Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What happened after my 13-year-old son joined the alt-right

washingtonian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 514 posts

Re: What happened after my 13-year-old son joined the alt-right

#61

Post by opportune »

i_am_proteus wrote: post #33
boapnuaput wrote: post #19

Fascism is seductive. It has little idological substance aside from that needed to apologize for promoting the ethnostate, and instead operates on style and spectacle. We let our teenagers become broadcasters, influencers, reviewers, and players, but failed to teach them how to avoid being parasocially suckered, influenced, gaslit, and used as pawns. Perhaps we need to craft an educational system which is more substa…

Fewer members of this generation are learning ethics through religion. I'm not religious and I don't believe that religion is necessary for ethics, but I do recognize that religion was a traditional vehicle for introducing young people to an ethical system. Grade-school civics is one solution, but I think there are some other family- and community-based ways (religious or otherwise) we can raise the next generation w…

There can also be secular ethics classes in early high school. I had one in my private school. We covered virtue ethics, deontological ethics, utilitarianism and briefly outline some modern material. Won't give people a great understanding but should at least introduce them to the concept and give them a foundation they can use to learn more

Re: What happened after my 13-year-old son joined the alt-right

#62

Post by sarcasmOrTears »

longerthoughts wrote: post #57
sarcasmOrTears wrote: post #32

[flagged]

>Truth is you're all a bunch of totalitarians who want impose your ideas and don't like free speech You can support free speech without supporting all of the things people choose to do with it.

[flagged]

Re: What happened after my 13-year-old son joined the alt-right

#63

Post by threeseed »

boapnuaput wrote: post #19

Fascism is seductive. It has little idological substance aside from that needed to apologize for promoting the ethnostate, and instead operates on style and spectacle. We let our teenagers become broadcasters, influencers, reviewers, and players, but failed to teach them how to avoid being parasocially suckered, influenced, gaslit, and used as pawns. Perhaps we need to craft an educational system which is more substa…

Also offers someone to blame for the problems that matter most to young males.

No girlfriend ? Race mixing and feminists.

Poor upbringing ? Foreigners.

Lack of respect ? Political correct culture.

Re: What happened after my 13-year-old son joined the alt-right

#64

Post by _yt0l »

GreaterFool wrote: post #26
GreaterFool wrote: post #8

Why are Americans so obsessed with Nazis? I mean, I'm from Europe and I don't recall growing up worrying about everyone being a secret (or overt) Nazi, which, unless promptly punched in the face, would somehow take over. WWII and Nazis destroyed Europe. Are Europeans worried about Nazis? Not as far as I can tell. Yet all I see from American news is Nazis this Nazis that. Can someone explain?

What does flagged mean on HN? Not sure why my comment got down-voted so fast. It's a genuine question. If people can't agree on what Nazi means we should ban the word altogether since it has loaded political context and doesn't foster proper discussion. It appears to me that: 1) Some use Nazi to mean Nazi Party with proper historical context 2) Some use Nazi as tool to bludgeon anyone they don't like 3) Some use Nazi…

It’s impossible to have a balanced discussion in which all sides on a controversial topic are viewed at face value when the format of the forum promotes and hides content based on popularity. /pol/ could never have existed if it had upvotes and downvotes, for instance.

Re: What happened after my 13-year-old son joined the alt-right

#65

Post by bytematic »

That was a great article, I think this is a big problem right now. I'm not sure how I would handle it as a parent.

Two things that stood out to me were the principal/officers at the public school and how they dealed with that situation, or even the girl that reported Sam. I wonder if they know what they created.

Also this part: "I liked them because they were adults and they thought I was an adult. I was one of them,” he said. “I was participating in a conversation. They took me seriously. No one ever took me seriously—not you, not my teachers, no one. If I expressed an opinion, you thought I was just a dumbass kid trying to find my voice. I already had my voice.”

Does every kid just go through this phase, whether it is happening or not, how best to navigate it?

Re: What happened after my 13-year-old son joined the alt-right

#67

Post by gatherhunterer »

> Sam’s guidance counselor pulled him out of his next class and accused him of “breaking the law.” Before long, he was in the office of a male administrator who informed him that the exchange was “illegal,” hinted that the police were coming, and delivered him into the custody of the school’s resource officer. At the administrator’s instruction, that man ushered Sam into an empty room, handed him a blank sheet of paper, and instructed him to write a “statement of guilt.”

It is not surprising that it started with someone whose lack of ability to respond caused them to resort to the most extreme measures, thinking that nothing could be worse than doing too little. They have a lot in common with the disillusioned youth whose hateful ideology they were stoking.

These adults saw a child as an easy adversary and jumped at the opportunity to get a win and sing their own praises. Bureaucrats make poor educators and poorer law enforcers.

Re: What happened after my 13-year-old son joined the alt-right

#68

Post by ambicapter »

boapnuaput wrote: post #19

Fascism is seductive. It has little idological substance aside from that needed to apologize for promoting the ethnostate, and instead operates on style and spectacle. We let our teenagers become broadcasters, influencers, reviewers, and players, but failed to teach them how to avoid being parasocially suckered, influenced, gaslit, and used as pawns. Perhaps we need to craft an educational system which is more substa…

What is "ideological substance"?

Re: What happened after my 13-year-old son joined the alt-right

#69

Post by krapht »

sarcasmOrTears wrote: post #51
tarsinge wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

I think you're using the word "alt-right" wrong. When other people use it, they're talking about the people who marched in Charlottesville, and lurk on freerepublic and Stormfront. A free nation for a certain pale skin tone, and those blacks and yellows can go be proud Africans and Asians on their respective continents. But not red people, we already took their land, so they can suck eggs.

Re: What happened after my 13-year-old son joined the alt-right

#70

Post by philliphaydon »

mirimir wrote: post #39

> Sam pledged fealty to the idea of men’s rights because, as he said, his former administrator had privileged girls’ words and experiences over boys’, and that’s how all of his troubles had started in the first place. I wonder how common this dynamic is now.

Hasn’t it always been like this? When I was at middle school, the Teachers used to lock the classrooms during lunch time, and I had some tennis balls in my desk so I asked my teacher for the key. She gave me the key and said “just get your things and don’t forget to lock the door, so not let anyone else in the room”. When I left the room one of the girls from the class tried to enter. I stood in the doorway because she refused to let me out and tried to push past me. I told her to ask the teacher for the key because she told me not to let anyone in. She tried to shove me, but I didn’t budge. She then went to the teacher and told the teacher I kicked her. I then got told off, sent to the principal, and my parents called, and forced to write a written apology to the girl for kicking her. The only person who believed my version of the events was my dad. This would be like 20 years ago now.

I would say believing girls/women is more common now.

Post reply on HN