Kick him out of the house… This trick always worked like magic back in the day when boomers didn’t like something their high schooler did.
So forcing the kid to literally join the KKK?
Bad idea.
That’s literally what fascist parents do to their gay and trans kids. Great fucking plan.
Yes, this never happened to CIS white male 🤡
It was just an example
Ignore all the joke answers here. It seems insensitive given the subject matter. He’s probably lonely and feeling left out. If he has siblings it’s all the more likely. I was an alienated teenager who was in a place similar to your son I think. I eventually realized I and many others we’re being used to further the agenda of some unsavory fucks who wanted to send us back to the 1860’s. Try to show him how much he means to you. Let him know you care about him. Just don’t drive him away, Show some love and compassion and he’ll realize he’s drinking the kool-aid eventually I think. Hope this helps, good luck!
Also, should work with him emphasizing that politics isn’t really about having a party but before that, having an ethos. At the end of the day you need to evaluate how your ethos aligns with the parties actions, not ideas. I can’t believe anyone today is conservative as I had once known them because I know the GOPs actions align only with obtaining power. Unless your ethos is “fuck you i got mine” the GOP offers you nothing. Which also means that you’ve already got yours. Which, looking at conservatives, I have my doubts. And if they don’t have theirs, well then it’s just, “fuck you.” Which I can understand why a teenager would feel that way.
Barry Goldwater wouldn’t recognize what his party has become. He tried to warn them. He pretty much predicted the rise of Christian nationalism.
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.” - Barry Goldwater
I know almost zero about berry goldwater but know with a stark certainly you will never catch a current conservative saying anything like that. To think, goldwater was probably as prominent a figure as john mccain.
He was the Republican presidential candidate in 1964. He ran against Lyndon B. Johnson. He was a very well respected man in the party. I’m not going to pretend he’s the greatest politician of all time. I definitely have ideological differences but I respect him for what he fought for.
Just out of curiosity, do you know what drew him to this line of thinking in the first place? Any particular media he’s consumed? Knowing how one first enters into fascism can help in undoing that damage.
It’s usually far-right dipshits on social media who disguise racism, sexism, transphobia as comedy. Gavin McInnes for example. I hate that fuck.
Probably overbearing parents trying to force an ideology down his throat without letting him developed hia own identity and personal philosophy. Trying to force anything upon someone will always lead to them rebelling. Same as conservative parents trying to force their gay kids to be strait. The irony is palpable.
You came up with an awful lot of assumptions based on absolutely zero evidence. Sounds exactly like the type of critical thinking one should expect from somebody who seems to tolerate children being indoctrinated into fascism.
I made 1 singular assumption. That being op thinks his son is a fascist when i fact he most likly is only slightly right wing and a Trump supporter at worste. I heighly doubt he is calling for a extermination of people like an actuall fascist.
You assumed the kid’s parents are pushing their beliefs on him. You assumed he was struggling to form his own identity. You assumed he is rebelling. You assumed OP equates conservatism to fascism.
Every part of what you wrote was an assumption, chief.
I would say, a good conversation. Listen to him, ask question, don’t be too judgemental (and that can be hard). But also accept, that for a big part, you can’t form/force his way of thinking. In the end he has to find his own way in life.
I used to be heading down this path as a teenager. For me, college was the eye opener. When I broke away from my normal bubble of people, I would have my opinions and biases challenged.
I like the travel suggestion as well. Also I went to some music festivals around that time that were pretty significant to my beliefs. I guess it depends on the type of music they prefer though.
I’m not right leaning, but I live in a right leaning area, and I think most all of us could stand a bit of time back in nature. So here’s what I would consider.
- A hunting or fishing license and classes
- A long weekend camping in the woods
- A trip to a national park
- Boat license lessons
- A craft class at a local Uni, like welding or pottery. They’re usually pretty cheap and a lot of fun
- A rafting trip
Not knowing him at all nor what he likes, perhaps a guitar and guitar lessons. That’s something I truly enjoyed in my late teens/early 20s. Or tickets to a music show or comedian he likes.
I would advise against hunting, fishing, and boating. I’m part of that community and it’s mostly racist older men. You can find progressives like me, but most people he would encounter would just reinforce the kind of ideology you’re trying to steer him away from.
