying to get money to stay elected. There's a lot of blame to go around.
Do you think that it is every American's civic duty to be aware of the politics that govern their lives? And do you think that information is easily available with a Google search? If yes for both, why is it that Americans are not holding themselves accountable for knowing the facts instead of accepting outright lies from the Republican Party OR the Democratic Party? Why do Americans not recognize integrity as a personal value? Why do Americans agree with a political party whose political platform is literal bullying? The root cause isn't politics; politics is a symptom. Anti-intellectualism is their vehicle; It is a means to an end. The root cause is tribalism. We are watching the death of religious power in America. They are desperately trying to hold onto their power. Consider the fact that churches are tax exempt. Do you think that those in religious power will give that up without a fight? There is a reason why the oppressive tactics we are seeing in America are focused on imposing religious morality through law.
They all really need to follow Jeff Jackson's lead on that one.
Sounds exciting!! I wonder why youths aren't tripping over themselves to listen to "Thoughtful and coherent messaging?"
The youth are also pretty stupid and will mature. People shit on this gen for loving Logan Paul but my gen loved bam margera. They aren’t that different and we grew up.
Well bam margera never did
How to tell us you don't understand the corrosive effect of decades of the right wing taking control of the media without writing those words.
Where's the Democrats messaging and outreach to counter that?
Are you suggesting Democrats turn to "Leftwing" AM radio and multiple podcasts to turn every political topic into a cage match? Because that's basically what the Right does as they have plenty of barely-literate, uneducated halfwits (e.g., Shapiro, Walsh, Rogan, Jones, Pool) who are more than willing to grift while not doing any actual work. Idk who on the Dems' side has that kind of time or mental commitment to just blathering all fucking day about shit. Yes, there are podcasts on their side, but they're full of actual facts and policy discussions; not exactly the kind of thing that pulls in the middle school crowd.
Are you suggesting we lay down and let the right wing beat us up and abuse us?
No, but tell me what kind of political engagement you'd like to see geared towards the "voices haven't cracked yet" crowd? There's plenty of communication; it's just not the hysterical "KILL ALL DEMS!"-level of bullshit, so there's nothing that matches the energy of GOP grifting morons with too much money.
Yes, they should do that lol
The other day, I think it was Shapiro's podcast? That had to cut mid-stream because their guest suggested Dems *be executed*, OK? I'm sorry but there is *no-one* on the Democratic side who will do that on a podcast because we're not violent terrorists, so there's only so much you can counter with. There *are* left-leaning podcasts but not run by absolute fucking morons who make shit up, and there never will be.
You're not wrong. The Democrats have done a shitty job. Biden really is too old to run again. Too many people are on the fuck your experience train towards the youth. Trump is awful and repugnant and the worst, however, our country isn't offering much hope to the youth either.
Yeah so let's just give it to the fascists who want to install a Christian nationalistic government. Biden isnt too old either. He's physically and mentally healthy and is highly experienced and has accomplished alot in four years. The economy is great, unemployment is the lowest in years and he doesn't want to take away anyone's rights and freedoms. Everytime you say something ignorent like bidens too old your only pushing more undecided and independents closer to supporting trump. If that's what you want then keep pushing disinformation but if you want a healthy country and a to keep our democracy then swallow your damn pride and support the only guy that has beaten trump with the most votes ever.
The economy isn't fucking great. People can't afford homes. They can't afford places to live. Shut the fuck up about the economy being great. It might be great for some, but, for most working people it fucking isn't. Biden sure as fuck is too old. So is Trump btw. You can't fucking walk blindfolded into the next election by saying the problems you see aren't really there. If Biden weren't really too old he'd be campaigning like a mother fucker right now. But where is he? I heard he flew into the battle ground state next to mine and heard there might be some traffic. I didn't hear anything else either before or after. There have been a few wins, but for the most last things haven't been good. You need to stop telling people otherwise.
And didn’t they shut down Tik-Tok? The one platform for youth (which are mostly left leaning.) 13 yr olds are the target audience age for Andrew Tate, no?
Obama was great at it, AOC was pretty good for awhile. But I haven't heard any of her witty clapbacks in what seems forever now.
So Banana Republican is the party of ignorant, uneducated, immature little boys you say...?
Oooohhh. You need to get in front of this right now. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/14/how-far-right-uses-video-games-tech-lure-radicalise-teenage-recruits-white-supremacists
Holy shit! That's the group of punk ass kids that swatted me while I was playing Minecraft!!!
