I’d recommend some Scott Galloway. He’s an advocate for young men, but he’s not one of those toxic manosphere types. He’s not exactly a leftist, but he’s certainly a liberal by today’s standards.
this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2024
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Why is his political opinion important for a Christmas present? Just give him something he'd like.
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The more you try to overtly meddle the more the kid will be convinced of their beliefs, reactionaries thrive off disagreement and arguments.
Get them something normal, perhaps something the connects with nature. Your goal should be to get them to connect with you and the rest of the family, you want them too feel like they are part of the in-group.
I don't know how else to show him I love him or that he's a part of this family.
A lot of people recommend anything, outdoors, hiking, camping, dirt bikes etc.
I want to say you have to be careful with those. As you can easily spiral into right wing, conspiracy theorist territory.
Youtube is very good at pushing that kind of content.
Maybe something about food, like cooking classes, or about traveling.
Edit: I developed my comment a bit more below. Hiking isn't a right wing hobby per say. But here is the experience I had with youtube. If you start browsing video about camping and hiking. You will probably start browsing video about solo camping, then survivalism. Then youtube will try to push video about paranormal activities and conspiracies.
So the important part is cut down on social media.
I think a lot of right wing people are people who have travelled very little. If OP can afford it, maybe a trip somewhere with the family.
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Coal. For some reason Republicans love that stuff.
Start with video games. But try to make it a game that has couch co-op so your family can come together.
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holocaust documentary with real footage so he can see what the end consequences of that shit is. if seeing hundreds of naked emaciated corpses getting thrown nto huge mass graves with bulldozers doesn't make him rethink then he's a fucking psycho.
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.
An education?
Das Kapital
I'm not joking or kidding or insincere. I actually don't know what to do.
Get him something related to his interests. It's weird to make Christmas political like this
It sounds like your question is not actually about what to get him for Christmas, but instead about how to cope with the situation and maintain a relationship with your son
Well yeah, "how do i build a lasting relationship with my child before they start throwing me and all my friends in the gulag" is a pretty good question
This is totally valid. Fascism in this country is on extreme high. Especially in schools and other public places due to how the government uses propaganda at schools and banning everything related to being a good person.
I don't know the situation so it's hard to recommend anything besides education, remember that there human and make mistakes, don't dictate but strongly suggest ways that what there learning is fundamentally wrong. I have no kids. But whatever happens remember there human. And being accepting and loving can go a long way.
- subscription to Brilliant
- museum card (go with him)
- trip abroad
- night out to stand up comedy
- tickets to an anime convention
Edit: maybe get him a busuu, rosetta stone, or duolingo subscription so that he can learn a new language, and maybe the desire to travel to experience life outside of the country, learn about new cultures and people, and so on.
To be honest brilliant seemed so cool to me like 7 years ago and I got a subscription and found that I basically learnt nothing from it even though I spent hundreds of hours.
It’s good at making you “feel” like you’re learning but it’s pretty bad at actually teaching things.
A textbook will go so much further.
- Did that
- Did that (to Bali for graduation)
- that didn't well
- Uh... Haven't tried that yet.
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.
- Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread (1892)
- Murray Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom (1982)
- Abdullah Öcalan, Democratic Confederalism (2011)
While those are cool books you’re not going to turn a facist kid leftist by gifting them anarchist books they aren’t ever going to want to read.
Especially when their radicalisation likely came from the instant gratification of social media.
They probably feel like the odd one out. Feelings of loneliness can often lead to this kind of radicalisation. You want to make the kid feel loved. Gifting them books from your ideology is pretty much the worst thing you could do (unless it’s some sort of “side gift”). Because it’s basically screaming “I’m not going to get you anything you want unless you change for me” — aka. I do not love you unconditionally, which a kid never wants to hear
The article doesn't mention this, so I am adding that you can also read that annotated version online for free at https://www.mein-kampf-edition.de/ (but only in German; not sure if there are annotated translations into other languages, I never checked because German is my first language).
My 1st thought as well
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.
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...)
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?
Animal farm, too.
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if he likes ayn rand, i would suggest bioshock: rapture by john shirley
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.
By “fascist” you mean “supports ethnic cleansing”, or “doesn’t agree with me on every single political issue”?
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Perhaps if u talked to ur son abput his beliefs and didnt invalidate his opinions simply because u disagree u might both learn a little and grow as people. Calling ur son a fascist is only going to make him more steadfast in his beliefs.
Trying to force him to believe what u want instead of teaching him to think fof himself and excercise his free will to develop his own identity separate from what u told him might be a wise idea.
As for what to get him for Christmas how about sonthibg unrelated to politics that he legitimately wants. Go speak to him and ask him.
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........a ballgag?
I'd suggest NOT giving him more liberalism, since that has already demonstrated the predictable outcome.
Indeed. Perhaps a positive reinforcement?