There are no easy solutions to this rapidly growing issue but this ^^^^^ is incredibly on point.
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My brothers have all been brainwashed by the extreme right through the internet
- Thread starter BDS
- Start date
That's why "read" is the key word. Not everyone deserves to have their opinion heard, sometimes those types of people just need to listen/read.
If your not over-exaggerating and truly believe this; get some fucking help for him now. If not for his sake or the sake of possible victims, for your own piece of mind so you never have to look back and think "I could have prevented this".
I have to call my younger sibling out on it constantly. My mom's a Trumpster and doesn't pay attention to what my bother consumes on YouTube . He'll be watching some Fortnite shit then all of a sudden the dude says some alt-right shit. I then sit down and ask him if he understands that what the person said/is joking about is awful. He's a real receptive kid though and usually understands when I tell him what he's laughing at isn't a joke and is pretty much trying to brainwash him. He also understands that Trump/republicans hate him because he's half-Mexican and has experienced racism first hand.
Yes, from what I remember of elementary and middle school, there were a lot of kids who needed almost no push to become the people following Nazis on Youtube.
Eh, when I was a teenage I listened to music (and occasionally still do) that most people on this forum would associate with being "right-wing" (aka: country). Love me Toby Keith, even if his shit is corny as hell. Brad Paisley (saw him at Rodeo Houston in 2012, amazing show!), Alan Jackson, pretty much any of the big artists from the past 20 years. Never even thought about voting for McCain, Romney, or Trump though, and only find myself getting more and more leftwing the older I get. I definitely consider myself lucky in the sense that nobody in my family is even remotely conservative, and that's not just me talking about my immediate family, but my extended family as well.
My favorite artist since 2008 has been Rise Against though, so maybe you have a point.
So many people grow up in environments that are conducive to right-wing bigotry. Counteracting it can be so incredibly difficult.
Also, can people stop assuming OP is a man? For fucks sake.
This is it really. It's a life-long process.
Also, can people stop assuming OP is a man? For fucks sake.
There's no failproof solution, OP, but I think your best chance is to get your youngest brother into a good college, especially one with a lot of diversity. One of the best ways of breaking through the conservative bubble is actually interacting with other kinds of people.
Nah, I work with kids/young adults and most of them turn out or will turn out fine. And the stats show that too, world wide people are more liberal and tolerant on average than in the past.
That doesn't mean that everyone will follow this path though, and some will react more and more agressive because the world changes too fast for many people.
The problem with ERA is that it is too predictable, and the youtube guys(and some gals) know that. They will tell you in almost every video to "try and post/say something controversial and see how they dogpile on you". They have the defence mechanisms set up in advance for that sort of stuff.
Neogaf might be too liberal to start. But maybe getting into Giant Bomb or comedy podcasts might help convince the youngest that people left of crazy town aren't the enemy.
I'm so sorry OP. I hope you manage to get some of your family to listen to reason. Is it worth trying to get your youngest brother to consume left wing content on YouTube, like Hbomberguy, ShaunJen or Lindsay Ellis? There's some very good stuff on there which sensibly addresses and destroys far right talking points.
My wife and I have already started teaching our kids (9 and 6) to be tolerant and kind to others no matter who they are. I've told them boys can love boys and girls can love girls if they want. I don't want them to grow up being bigoted or judgmental but I fear how much I'll be able to control this stuff when they hit their teens.
My wife and I have already started teaching our kids (9 and 6) to be tolerant and kind to others no matter who they are. I've told them boys can love boys and girls can love girls if they want. I don't want them to grow up being bigoted or judgmental but I fear how much I'll be able to control this stuff when they hit their teens.
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It makes me worried for my son. He's 9, and is staunchly anti-Trump, but he's got friends that say shit like "build the wall". Peer pressure is a helluva thing, and I do my best to highlight some other friends that are decidedly NOT that way.
I just try to tell him that they're parroting what they hear, and they don't understand it.
I just try to tell him that they're parroting what they hear, and they don't understand it.
I'd say it helps him to confirm his believes more than anything. This is a bad idea
You been on GAF lately? That place is far from liberal. Though I think that might have been a slip on your part.
Yeah, I worked with a group of teens on the autism spectrum and they consumed a lot of hateful shit through the various YouTube (especially gaming related) videos they watched. I tried my best to talk to them about what I could, but it was tough. They were just so easily impressionable
Also OP, I learned that it's crucial to talk with your son/daughter in a early age about what content they watch on social media, especially Youtube, in hopes of showing why certain views are bad. Also it's CRUCIAL to teach love, empathy and respect to them! I had no love from my parents growing up, they never played with me or had fun with me, I almost went down in a really dark path with extreme right, 4chan and the likes because I had not learned what is like to love and have empathy. I was really REALLY fortunate to find a girlfriend who had the patience to show me what empathy is like, coincidentally I also found GAF and the combination of both made me do a 180° on my really ugly views that were also influenced by my family.