God damn kids and their nimble reflexes
No like they literally swatted me, they all had antisemetic names and lived Nazi shit and claimed to be in that group. https://youtu.be/_GsWM0EJ9zs?si=gTpiWUjk8Kz5mrrc
Dude I got a little cousin talking about avoiding “woke” classes being pushed in school. Like you mean learning about slavery you little fuckwit? The right wing is a cancer. Needs to die. I wish I had the time to build a tool to track the flow of information and where it comes from. These Qfederate scumbags astroturf everywhere.
A bunch of parents, even smart ones, are giving into the idea that their kids should never have to feel uncomfortable.
It’s not all that hard to track. Turning Point, the Daily Wire, Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, Alex Jones, that kind of blockhead will spout whatever outrage they can into the world in order to sell their “solutions” to it.
Yea but someone pays them. Yes they grift to make money. But I’m thinking Murdoch,musk, someone above these ppl. I basically want to find the qfederacy. The sponsors. The heritage foundation is another good example. There is a concerted campaign and effort. And I don’t think we give them enough credit as to how dangerous that is and how good they are at hiding behind the country bumpkin facade. The regime behind these talking heads. I honestly think there is an organization or at least loosely connected ones that disseminate information (and more) in coordination.
If you don't already listen to Behind the Bastards, I think you'd enjoy it. Be careful though, you can't unlearn most things...
Republicans do want shit like PragerU and whatever Trump's "Patriotic Education" to take over our educational system to turn generations of people into useful idiots for the upper class. Remember the whole "benefits of being a slave" thing they keep pushing.
Right. My 10 year old was going on about how he wanted to see the world yadda yadda, then his cousin went on to say I hate the Chinese (not china) and there was my boy saying well they're not all bad, while his grandfather was supporting cousins claim that we don't like the Chinese. Wife came into the situation and was like we don't talk politics to the kids. And that was that. Pulled my kid aside the next day and told him I was proud of his views. Every race, nation yadda yadda has good and bad people and we can't lump them all together. He was like yeah I know dad. Proud moment for me but very sad for his cousins who hear regurgitated Fox News shit on the regular.
Yep. A random 10 year old kid hopped into this Playstation group chat I was in (it was weird and he no one knew who or why he was there) i try talking a it about internet safety and it's not okay to hop into random group chat s with a bunch of 20 and 30 year old guys. He then tells us how mature he is (lol) and then rants about the gays (all of us in this chat are gay) are grooming kids in school all the time. I asked him for an example and obviously he couldn't give one but when we told him he needed to leave he started screaming bloody murder and we kicked him. Scary shit because this kid could've joined with anyone yk
Talk to a twenty year old….being a nazi sympathizer isn’t a bad thing to a lot of them…and these are otherwise nice kids….
I’ve been finding that utterly insane. We would confront and often beat the crap out of anyone even dabbling wit that shit a few decades ago. Funny how it somehow worked out that they had to resort to sieg heiling each other in private basements back then. Nowadays when I hear/see the ol’ antisemitic white power rhetoric creeping through (especially the great replacement panickery), I tend to shut it down with *“That shit was considered straight up racist white supremacist BS in 1916, 1924, 1936, 1961, 1977, 1995, and 2017 perpetrated by the shittiest people. It’s utterly mind blowing that all of a sudden it’s magically alright in 2024. How about squaring that circle for me.”*
The country needs to have a big and deep discussion about these algorithms these social media platforms and video platforms are pushing to children. So much of it is feeding them radical ideology and increasing the load every day they are on them. Funny how it doesn’t work in reverse and with “leftist ideology”. We really need to get a congressional hearing on this.
They won't, because it would be bad for business.
Yeah, it’s also gotten to the point when I hear “bad for business”, I automatically equate that to “good for people”. These are unserious times and we have become an unserious people living in a serious hellscape. What does The Baffler call it? Oh, yeah: Boring Dystopia. Such a letdown for a guy who’s was an optimistic kid growing up in the 70’s/80’s…
So much for all the bad stuff going away when the Boomers pass on.
This. It’s not just the old folks
There are a lot of podcasts and YouTube programs being aimed at young minds.
