• GothWhitlam [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I'd be pretty impressed at their internet usage. I mean, shit. The eldest are only 3.

    For reals though, I was an edgy 4Chan kid in highschool, and on the verge of being a full on MRA at 20. The right people at the right time knowing when to let me know they care and when to call me out on my bullshit was what helped. Honestly, I couldn't think of a better description for the job of parent.

    • FunnyUsername [she/her]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      I have a relative who is almost thirty and lives with his mom and pretty much does nothing but play video games and sleep all day. He's into just about every conspiracy you would expect and my family's strategy is just to ignore it at this point because arguing never worked.

      • GothWhitlam [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Yeah, kids can be tough. I had a brother who had to move in with me for a year due to some domestic violence stuff at him (he started hitting my mum).

        He was 15, had heaps of fucked ideas, was skipping school to play video games / smoke weed with his mates and was starting to try out harder shit like meth.

        He's a good egg now. Again, knowing when to care and when to call out bullshit helps. He is left leaning, started seeing a shrink, got himself into a trade instead of going back to school and makes good money as a roofer now. He still smokes a lot of weed, but has burned bridges with the worst of his mates and he helps support my mum who has been in a bit of a rut due to coronavirus related lockdown.

        This isn't saying we've done anything amazing - my partner and I were just there. My Mum had an alcoholic and abusive father, so she never learned to talk to someone. That's all my brother needed. If a kid is going off the rails, there's normally a good reason. If they start down a conspiracy path, that's because they rightly know something is wrong with the world.

        Leftists should see these not as lost causes, but as good points to start bringing someone down the left path. Terminally online people will always fall right if they don't have the supports they need, we can be those supports.