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Coal
No! That’s what they want!
The wicked have enough coal
Hell, its making them rich!
unironically, some books on philosophy and more broad political sciences.
Assuming he isn’t the stupidest person in the room at any given time, some good reading on philosophy and sociological structures (politics) will be interesting.
Don’t ask me for recommendations, there are better places to go, and im sure a few people here will have good recommendations.
education is the single biggest thing preventing people from being more educated, funny how that works really.
Gen Z men that fall for the machismo of “hustling” just can’t conceptualize the amount of financial difference between them and their idols. Get him something he can work towards making a hobby and hope that you can talk to him about why he thinks the way he does; listen and try to empathize and offer him an alternative solution to what he has forged for himself.
If he’s consuming right wing social media, it might be because he’s bored. Others have suggested left wing media, but maybe just finding other activities to do would help. These cost money, but maybe camping/hiking, hobby electronics/combat robots, dirt bikes/go-karts, RC planes/drones or metal fabrication are ideas that come to my mind. These are hobbies that have either politics neutral or left leaning communities. If he picks up that you’re trying to politically influence him, he’ll likely dig his heal in.
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Some kids adopt an edgy political identity as a form of protest or rebellion. I can see this being the case here, especially if your whole family is particularly left-leaning. Kid wants to feel like he has an autonomy over his own decision making and that he’s not just a carbon copy of you or his siblings, so he becomes a contrarian.
As a teen I was also taken in by extremist political ideology on 4chan, but the thing that snapped me out of that is, surprisingly enough, my curriculum at school focusing heavily on critical thinking and problem solving as essential skills. That’s unfortunately not something that can easily be condensed down into a gift-sized package. I’m sure there are some books out there that can help, but I worry that it might be too on-the-nose or that he might just not like reading much to be interested in dry subject matter like philosophy or political science.
I kind of agree with other posters here that taking a family trip somewhere, maybe not explicitly as a gift for him, but as an experience for all of your children, will expose him to stimuli that drastically differ from the way he currently sees the world, which is influenced by a nonstop stream of fearmongering propaganda and a lack of perspective of what a world outside the town or city he grew up in actually looks like.
Is he into music? The retro devices seem to be in right now. I got my nephew one year a Walkman and he’s been buying cassettes. Now he has a VCR and collecting tapes. I loved all that mechanical stuff when I was a kid and I think that feeling transcends generations. He just needs a hobby to spend his thoughts with, politics are not worthy of our time.
Give him a book by Robert Nozick, so he discovers what coherent conservative philosophy sounds like
Ooooh he’s a huge reader. anarchy state and utopia? I’d like a specific suggestion. He’s a huge Ayn Rand fan.
edit: I am very excited about your response because my son is too smart for the usual deprogramming tacks, but steering him away from fascism in any way would be great.
if he likes ayn rand, i would suggest bioshock: rapture by john shirley
Oh god Ayn Rand? I’m surprised he has the attention span. Yeah Anarchy State and Utopia.
Steel man his perspective. Give him something he finds interesting which will also teach him to develop his argumentation.
Give him 1984 so he can understand where authoritarianism leads.
EDIT: who the fuck downvoted this? How is teaching a kid about the horror of authoritarianism a bad thing?
Honestly it’s a very lazy tack. Imagine what would actually happen if you are a young conservative and your leftist aunt or whatever gives you 1984.
Animal farm, too.
Of course good shout
In the context of Lemmy, my best explanation is that tankies hate Orwell.
Do they not see the irony in that?
Is your kid into The Smiths? Back In The Day, all the Ayn Rand fans I knew were pretty annoying, but we could agree that The Smiths made some great music. So maybe get your kid some Smiths albums or a t-shirt or something.
(do kids still do albums these days? also, I know Morrisey has made some questionable statements, but we’re talking about reaching out to a fascist here…)
An extremely late term abortion
Nah. Kids are easily influenced.
You take 100 kids and feed nazi propaganda all the time. 99 of them will become nazis.
We all hate nazis, but if you were put in the same environment as the nazi, chances are, you’ll become a nazi.
Dunno. Look at how few Jews under 30 are Zionists, despite the brainwashing attempts they’re bombarded with
Maga hat and the tshirt with Trumps mug shot or the picture after he got shot