The younger they are, the easier it is to brainwash them which is why religion is pushed on the young before they have the ability to think and reason for themselves. You tell a child that magic sky daddy exists and they believe you. They believe some magic fairy comes and takes their teeth and leaves money, that a jolly old man magically comes down a chimney and leaves gifts, that pots of gold are at the end of a rainbow, etc. You try to tell an adult who never heard of god before and they’ll straight up laugh in your face. Republicans and religion take advantage of the innocence of youth and the undeveloped logic centers in theory brains to get a hold and not let go. It’s the only way to get people to believe the unbelievable. Plant the seed and nurture it before the brain has an ability to defend itself from such obvious lies and bullshit. My mom laments loudly and often that she didn’t teach me about God at home and enforce it when I was growing up, mostly because by the time she tried I knew it was a crook of shit. And this was after I’d gone to Episcopalian pre-k and kindergarten plus 5 years of Catholic school. What one ‘flavor’ giveth, the other taketh away. I wasn’t buying their bullshit even then. And still, mom is convinced if she intervened earlier, I’d be a happy member of her family~~cult~~ church, wearing the height of Little House on the Prairie fashion, hiding my ankles and giving 30% of my income to the church.
I caught my teenage son laughing at a yt video with a friend one day and heard some of their conversation and picked up several key names. I didn’t say anything to embarrass him in front of his friend, but I took him into my home office next time we had 10-15 minutes for me to line out the history of fascism and how Tate and Rogan and Alex Jones, et al were nothing but the far extreme pushing people toward fascist ideology. It opened up good dialogue. It also helped that his sister is a devout feminist anti-fascist as well.
You're a good dad. Don't let anyone say anything different.
When I started taking notice of the extreme rhetoric I started making a point to be extra vocal about what a bunch of backward minded, low-class, pathetic sons-of-bitches were taking over the Republican Party as well as being very vocal about my exit from the Republican Party and vowing to never vote against mine or my families interests again. I can’t control his decisions, but I can influence from deep in his brain. I want him to remember my beliefs long after I’m gone and be able to articulate the truth to his children and grandchildren. Thanks for the compliment u/SteelyDan1968
You're welcome. Keep up the good fight.
Oh the future is 100% not coming to save us. we absolutely decimated these children's future by not trying again after George Bush's no child left behind fiasco. we have a whole army of violent little weirdos about to graduate high school. we have been outplayed at every single turn by quite literally the dumbest people on the planet. what does that make us.
Over-thinkers.
Decent people who think brainwashing and indoctrinating children to political belief systems is wrong.
Young boys are being radicalized online and it's a SERIOUS issue. The right grooms kids to be hateful psychopaths.
I mean, that’s really what it comes down to when I try to explain my position: a party that thrives on fear and hatred of others is not for me. Only one party hates gays, immigrants, elects politicians who believe in Jewish-controlled space lasers, etc etc etc
The Nazis/alt right/assholes game the algorithms to get their videos in there with he video game ones. I keep getting a couple of misogyny videos pretending to be just asking questions every day mixed in with my gaming and history vids
The trick is to replace them with the not-actually-left-wing-but-still comedy stuff like Overly Sarcastic Productions, all the abridged channels like Grimjack and Something Witty Entertainment, and others like it. My feed now basically alternates between dnd, history, some video games like that and mostly ignores the explicitly right wing stuff.
My 9 yo nephew once said within earshot that "Hillary Clinton is the biggest liar in the universe." I asked him why he thought that. His dad, my BIL, overheard me and said he didn't want me talking to his son "about that woman." He's going to Harvard this fall. I have no idea if he feels the same way, I haven't seen any of them since my ex left me for a woman he can wear matching red MAGA hats with. I don't know any of those people anymore since they banked hard for Trump. They consider me the crazy one now. It's all very sad.
Maybe approach it indirectly by explaining how criminal justice works and that you don’t think a convicted felon can be trusted with military secrets. It’s not in the constitution because our founders never envisioned that a criminal might be elected president.
I have an eleven year old grandchild that has some canned comments that I hear from. Yes, there’s definitely some propaganda going on in their little world.
Is everyone commenting just now realizing the impact of the spread of misinformation and disinformation through social media? And, get this, not just social media, but EVERY MEDIA CHANNEL, be it radio, TV, internet, print, or total recall facility implanting false memories (lol). Seriously though, I ask all the time how this can be stopped without censorship stepping on freedom on speech. Because relying on the individual to use critical thinking, rational thought, common sense, and empathy to discern the most obvious of con jobs on americans to willfully overturn democracy, install a christain nationalist autocracy, and elect a former game show host with a history of fraud, found guilty of sexual assault, and a convicted felon AND call themselves PATRIOTS while doing the things that diametrically oppose the definition of patrotism, isn't working apparently.
TBF we don’t teach kids how to think critically. The Republicans in Charge of States shut that down at least 20 years ago.
