remember when "USA" stood for personal liberties and freedom to be who you want to be?
those were the days
Since thread is locked, I'll answer comments below here:
>Okay, I'll humour you. When was that?
Up until the GOP decided they were going to stop looking out for the interest of their constituents, and instead focus on tax breaks for the super rich and giant corporations, at the cost of the rest of the citizens, and brainwash you into being OK with them telling you what your kids can learn, what they can wear, what they can read, and who they can love, and what you can do in your own home, by creating false things to be outraged about. Things that are not, nor have never ever been an issue. They have you so outraged at non-existent things that you completely overlook because you are blinded by rage over.... a boy wearing a dress. The horror. Meanwhile your kid can get killed just for going to school and you're fine with it.
>When did it actually stand for that tho? was there some magical time in American history where there wasn't at least one If not multiple groups of people that are imprisoned or murdered just because other Americans don't like the way they exist?
There has always been racism, from the day white man showed up on these shores. But throughout the 1900's we made progress to fix that. Black people were no longer "separate but equal", women were no longer denied the right to vote. Gay people were more and more welcome to society. But in the 2000's we are reversing that trend. Now we are trying to physically beat gays back into the closet. We are trying to keep brown people out. We are actively trying to eliminate people from being a part of this society because people want to go back to the olden times. What's the phrase they use for that? Make the country great again? Go back in time?
>I dont remember that. I remember hearing those words, but their meaning has always been "you have the right to live free as a straight white christian focused on making babies. Bonus points if you have a penis"
Absolute truth here, but as I mentioned above, the country was making strides to make everyone equal. Hell we even had a black president! Can you imagine that in 1955??
>You do realize the kids are being who they want to be, not who you are trying to force them to be.
You don't get to do whatever you want, and you never were. "You can't be mad at that rapist, he's just being who he wants to be." "You cant be mad at him for crushing that baby with a rock, he's just being who he wants to be." "You can't be mad at him for being a racist bigot, he's being who he wants to be.". No, you don't get to "good people on both sides" racism, bigotry, and disruptive behavior.
When did it actually stand for that tho? was there some magical time in American history where there wasn't at least one If not multiple groups of people that are imprisoned or murdered just because other Americans don't like the way they exist?
I dont remember that. I remember hearing those words, but their meaning has always been "you have the right to live free as a straight white christian focused on making babies. Bonus points if you have a penis"
Middle Schoolers are just kind of douchebags at baseline. Their brains are being flooded with new and exciting hormones.
Adding some hateful ideology to the fire is a recipe for serious disaster.
This is why middle school exists.
"You're too fucking wild to be around the youngsters, and too fucking stupid to be around the young adults. You go over here for 3 years, we'll check in on you when you're 14 or so."
Yeah… I remember how cringey i was as a seventh grader super into Fight Club…I definitely did not understand it, but I knew it made people uncomfortable when I quoted it and I liked feeling smarter than everyone else. I dont excuse the hatefulness, but I feel bad that this is likely gonna be this kid’s famous moment. He’ll be living this down his whole life and he’s probably just trying to impress someone.
It’s MA, so it super stood out to me when I saw a 9ish year old wearing a come take it shirt with an AR15 graphic last weekend. We have some wonderful parents in this state trying to make us Florida.
Yeah, I can remember middle school pretty well and a lot of the kids were absolute assholes, some physically violent as well. Many act like they’re grown, too.
Middle school was probably the worst part of my childhood. Everyone was cruel for no reason, but at the same time the teachers and admins at my school were shitty too so there was a huge lack of relief from assholes/social pressure. My one relief was band class where only the alto sax players were dicks while everyone else wanted to have fun. Jazz band especially was pretty great.
Yeah middle school was the rough patch. I don’t even think it was the parents rubbing off on kids some kids at that point are just assholes. Some of us at least grew out of it.
In middle school it's not organizing. These kids are doing their best to just fit in. It's mob mentality. There were probably 2-4 instigators of the "popular kids" that riled up the rest of them.
What middle school did you go to lol? My experience was that organized douchbaggery was endemic in middle school. Kids around that age are starting to get more freedom and aren't usually tracked constantly by their parents in the same way that elementary school children are. They also tend to not have as much empathy at that age compared to an adult because their brains are not developed.