But all of this could have been avoided if my parents were to teach me in a early age what is proper communication, love, empathy (crucial), and why certain views are not good.
But all of this could have been avoided if my parents were to teach me in a early age what is proper communication, love, empathy (crucial), and why certain views are not good.
It's not just the internet: Dave down the pub can be just as bad, if not worse, thanks the threat of public peer pressure :/
...do they have Daves over in America?
...do they have Daves over in America?
I am not sure there's any way to avoid the reactions young white men are having. So long as the country is becoming less white, literally and culturally, angry white people will be the norm. And I think it's no coincidence that your father and brothers seem to increase in extremism as you go from oldest to youngest, because it's directly tied to what stage of this demographic shift they have grown up in.
I can totally see your point, but blaming the government for many things is part of the problem and something that the likes of Trump already actively encourage as part of attaining and maintaining control. Of course, blaming only the government would still be preferable to also being racist/sexist.
It's going to be really hard to have any kind of impact on them if the only real authority figure in their lives, and one that they seem to revere, aligns with their viewpoints and/or doesn't care about their more extreme behavior.
Exposing your youngest brother to more people and view points would be a big help. Era could help, I know GAF broadened my viewpoint a ton. But his actions already are quite serious that its hard to say how to even start that given the revulsion he seem to harbor. He has to be open to actually reading and listening to other people, which is not always easy step.
Really sorry you have to deal with this and are so outnumbered and disrespected by your own family.
Exposing your youngest brother to more people and view points would be a big help. Era could help, I know GAF broadened my viewpoint a ton. But his actions already are quite serious that its hard to say how to even start that given the revulsion he seem to harbor. He has to be open to actually reading and listening to other people, which is not always easy step.
Really sorry you have to deal with this and are so outnumbered and disrespected by your own family.
Honestly at 30 I've gone back to listening to Bad Religion. Thank you Republicans for helping me remember how great The Process of Belief is.
I don't think coming here would do anyone any good. Internet forums are awful for actual productive discussions.
Yeah. Even the nicest of Reagan Republicans just tolerate minorities out of politeness. Neoliberalism has no safeguards for sliding into full blown bigotry.
The only cure to things like people en masse adopting a dangerous ideology is a government system like China, where people are severely punished for supporting or believing the "wrong things."
Unfortunately, that system doesn't work morally.
Unfortunately, that system doesn't work morally.
As others have said, I can definitely empathize to some degree. I'm quite literally the only liberal in my family until you get out to like 5th cousins I only see at funerals.
Yeah, I have this in my family, and sometimes it starts to depress me if I think about it too much. Sure, yatta yatta, parents love their kids the same, but I have zero doubt that they like me less.
This. OP, I'm sorry that your brothers have been fostered in an environment that has attracted them towards these ideologies, but unless they are open and willing to be introspective with themselves and question the views they subscribe to, unfortunately they'll continue going down the harmful ignorant path they're on. It seems like they're all resistant to even being open to the possibility of challenging their ignorance/hatefulness.
I think you're right on when it comes to identifying preventative methods in order to nip this stuff in the bud. Parents, especially, need to foster conversation with their children when it comes to sociopolitical issues and set an example. Instill a concept of empathy and morality which seems to be lost on so many people these days. At the end of the day, there are far too many mediums out there available with bad actors peddling inflammatory rhetoric designed to appeal to people like your brothers specifically who refuse to think for themselves or expose themselves to differing viewpoints.
Try and sit down to talk with him. If nothing changes, stop talking to them and make it really clear what is the reason for that. He will either keep those ideas and never talk to you again (which tbh, you'd be better off from it) or he will realize that this kind of behavior is poisonous.
People only learn the extent of their ideas when it directly affects them. I said that by experience, since I came from a small white town and was thrown up on a multicultural big city back in my University days, and of course, I screwed up things for a long time. If today I'm not one of those lunatics that praise racism and homophobia, it's because I got out of my confort zone and faced the consequences of saying dumb shit that, for my upbringing, had never been a big deal.
People only learn the extent of their ideas when it directly affects them. I said that by experience, since I came from a small white town and was thrown up on a multicultural big city back in my University days, and of course, I screwed up things for a long time. If today I'm not one of those lunatics that praise racism and homophobia, it's because I got out of my confort zone and faced the consequences of saying dumb shit that, for my upbringing, had never been a big deal.
Two of them are children.
For a site people in this thread are calling too left wing, there's constantly an overemphasis on personal responsibility over recognizing the impact of large social trends.
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Debates don't work, generally. People dont base their politics based on rationality, not even progressives. They base them on shared values. And values are very, very difficult to debate away.