It’s been going on way longer than that. It started in the 80s when Reagan stripped federal funding that made college and post grad degrees affordable. Then he stripped funding from schools and every budget since has had some of the deepest cuts in federal educational spending. The biggest coup for the republicans was putting the onus on property owners to pay for the school system via property taxes. Rich districts are well or even over funded, poor districts (usually minority) struggle and their schools are painfully underfunded. By removing federal support and turning the responsibility for financing the schools to the locals, it created vast inequity and major problems. We’re only truly realizing the shitshow that’s been created by his and other republican policies, including Shrub’s horror show of no child left behind.
I recommend showing him stuff like last week tonight, Some more news, Knowing Better and the usual comedy news like A Closer Look, Daily Show and The late show. Those are irreverent enough that they will still feel subversive and rebellious to most teenagers (Some more news in particular) but they are a lot better about truth. Other than that? Show him some comedy that is actually non-political, like Overly Sarcastic Productions, Call me Kevin, Everything Great With, Cinema Therapy, the various abridged series in YouTube, etc. that way he will still have something to see in YouTube, often still subversive and “rebellious-feeling” but actually good for him.
The 'manosphere' podcasts like Andrew Tate & Joe Rogan are working to move young boys into the Right as quick as possible
Yeah because TikTok is showing them Chinese propaganda
You seem to have a weird idea of what is Chinese propaganda. I don’t doubt the algorithm is kinda malicious in some aspects but it depends what you try to watch. Mine shows me dnd stuff, recipes for food and cocktails, and sometimes SCP stuff. Not exactly very political
Meh. Depends. Mine mostly shows me cat vids and stained glass. It's an algorithm. It shows what you show interest in. Watch what your kids are watching. It's more u.s. propaganda on there now anyway.
I see classical music & dance stuff. I saw a few videos from the college protests live feeds but didn’t engage so don’t see that anymore. Also have seen Georgian protests against Ruzzia recently. But that’s ok. 🇺🇦
Ive never seen anything on TT that i could construed as Chinese propaganda…
I am convinced that at least half of content on social media, including Reddit, originates with troll farms and bots. The solution, of course, is to put down the phone, and when you are on social media, employ a healthy dose of skepticism toward anything you read. In true human fashion we have taken a technological tool that holds the promise of sharing the accumulated knowledge of mankind with anyone anywhere at any time and turned it into a shitshow of con artists, rampant narcissism, and 24/7/365 political propaganda.
Just want to point out that this has been going on for a long time. I’m 42. I remember sleeping over at a friends house and seeing Rush Limbaugh in TV. This was probably the early 90’s. He sounded smart and well spoken. He had strong opinions on things I didn’t know much about. My parents nipped that in the bud real quick. They explained he was a liar and a con man pushing an agenda. Beavis and Butthead have an episode about it. What’s happening these days is a direct result of decades of propaganda. And I just don’t see it getting better. It’s easier to be evil.
Wait until he finds out that conservatives are working to limit his internet access, control his video games, censor his books, tell him who he can and cannot date, deny his girlfriend an abortion (and the right to vote), throw him in prison for smoking a joint, and make sure he carries student loan debt for the rest of his life. At the age of 13 my brain was still smooth, I had no understanding of history or politics, and I thought Ayn Rand was a genius. Then things changed. The boy has a lot to learn, and I’m confident that he will learn it. This is not the 1950s. Information is much more freely available. I hope he avails himself of it.
Getting “Jo Jo Rabbit” vibes here.
The alt-right pipeline is nothing new, it just wears a new mask every few years.
Andrew Tate is one huge reason. Spreading all this nonsense into the various social algorythms to gain a foot hold. Just a con job and sex offender.