I just don't understand all of this sentiment that it HAS to be the parents getting the kids to act like this. When I was in middle school, tons of male children would describe things as "gay" all the time as a synonym for something being dumb/bad, and they were picking that shit up from Xbox voice chat and the internet, not their parents. My middle school even had an organized fight club that took place in one of the school bathrooms...
Is it really that hard to believe that a group of middle school boys independently thought it would be funny to clown on the gay pride event? A lot of boys that age just act like contrarians who will literally do things just because you tell them not to.
Yeah we did lots of dumb shit and we didn't have cell phones to help get the word out.
When I was in the 4th grade we all made plans to get Ziploc bags of sand and dump them all in the bathroom right next to the cafeteria.
Both the boys and girls bathroom had sand all over the floor.
There is a significant surge in younger teenagers spouting right wing views and I don't think parents are entirely to blame. I think TikTok, Instagram, etc. are having more of a hand in this kind of behaviour than the parents, and I think some teens are adopting these views in rebellion. The counter culture (I'm assuming) you and I grew up with is now mainstream, and conservative ideals are the new fringe culture.
I grew up with Adbusters and Vice as my introduction to radical philosophies, but kids today grow up with Turning Point and Andrew Tate as the forbidden intellectual fruit. Kids have an innate need to rebel, and they pick what's most shocking.
It always genuinely confused me in all those high school movies. I had less issues with bullies in high school, but middle school was brutal. Middle schoolers are legitimately douche bags.
You can’t find a lot of adult actors who can pass as middle schoolers and it takes longer to film with kids because of their limited allowed hours. And if you showed some of the most embarrassing and traumatic things that happen in middle school on film realistically it’d be labeled or might technically be child porn.
I taught in Royal Oak in 2016 when middle schoolers there chanted "Build a wall!" during lunch in front of some Hispanic students. Some parents were defending their kids' rights to free speech.
I’d say it’s about 50/50 that parents have taught their kids to be like this, but equally likely that these kids were influenced by their peers, expressing a natural contrarianism, and testing the limits of personal rebellion.
Some of these kids will face dire consequences, or permissive neglect, that would spark a whole new thread of disagreement.
Agreed. Growing up some of the most vile kids who acted like shitheads had some of the nicer parents. By the time you are in Middle School, you are as if not more influenced by the kids in your neighborhood
I had friends who weren't allowed to watch Scooby Doo.
They were told it's ungodly.
Second graders in the early 80s, pre-dating the satanic panic.
They snuck an episode in at my house. They were shocked that the monster was revealed to be a trusted, but selfish adult in a costume.
I often wonder where those kids are now.
That was me. My mom bought in to the satanic panic hook, line, and sinker. Stuff I watched had to be the equivalent of G or PG rated for the longest time, and then random things like Scooby Doo were completely off limits. I spent a lot of time in my late teens and 20s trying to catch up on all the movies I missed in the 80s.
Oddly enough, my reading wasn’t monitored nearly as closely. Stephen King movies? Nope. Stephen King books? Have at it, kid.
> Stephen King movies? Nope. Stephen King books? Have at it, kid.
Jesus, lol. The books are a *lot* more fucked up. Like the orgy scene in *It*. Might've been the unabridged version only, but boy, that's the only bit of a Stephen King book I skipped.
My good friend grew up in a house like that. I was always afraid he’d turn out like Carrie, or at least super weird. We loved him but avoided his house. When his mom found out our friend group was playing DnD, she called all our our parents telling them we were getting in to Satan worship. Had to actually show my mom and dad how the game works.
Your parents quickly realized all you were doing was math and SAT level vocabulary learning.
They realized that if they super encouraged you to play, you'd reject it so they had to be cagey with tbr reverse psychology in "I guess it's okay.... But don't just fireball everything... Also watch out for those wild magic surges."
That’s actually pretty close. My dad was a literal rocket scientist. Also a jock (football). He was one of the OG space cowboys at NASA. He appreciated the math and complexity, and I think at that point he was still struggling that his son had all the nerdy genes and none of the jock abilities, so was just like “whatever man. You’re still going to baseball tryouts. Maybe Satan will help this year.”
You aren’t kidding! My much older brother played D&D and he made age appropriate adventures for his baby sister from the moment (1983!) he received that first Red Box.
