My parents ensiled in me a set of values about respecting other people and treating them well and it worked to inoculate me against some of the bullshit that would have pushed me down that path. That doesn’t mean that I was immune, I was a teenage boy, but that did enough to prevent the worst.
the weird part’s when they did that and now they’re still republicans
I consistently have to tell my mom that the things about my politics that drive her nuts are directly traced to the values she taught me from tiny.
My parents instilled good values in me and are now fox news pilled hardcore MAGA 🤷♂️
Yeah I think the same is true for me. I spent a ton of time online, but I also kept close to my real life friends, and I was brought up Methodist (so a big focus on showing God's example by your actions toward others) and my grandparents constantly hosted international students.
Having real-world roots in knowing that we're all fundamentally human and all deserve the same basic rights *and that it's our job to help ensure that happens* was a big dose of immunity to individualistic, fear-driven right wing propaganda
It’s not a particularly satisfying answer if you’re thinking about it as a political problem, but I know there’s a lot of dads who follow me who are probably worrying about their kids constantly, I know I would be, and I hope it makes them feel a little better.
In my head it’s like how the single best thing you can do for your child’s education is to read to them, and yet some parents just don’t do it. The older I get the more shocking it is how easy and pervasive bad parenting is.
Once again - it’s the parents! The parents matter! The fascist shithead who went to my high school who conned a blind veteran into running against a Democrat on the Legal Weed ballot line also had a dad who sucked ass and fantasized about hurting Black people.
Getting a liberal arts BA was arguably not the best financial/career decision, but I firmly believe that I’m a saner/better person because of it.
I was raised pretty conservative and I reject a lot of it
That’s good, but what about the people who didn’t?
Wish I had a better answer than 🤷♂️ It took me until my 30s and getting out into the greater world beyond my hometown. My general guess is people need to experience a broader, wider world than whatever narrowly defined version of it they get from dad
As a now middle aged parent if i see a kid do or say something fucked up I immediately start to suspect their parents. It’s not 100%, but it’s much more hit than miss. I’ve also realized that some of the worst things I internalized when I was young were things I heard my dad “joking” about.