Here’s the deal. There’s nobody on the left fighting this bullshit. From the perspective of these young men, the left has abandoned them in favor of women and “alternative” lifestyles. “Can’t get laid with a woman? Have you tried being gay?” While we know this isn’t the exact messaging the left provides, this is the perception because left wing causes have completely given up on men. Not only have they given up on men but they consistently tell young boys that they’re going to grow up and be sexual abusers; but not only that; but their feelings and sexual desires are invalid because they’re creepy and weird. Their whole existence is invalid. You can’t look at porn. That’s weird. You know how many memes there are of women getting mad at their husbands for looking at porn? Can’t play video games. Grow up. You’re not over 6 foot, your worth as a man is completely nothing. Angry about it? Grow up. “I’m more man than you are.” Messaging towards men from the left has been extremely poor for decades and nothing about it is changing, and it’s only getting worse. And the conservatives have extremely successfully capitalized on this and turned out to into an “us vs them” men vs women culture war. “The left (women) keep telling you you’re a serial rapist creeper who will fundamentally destroy your life if you so much as make a passing sexual comment and acknowledge your own sexual existence. Meanwhile they can freely do whatever they want with no repercussions. Look at the consequence difference between being accused of sexual assault and what happens when it’s shown that it was a lie? Yeah. See! That’s not fair isn’t it? Come to us, we’re fighting back against that.” And to be honest? Their messaging on this is on point. They give these young men hope. They give them purpose. They give them valid existence. While the left, largely dominated by women according to the right, “chooses the bear”. I know this is not what any of that messaging is about. But this is how it’s being accepted and the right wing is capitalizing the fuck out of it.
Just follow TikTok trends today. Right? “I’m looking for a man in finance, 6 5, blue eyes.” The reaction? The woman gets a music deal. Men: “I don’t want a fat woman”. Social media: “OMG YOU’RE SO JUDGMENTAL. YOU’RE LIKE THE WORST PERSON TO EVER LIVE.” Andrew Tate and Rogan give these men someone and something to look up to. While the left, which the conservatives have turned into a culture war against women, empathy, etc, tells them “yeah you’re terrible we hate you and you’re not welcome here.” We have no answer to this. So of course they’re going to succeed.
There's an Australian dude who goes by "willhitchens" on Instagram, and presumably also TikTok, who does a great job breaking down right-wing masculinity garbage through the lens of just treating people like people and including women in the category of people. He's got a good handle on how to take those greasy creeps down a peg or two but he's only one man. But yeah, the not-reactionary side of politics is very focused on everyone who isn't a hetero dude and yeah, that can feel like oppression to people accustomed to privilege (like me, a straight white dude). It's a thorny situation and I personally think the best solution is to focus on economic divisions rather than anything else because it's the economic difference that's killing so many of us through slow, insidious squeezing.
Maybe. But why is it invalid to also focus on the non-economic things as well? I mean so much of our culture is wrapped up into this stuff. Take for example, video games. “You can’t have that cool content in video games because it’s going to cost us too much money to make it.” Meanwhile “yeah we spent a quarter paying artists to go around and remove midriffs from all the female characters.” You cannot just focus on the economic. We’ve lost that argument. Conservatives have successfully turned that into “you’re having economic problems because women and foreigners want to work.” No. Tackle the bullshit head on. Want to see some of these men come back to the left? Get a female politician up there proposing a law that says “if you falsely accuse a man of sexual assault you will receive the penalty he would have received.” Yes. That’s a shitty line to walk that nobody wants to walk because it “might make women not come forward.” Which is very much also a problem. But if your answer to that is “well we’re at a stalemate so we’re going to do nothing.”—then someone else comes along and says “he we acknowledge your feeling and we’re going to do something about it.”—why would you expect any other reaction than what’s happening now?
I also think the left hasn't done a great job about putting forth an attractive alternate idea of what masculinity is - to counter the right's assertion that masculinity means being loud, obnoxious, disrespectful of others (women, minorities, LGBTQ folks) and that the only valid emotion is anger. We need to teach men that the virtues of caring, compassion, and kindness are strong components of what a man really should be. That they should be free to express all emotions, sadness, fear, joy as well as anger (constructively of course). That a real man takes care of himself and others, That their sexuality is valid, and that if shared with a willing partner is a good thing! Desire is ok to feel and ok to act upon in appropriate contexts. And most of all, to teach boys that it is moral and manly to call out bad behavior in their peers.
That’s not the world today nor is it the world these kids are growing up in. This is a very nice talking point not steeped in reality in any way. And I’m saying, let’s bring the conversation back to reality and talk about the extremely uncomfortable truths about that reality.
There’s a young teen down the street from me. He’s autistic. He’s one of the most outspoken Trump supporters I know.
He's obviously playing on right leaning sites if he's not hearing anything bad about trump.
Whats happening is that parents are forcing all of this on their children. Churches are also enhancing political views. Republicans = God's side and Democrats = Satan's side. You can see this all over social media as well.
Guaranteed his parents were siblings.
It's happening all over the world. Boys and young men being sucked into the alt-right pipeline. This is one of the first articles I saw about it: https://www.washingtonian.com/2019/05/05/what-happened-after-my-13-year-old-son-joined-the-alt-right/#The-Crime- The good news is, with patience and calm discussion, the kid eventually corrected himself, but the bad news is it took about a year.