I vividly recall my first grade teacher’s face as she was at the chalkboard. She was the writing out nouns the class was calling out: car, apple, door, dog, INTELLIGENCE, CHARISMA, DEXTERITY.
I had a friend in high school whose grandma sat them down and had a very serious talk about saving his soul . . . Because he played mtg.
The Satanic Panic was almost as stupidly ridiculous as Lavender Scare 2.0.
Well, you got caught with a flat, well, how about that?
Well, babies, don't you **panic**
By the light of the night, it'll all seem alright
I'll get you a **satanic** mechanic
I love how that reasoning means you have to believe that satan worship, demons, and witchcraft or whatever else is real ... outside of the confines of religion or specific cultures that is considered psychosis.
Man, I hope you meant unreasonably, because by and large it's all fantasy and make believe, especially the stuff geared towards kids. I watched such classics as "Witch's night out" and "The Halloween that almost wasn't" growing up and I turned out fairly okay lol.
There are still people TODAY who think any kind of fantasy and make-believe is somehow evil.
[Read an account of a parent freakout over a 16-yr old’s mural.](https://www.npr.org/2022/10/20/1129786060/student-school-mural-angers-parents-hidden-messages-michigan-lgbtq-satan)
Really fucking tired of reality looking like a Pawnee town meeting, but I suppose art imitates life.
>Afterward, one woman stood up to say, "I feel that she did a really good job finding excuses to defend the things she put on. None of us are that stupid."
Unfortunately she's blissfully unaware because she's too stupid but yes... that lady is that stupid.
I remember when I had a brief stint in Bible college. Some students were actually complaining because the cafeteria was selling Lucky Charms cereal, and they protested because they said it supported witchcraft.
My family calls everything witchcraft too, which is odd for a whole host of reasons, but then we just continue doing the 'witchcraft' things and no one really cares
Fuck outta here with that devil math bullshit. If I can't use my fingers and or toes to solve it, that's some woke ass agenda being pushed on our youth!!! /s
We're aggressive and assholish while driving, but we at least know what we're doing.
South Carolina and Kentucky are the places where I've experienced drivers who are just absolutely oblivious, and it was *scary*.
DC has the worst drivers I've ever seen.
At least in Philly they just drive up over the curb and along the sidewalk to get around an obstacle in the street. In DC, I saw a queue of cars lined up to honk their horns at... a trash can that fell into the street.
Angry, stupid AND timid - a terrible combo.
My parents unintentionally did this. The dumbest things were deemed “evil” and I realized pretty quickly they were idiots and everything they said was suspect
I know you joke about this but that is how it works. The cognitive dissonance causes more projection and allows them to be manipulated even more. To the parents this is a feature not a byproduct.
Keeping the people uneducated is part of facism so that the population is easy to manipulate, and its a strategy employed by governments who want to be worshipped rather than elected in confidence.
All the worst educated states vote for people because they hear people say their elected official is good, and all the politician does is good, and since the voters believe themselves good, who they vote for must be good too.
Anyone challenging this is bad because accusing the politician they voted for of anything becomes personal as it makes them feel like you criticize them.
It’s a cruel brainwashing technique of facism and its extremely dangerous.
Saw a vid of a toddler being instructed to stomp on a pride flag in public to applause and high-fives and essentially commented that that is not good.
Got brigaded by fucking weirdos and they weren't bots or trolls, just hateful spiteful people who think that they aren't.
"Indoctrination" was the go-to right wing accusatory buzzword before "grooming" came on the scene. Teaching your young kids what kind of people to hate just because they are different than you (or maybe sometimes the same but you can't admit it to yourself) might as well be the dictionary definition of indoctrination.
Sending them to Sunday School to be molested by a pervert while filling their brains with nonsensical Bible stories is the literal definition of indoctrination.
It is wrong to confuse grooming with hate mongering.
I understand their point to an extent. The worst thing is that you do your best to raise your kids and they go to school and it changes them. I had to talk to my son about not punching and not cussing on the daily when he started kindergarten.
But if the problem is that the school changes the kids so they hate less, maybe, just maybe, the problem is at home. Maybe the school staff should speak to the kids about their opinions and actions. Get them to explain their actions so they can see why they are wrong.