This thread has largely made me more hopeless about the future. I hope I'm wrong, but how do we as a society get out of this YouTube social media propaganda machine?
There was a study years ago that showed when people are confronted with facts that challenge their beliefs, instead of admitting wrong, they double-down.
All three of my brothers (and both of my parents to an extent, not to mention most of my male childhood friends) have been brainwashed by the far-right so I understand your pain. I was always very close to my brothers and had started to become very close to my parents, but now I just want to move far away and start fresh for my own sanity.
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Education is key, and republicans are actively at war with strong education. republicans love the poorly educated.
the rot extends far beyond youtube, but a start would be to ensure that everyone's basic health and education needs are met
We have to trick our lizard brain. There's also a study which shows that people are more inclined to admit being wrong when they are in good mood. That's why I like to talk with my bro when we play our daily dose of Monhun. Outside of our monster hunting, we nowadays don't talk that much. xp
I actually really think the Punk Rock comment is on point. The arguments now seem to be either "this is truth" or "that is truth", as opposed to "Don't trust anybody and make up your own mind." It's blowing my mind actually, wow.
First, it is practically impossible to monitor a teens internet use. I have 18 year old and 15 year old boys. I do what I can, but they spend as much time out of the home as they do in it these days.
You are correct on the second point and that's where it really works. The best thing you can do for your kids is give them a strong moral compass. This will help them navigate the shit that they are exposed to on a daily basis. We are pretty laid back parents. No strict curfew, no limitations on TV or internet, but if they use "fag", "gay", "retard", "thug", etc, etc. we will bring holy hell on them. I'll let them curse way before I'll ever let them use a slur.
Maybe not the sole thing that did it, but I can vouch for this. I remember starting to get sucked into all the Red-Pill rhetoric until I found Gaf years ago before the split. Seeing other opinions honestly helped me turn mine around.
I despise the section of the site with all my soul and have it on ignore for a damn good reason (I hate politics and anything related to them) but this relates very closely to me and is the reason I am that way to begin with. Hope it isn't bad if I go into my own mini story of sorts.
So one of the main reasons I ban and avoid political shit like the plague is because of the things that you mentioned with your father being something I deal with a daily basis in my house. Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, it's just those two (thank god, it's not the YT far right but it's still just as awful) but my grandmother who saved me from a really rough childhood has completely gotten into those two toxic sources and has tried relentlessly for two years to get me to "see the light" despite saying over 1000X I just wanna play video games or work on something that won't give me anxiety, yet she plays in the car radio when taking me places solely because she's convinced my occasional comments on how I don't want people at the border to die or how the president is a meme that I do not take seriously at all is a sign that I'm part of a bad generation/liberal despite literally marking on my ID that I am unaffiliated. My grandpa voted for the president but isn't a fan of his endless tweeting, and manages to have good standards by hating any sort of vulgar insults that he or Fox News throws out and really just is in a netural mindset, while my grandma has slooowly been drifting towards thinking the country is in the best state in history and that Trump has never made a single mistake in his entire term, which scares me a ton since we still have tons of fun moments together but every day she spends periods of it watching Fox news and ranting about whatever they rant about. It makes me feel like my family is not the same.
Don't even get me started on the hategroups I've seen on the internet like GamerGate making me want even less to do with political crud. There's a reason I like the VG board of this site compared to most other places is because on those sites some people will complain about a girl's skirt being extended by one inch during localization, and treat it as if it's a world-ending situation that somehow warrants them harassing and bugging the developer over it. That's the sad and dangerous part of our culture today is that people think everyone is under attack and that's why hategroups and awful people like Rush, Ben Shaprio, TheQuartering and Milo are taking advantage of younger and older people.
Heck, I still remember being an 8 year old kid, just freshly adopted and finding out episodes of Pokemon were skipped over in the US, and losing my mind due to my favorite show having missing episodes I didn't get to see to the point I became the stereotypical weeb and hated American companies for no reason because I was under the mindset they "Ruined" the show by skipping a measly four episodes. Needless to say, this stupid behavior on my part was quickly punished by my grandparents and teachers, and I got back on track and realized how stupid it was for me to feel that way. So I do agree with those saying parents not taking action is a big cause for this, and your dad should really take care of your siblings to make them not act out this way, especially with the more aggressive ones that are actually dangerous and give off creepy vibes from the sounds of your post. People can change though, although if they've been in it for far too long it's less and less likely. They don't have to be political at all, but they can still avoid getting obsessed with the bigots ruining our society
So one of the main reasons I ban and avoid political shit like the plague is because of the things that you mentioned with your father being something I deal with a daily basis in my house. Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, it's just those two (thank god, it's not the YT far right but it's still just as awful) but my grandmother who saved me from a really rough childhood has completely gotten into those two toxic sources and has tried relentlessly for two years to get me to "see the light" despite saying over 1000X I just wanna play video games or work on something that won't give me anxiety, yet she plays in the car radio when taking me places solely because she's convinced my occasional comments on how I don't want people at the border to die or how the president is a meme that I do not take seriously at all is a sign that I'm part of a bad generation/liberal despite literally marking on my ID that I am unaffiliated. My grandpa voted for the president but isn't a fan of his endless tweeting, and manages to have good standards by hating any sort of vulgar insults that he or Fox News throws out and really just is in a netural mindset, while my grandma has slooowly been drifting towards thinking the country is in the best state in history and that Trump has never made a single mistake in his entire term, which scares me a ton since we still have tons of fun moments together but every day she spends periods of it watching Fox news and ranting about whatever they rant about. It makes me feel like my family is not the same.