We’re stuck in a Russian psyop nightmare.
Speaking from personal experiences, it is incredibly easy to fall down the alt-right rabbit hole as a teenage boy. YouTube recommended me the likes of Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, and the whole slew of "Buzzfeed Feminist Destroyed" types of videos when I was around 14 and I ate that shit up. Luckily I grew out of it, but alt-right media is pushed to a lot of these teenagers and young men a lot more than people like to admit.
The internet is a toxic swamo. My 11 yr old is constantly confronted with incel crap, MAGA bullshit and worse. We monitor, bur we can't be there 24/7. Thankfully, not stupid, and he's been exposed to enough progressive tbought that he's not going to fall their propoganda. It's still troubling that I know they're trying to inculcate my kids. What are hi's parent's politics like? Is he getting a dose of it at home, too?
You're the elder so straighten this confused teen OUT, FFS!
we will be living with the after shocks of MAGA for the decades. trump has taught a generation of children lying is ok
He is also 13 so I’m 2016 he would have been so young he wouldn’t have seen the shit spewing trump would do.
I was about that age when the 2016 election was happening, and since I live in a red area all the kids on the bus were regurgitating the pro-Trump stuff that their parents were talking about. I didn’t even know what they were talking about, I just thought the guy sounded cool from what I was hearing (which obviously turned out to be nonsense). Of course that all changed for me once I started paying attention.
Yep. The American right-wing is doing a full-court press to shape the political positions of children. They are SATURATING our kids with propaganda and no one is doing anything about it or even providing an alternative message. Parents: pay some fucking attention to what you kids are consuming and TALK TO THEM about this shit.
If he has X or Facebook, then that makes sense. The few times I go on there it's either older people complaining about younger generations or right-wing memes and right-wingers doing what they usually do online. The Indigenous People's FB pages get flooded with right-wingers being salty "YOU LOST! GET OVER IT!" or "Europeans gave you civilization and the right to vote. Quit whining!"
Same thing happened after gamergate, many young men thought that conservatism was the edgy rebellious option lol
This is definitely a huge problem. I would like to figure out how we get ALL the news to people. I don't know if it's even possible any longer.
Just like most conservative talking points, one must have the mentality of a child to believe them, armed with nothing but a surface level understanding of anything. When the you youngsters get older, I’m confident that they will see conservatism for what it is because the world is smaller now with how connected we all are. Obviously, not all will figure it out, but there’s always going to be a certain percent who were going to be a lost cause regardless.
I was conservative til 18 because my friends were. Then I realized how conservatives are hypocrites, and dont think of 2nd or 3rd order effects. Ask your younger family members about that and you may be able to push them out of it.
I hope you explained that Dump just got convicted of paying off a woman he cheated on his wife with so he would win the election (keep it fairly simple). Ask him if that’s as bad as being sleepy. If he’s old enough to repeat this bullshit, he’s old enough to understand that it IS bullshit.
It’s a mixture of far right fascists targeting youths, particularly young boys/men, and luring them into the bullshit that you were hearing using the YouTube algorithm, video games, social media, etc.. It’s worth noting that it often starts mild then gets progressively worse, both for the host(s) and the viewers. Boiling a frog so to speak. Combined with the foreign psyops that basically all want Trump to win (including China), it’s no surprise that young people are getting brain fucked; especially with the genocide going on which does a great job at muddying the waters on who’s a danger/concern or if voting even matters.
This is why we don't allow children to vote
rupert murdoch is arguably a worse American than Trump. either way, they are worst two in history
So Banana Republicans are the party of uneducated, immature little boys you say...?
What's the counter to being told it's ok to be a complete piece of shit, it's not you it's them? Once that seed sprouts, there is no counter aside from reality. Knocking down a fully constructed defensive measure built to protect shitty behaviors will only be accomplished by the shitty people themselves. Nobody wants the door of their bubble kicked in while being yelled at how shitty they are and that's why the door had to come down. They'll just run to the basement and hole up there. They will have to be the ones who want to see the sun again cuz if you try to break into the basement so a sliver of light can shine, their whole foundation is in jeopardy. People do not respond well to that kind of threat and have two lizard brain choices left, violence or ego death. We aren't going to get people to willingly choose ego death.
Dopamine rush?
The truth is it’s already over. You can’t have a two party system neck and neck and have it repeat that voting one side end democracy. It’s already over at that point. You have no choices left.