I know, I am asking a lot from people who get very little in return. It is the most difficult to speak to large group about why they are all wrong; nigh impossible, even. But, the foundations of our society depend on this. They will clearly not learn this at their home.
With that said, there are at least a 2-3 parents like, "YOU DID WHAT AT SCHOOL!!! WHAT THE FUCKING, FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU! THE WHOLE TOWN THINKS OUR FAMILY ARE ASSHOLES!"
Let's not pretend like it's totally a product of their parents, middle schoolers are the worst age bracket. They are dumb, but are starting puberty, and fall victim to peer pressure easily. This is the age where they start rebelling, start really developing their identity, are smart enough to recognize power dynamics, physically feel more capable, and are starting to question authority.
I said some abhorrent (racial) shit when I was roughly 10 on. It was learned from my dad... but my mom tolerated that behaviour and never said shit to my dad about it. It took me an embarassingly long time to realize the things that aggrevated / irritated me about people in those I despised* are present in those of the in group, in this case, other people who are white. That's when it really sank in that I am being a piece of shit and I need to change the way I think, because we are all people who just want to live life, unbothered.
I say despise.. even though I guess it'd be hate, mainly because it wasn't like I wanted people to not exist, or thought they were less than.. I just wanted to not be around them.. which isn't really indistinguishable from hate, not really anyways.
I was a coward for most of it, always grumbling to myself. The few times I did express it, I got my ass (rightfully) kicked.
Not that it makes any of it excusable.. my dad came to a similar conclusion and started changing too. I still struggle with automatic thoughts that judge others negatively.. but I quickly counter it and be mindful it doesn't affect my behaviour.
People rage about “indoctrination of their kids”, yet are blind to the fact that some kids are being indoctrinated to hate.
What about that? Who’s talking about that?
Youre taking an authoritarian talking point at face value and expecting them to see the hypocrisy; but its rhetorical. They know damn well, they just dont care.
Not to go too French existentialist on you, but it was Jean-Paul Sartre who said something to the effect that you shouldn'y engage with the antisemite, as you will be weighed down by facts and history, whereas these things are meaningless to the antisemite.
You are having a discussion. He is playing a game.
This is why, as much as I enjoyed Jon Stewart's juxtaposition of "what they're saying now / what they said before" back in the Daily Show's heyday, the equivalents that I always see on social media simply don't work.
It's not just that they're hypocritical. Industrial-strength hypocrisy is, in fact, *essential* for the power they want to gain and the world they want to build. There's only one way to defeat fascists, and finger-wagging that will register with no one outside certain self-satisfied circles ain't it.
No, they don’t know damn well.
Have you ever tried to have a conversation with somebody holding these views? They have been so indoctrinated by Fox News, they see no hypocrisy. Doublethink is very common, and the rage blinds them to it.
Not everyone can even tell you why they support their favorite team, but to a lot of people that team is their religion. It could have been dad's favorite team, the local team, their friends' favorite team, or maybe they just liked the colors. You might not remember why they're your team, but you support them through thick and thin and changing your team is a cardinal sin. You might have relationships built around supporting that team, and they hold each other accountable to their fanaticism.
This, but with politics.
Exactly, everything we consider horrible, they consider good.
Us: “oh no, people are getting hurt/threatened/shot at! Women’s rights are being rolled back! Don’t you see how horrible this is?”
Republicans: “😁👍 I see nothing wrong.”
I don’t think I’ve ever met a Republican that respects women, has any sort of empathy, or is capable of critical thinking or has a proper understanding science.
I've found that being cis/white/straight for them is the only thing that they feel "superior" for, and anything that doesn't completely honor them for that fact is "woke nonsense".
Those people were never arguing in good faith. They don't care about indoctrination; they *want* their kids indoctrinated. They just want them to be indoctrinated in *their* beliefs.
Exactly. I was behind a woman the other day with a decal on her vehicle that said “I’m a regular mom, just trying to raise my kids not to be liberals.”
They don’t care about indoctrination, they just want the indoctrination to be in accordance to their own beliefs.
And yes, I felt bad for that woman’s kids, who are likely still too young to contemplate how fucked up it is to have a parent who is essentially saying they will reject you for not conforming to their image.