Don't even get me started on the hategroups I've seen on the internet like GamerGate making me want even less to do with political crud. There's a reason I like the VG board of this site compared to most other places is because on those sites some people will complain about a girl's skirt being extended by one inch during localization, and treat it as if it's a world-ending situation that somehow warrants them harassing and bugging the developer over it. That's the sad and dangerous part of our culture today is that people think everyone is under attack and that's why hategroups and awful people like Rush, Ben Shaprio, TheQuartering and Milo are taking advantage of younger and older people.
Heck, I still remember being an 8 year old kid, just freshly adopted and finding out episodes of Pokemon were skipped over in the US, and losing my mind due to my favorite show having missing episodes I didn't get to see to the point I became the stereotypical weeb and hated American companies for no reason because I was under the mindset they "Ruined" the show by skipping a measly four episodes. Needless to say, this stupid behavior on my part was quickly punished by my grandparents and teachers, and I got back on track and realized how stupid it was for me to feel that way. So I do agree with those saying parents not taking action is a big cause for this, and your dad should really take care of your siblings to make them not act out this way, especially with the more aggressive ones that are actually dangerous and give off creepy vibes from the sounds of your post. People can change though, although if they've been in it for far too long it's less and less likely. They don't have to be political at all, but they can still avoid getting obsessed with the bigots ruining our society
Honestly you're just enabling their behavior by tolerating it as much as you do. If you're able to live on your own you should just cut them out of your life or do so as soon as you can. Once the garbage that is right-wing America has its hooks in people that deep they won't ever give a fuck until there are real consequences for them. Tell them you don't want anything to do with them and to not talk to you until they get their shit together and don't entertain any nonsense from them.
They'll never be interested in facts or seeing your point of view and debate doesn't work with the right - action is all you have.
They'll never be interested in facts or seeing your point of view and debate doesn't work with the right - action is all you have.
I try to emphasize critical thinking with my kids. We talk about current events a lot, and I encourage them to read multiple sources of news, and to never get their information from randoms on youtube or sketchy websites/blogs. I try to emphasize that they should always be critical of the person or service giving them information. Examine their educational backgrounds, their specialization, their history or reputation in reporting news, etc. Go to multiple reputable news sources, heck, even Fox news is okay to look at as one source among many. But a random youtuber who never even finished college is never a good source for opinion or news.
I wasn't anywhere near that but when I was in high school I was in a similar boat, but that's just because I live in the south and come from a religious conservative background so it just rubbed off of me. It was actually the internet that pushed me away from that because of the people I met. It took some time because I was stubborn but my views changed for the better.
Honestly, this is my worst fear. I'm not a parent and at this point am unlikely to become one, but I just can't think of a way to raise kids to be respectful and introspective enough to realize when they've been brainwashed by people who really shouldn't have a platform to spread their gross views. As someone who grew up before the internet became the cesspool it is now the question of how to avoid bad influences when they are literally a screen tap away bothers me a lot.
Your brothers minus the college graduate are still kids. They'll grow and they'll learn. This isn't the end for them and they're not going to end up the same as your oldest brother.
Sounds like you don't know much about your high school brother besides the disparaging traits you listed. Was he always like this? When was the last time you had any meaningful interactions with him?
Your youngest brother has emotions and he expressed them. That doesn't make him a stupid macho right wing asshole. You made him that angry somehow and there is no doubt he idolizes your cop brother, I'm not too surprised he said what he said about you to your cop brother because in a way he is appealing to cop bro's political stance. You could take this chance to help him understand where you're coming from. Your words will mean much more to him than any idiot on youtube.
Sounds like you don't know much about your high school brother besides the disparaging traits you listed. Was he always like this? When was the last time you had any meaningful interactions with him?
Your youngest brother has emotions and he expressed them. That doesn't make him a stupid macho right wing asshole. You made him that angry somehow and there is no doubt he idolizes your cop brother, I'm not too surprised he said what he said about you to your cop brother because in a way he is appealing to cop bro's political stance. You could take this chance to help him understand where you're coming from. Your words will mean much more to him than any idiot on youtube.