No Stupid Questions

Have your son travel, sending him off to see how other people live and how cheerful and helpful most people are is probably going to open his eyes.

1. Puerto Rico, Bahama’s, St Lucia, British Virgin Islands are all fairly safe and you can mix and mingle with the locals. Just don’t stay somewhere where you will only stay on the resort. Get a hotel or resort in the middle of a community

I had a wonderful time in St Luca several years ago and stayed at the resort below. It’s a small resort in the middle of a town with lots of interaction with locals.

https://coco-resorts.com/

We really need better terms than facist or nazi. People keep confusing the meaning of the words because its all we have for description of this thoughtset. There might be some overlap, but unless it 100% fits it just creates opportunities for people to be confused and issue to get muddied by pointless arguments and misunderstandings.

For some time i have thought this type of thoughtset as "dark humanity", but i'm not sure how fitting term it is and it feels kind of over dramatic. It just feels like humans are fundamendally split about one or more core issues, with some in the middle too. Though i'm also worried that making such clear distinction would also make the separation more solid. The issues also need more defining.

Why we need better terms is that we need to be able to confront these people without insulting them as first thing, otherwise we are just aiding the enemy by pushing them further in. Calling someone nazi or facist only hurts if there is any chance to save them. Its no better than calling someone libtard.

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair.

A turd.

If you want something that he would enjoy, Mein Kampft.

I mean, I'm sure at this point he has been exposed to most literature and works to not be a fascist, this won't get fixed with a gift. Maybe try to have a 1 on 1 conversation with him, let him speak an express why he thinks like that, let him go deep, let him talk about his feelings. Fascism always root on untrue information and resent. If he respects you, you can then talk about where he is wrong, confront the lies, but embrace him as a person.

If you want to win your son back, it will take real work, respect, and love. These people get lied to, and they believe because they are full of resent and want an explanation, someone to pin all the problems, an enemy. Uprooting that is hard, but sometimes family and friends can do it. If family and friends deepen those core beliefs, nothing is going to change.

Source: When I was younger, I was that stupid too. Friends made me realize it.

A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Some political theory, then read it yourself so you can stop being a liberal /j

Gen Z men that fall for the machismo of "hustling" just can't conceptualize the amount of financial difference between them and their idols. Get him something he can work towards making a hobby and hope that you can talk to him about why he thinks the way he does; listen and try to empathize and offer him an alternative solution to what he has forged for himself.

As a lefty who received "gifts" from her conservative parents, let me suggest giving the gift separate from a major holiday. Something I wish my parents had done that could work as a gift of sorts for you would be to take your son out for coffee or breakfast. Nothing fancy, preferably not busy. Talk to them about why they think what they do. Don't combat them, just try to understand. Ask them if they would be comfortable talking more after you've had time to think about what they said.

"Hey [child's name], you know that we have strong beliefs about certain subjects. We feel we have good reasons to believe the things we do, but there are smart people in the world who disagree with us. You are a smart kid, and that is reflected in the way you look for answers to problems that the way you have been brought up to think hasn't offered a solution for. It would mean the world to your mom and I to know out son better, what are some things you've thought deeply about recently?"

I don't know how else to show him I love him or that he's a part of this family.

Coal

does he like music? see if theres any old punk shows around or any records/vinyls if he likes that at all. sex pistols, dead kennedys, hell, even green day.

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)

Annotated Mein Kampf:

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/04/annotated-version-of-hitlers-mein-kampf-a-hit-in-germany.html

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.

A copy of mein craft

I'm a millenial but one of my most conservative friends has parents who are total left wing hippies. Sometimes kids end up rebelling or defining themselves in opposition to certain aspects of their family members.

I'd be curious about what makes him different from the others. There's been some research regarding fluid intelligence* vs. crystalized intelligence, where liberals tend to be more on the fluid side. It kind of makes sense because rather than trying to figure out what they can't understand off the bat, conservatives tend to rage against it.

As far as gifts, I dunno. Maybe a puzzle game? I don't know what's big in the puzzle game world now, if anything. The idea is make your son more comfortable with the idea of tackling novel problems instead of trying to cram them into an existing framework.

*it's called "intelligence" but I tend to think of it more like a thinking strategy. Fluid intelligence being "can I think of a way to solve this?" while crystallized intelligence is "what strategy that I'm familiar with already can solve this?"

• 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.

unironically, some books on philosophy and more broad political sciences.

Assuming he isn't the stupidest person in the room at any given time, some good reading on philosophy and sociological structures (politics) will be interesting.

Don't ask me for recommendations, there are better places to go, and im sure a few people here will have good recommendations.

education is the single biggest thing preventing people from being more educated, funny how that works really.

The best gift will be the same understanding, acceptance, and love you show all your kids.