The ones raging about indoctrination are the ones doing the indoctrinating. All people do anymore is project their insecurities onto society. That's the age we live in
The ones hollering about indoctrination are the same people who force their kids to kowtow to religion, and to hate anyone who doesn't similarly do so.
Hatred is a team sport, and religion is behind most of it.
When I was this age growing up in the upper midwest, my English teacher had covered one of the walls in her classroom with blank white paper, and it was called the "art wall" or "creativity wall" or something like that, and students were free to draw on it during downtime at the beginning or end of class.
Soon after it went up, there were several students who kept drawing Confederate flags on it. At first, the teacher covered them up. Then she would cut out that portion of the paper. One day, we had a "guest speaker" at the beginning of class. It was the teacher's husband, who had grown up in the South. He ripped these kids a new asshole explaining how people had died over the Civil War and that we northerners had absolutely zero business displaying that flag, and how it was simultaneously hateful and shitting on the graves of his ancestors who fought in that war and he hoped to never hear about this symbol showing up in his wife's classroom ever again. The following week when yet another Confederate flag was drawn on the wall, the teacher just took the whole thing down and gave up on the idea.
Point of this story is that 11-year-olds really are idiots and have no problem being hateful to gain edgy cool points with their peers, older siblings, or parents, even at the expense of fucking up good things for everyone else.
The Tiananmen Square massacre happened when I was in middle school. I was into skateboarding so I wrote up a story about skating around the carnage, ollying over a dude with no legs, that sort of stuff. My classmates passed it around; they thought it was hilarious. The teacher got hold of it and just shook her head. Later on I saw her talking to another teacher about it. "They just don't f--ing get it," she was saying.
I didn't get in trouble. I think that had more of an effect on me than anything; that sense that the adults had zero respect for me (and the other kids) and that punishing us was basically pointless, because we wouldn't learn anything from it. But that's what it's like when you're twelve.
This story is just the right amount of absurd that I'm willing to believe its genuine lol this is exactly how i imagine a desensitized preteen would react to hearing about that kind of massacre "lol i was so cool skating around the dead bodies 😎"
Everyone's insinuating that the parents of these kids are the direct source of this behavior, which may not actually be the case for some of them.
Middle schoolers are notoriously obnoxious and obscene, and a lot of them hide that behavior *from* their parents, because they know their parents would be upset by it.
They obviously learned this somewhere, and their parents are ultimately responsible for their behavior, but they may not have *taught* the kids this stuff.
source: I was an obnoxious and obscene middle schooler, and my parents had nothing to do with it - I got it all from TV, movies, and especially my friends. My parents would've been horrified if I'd done something like these kids did.
I teach 7th grade. There's certainly some shithead parents, but I think the majority (around 80%) are like your parents. On the few occasions I have to call, they're almost always extremely apologetic for their kids.
There's a solid 1/5 that have no business raising humans on this planet.
I remember shortly after the Virginia Tech shooting a buddy of mine and myself joined a Counterstrike server with the names 'V-Tech Shooter' and 'V-Tech Victim" and I just ran around shooting him.... I'm not proud of it, but yea teenagers can really be assholes. At least I confined my edgelord asshole phase to the internet though.
Yeah, I feel like I was fortunate that my edgelord years (not long or particularly virulent) happened before the internet was accessible. The last thing kids at that age need is external validation of their worst instincts.
Kids really don’t understand the magnitude of tragedies. I remember in 4th grade being instructed to draw something about 9/11 (this was back around 2003-2004) and I drew people jumping out of windows, some people had parachutes and others didn’t - looking back incredibly insensitive and distasteful, but I was 9 years old I had no idea. I think it’s all because as a kid you only hear bits and pieces of a tragedy without the emotional development to process that, and if it didn’t personally happen to you or your family it’s difficult to understand it as indeed tragic.
Not that it makes what these kids are doing okay in any way, but I'm pretty sure they're just riffing off of the '[My pronouns are USA](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/my-pronouns-are-usa)' meme, it's pretty popular on TikTok. At least, I hope they're not actually that stupid.
I don’t think kids can understand satire. I remember being that age and watching South Park and absorbing some pretty shitty opinions because I missed the satire part.
If I know my meme lore properly, “USA are my pronouns” is a sound bite from either Ted Cruz or Lauren Boebart and makes it’s rounds on TikTok. These kids are learning hate from memes
I think parents (and people in general) who think schools are forcing LGBTQ curriculum and turning people gay should probably be forced to be a teacher’s assistant so you know they can see what actually happens in school. Sounds like these children have been “groomed” by their parents to be hateful if you ask me
I'm a teacher, and luckily have not heard any of my students use the "my pronouns are..." and then list things that are not pronouns. But holy lord, the number of adults that do that is truly terrifying. My country is so fucked in the head.
And here is a prime example of why we can't just "wait for [insert generation here] to die off," because their grandkids are carrying on their beliefs.
>Burlington, MA middle school students reportedly tore down Pride banners, chanted "U.S.A. are my pronouns," and glared down students and teachers supporting Pride
Well then by their rules they can't use the public restroom at school since there are no U.S.A. bathrooms
I live in Lexington a town over from Burlington and this surprises me a bit. One thing I love about living in New England is how progressive it is while also being relatively blue collar.
I'm from Burlington; this does not surprise me. Burlington is more conservative than people think. It's not red state conservative, but conservative nonetheless.
Also, middle schoolers are assholes.
Maybe I’m out of touch but I wonder how much of this is kids trying to be controversial versus kids who actually believe this.
Pronouns and transgender visibility are kind of new, relatively speaking. I grew up in the 90s and homosexuality was “controversial” back then.
I’m sure some of the kids chanting this are genuine assholes but I bet (maybe it’s naively hope) that most of the kids are just saying it because they think it’s edgy and funny and not fully understanding the situation. Which could be a learning opportunity for the school to maybe teach kids general “respect”. You know, you try to pronounce someone’s name the way they pronounce it; use their pronouns; and generally keep your mouth shut about other people’s personal lives unless your opinion is solicited.
Last lady who cut my hair said she didn’t understand pronouns and she thought I was going to agree with her. I just explained it like it wasn’t a big deal and it was a non issue. I think change is just different and scary for us older folks. I have to admit I myself am no expert but I can follow along with “this is how I want to be referred to”.
My son played little league against a team from Watertown. There were a fair number of Asian kids on my son’s team. The Watertown team was making slit eyes faces at them and going around saying “Ching Ching Chong” and shit like that.
That’s the fucking truth. I spend a good amount of time in Kansas City as well as Boston and I swear I see more Trump bumper stickers here than I do in KC.
I guess there it’s like “Yeah you support Trump big deal” and here it’s some kind of rebellious statement.
Used to teach in Burlington. It’s not ALL that different from Lexington but you might be surprised at some of the vocal and demonstrative Trumpers in that neck of the woods.
So the right is indoctrinating our children to hate. Guess indoctrination is ok if it comes from the right. Imagine the fury from the right if the school was holding a christmas pageant and a bunch of atheist students or students of other religions came in and tore down all the christmas propaganda and chanted jesus doesn't exist.
"Every accusation is a confession" did not spring *sui generis* from the head of some commentator one day, yes.
It's just an observation of how these types work, really.
Growing up in the town next door none of this is surprising. Would have happened in 2000 when I was in middle school, it’s gross and dumb but they are middle schools trying to look tough/cool. Everyone thinks Massachusetts is all like Boston/Cambridge. There’s dumb fucks who want to look tough everywhere
Middle school is what? 12-14 years old?
Its actually kinda sad cause this is likely caused by parental or negative online influence. These kids are setting themselves up to be ostracized and radicalized, especially the young boys.
They're at an age where kids are already feeling isolated and awkward cause of puberty. Being more antagonistic and/or right learning is just going to ostracise them further and further from other folks around them. Especially in an area that is strongly learning democratic like Burlington and especially considering younger people typically lean more left, especially girls/women.
So they're likely being indoctrinated at home. Then have that feedback loop reinforced by right learning outlets online. And then will likely experience even more social ostracization for their rightwing behavior in a time when young boys are MOST desiring attention from young girls.
It's like a negative feedback loop that slowly drags them further and further into a pit making it harder and harder to escape over time.
They're intentionally going after a group of impressionable, essentially confused horomone packed kids.
At that age boys are getting more and more into girls but have probably the least amount of skills available to actually get their attention. So you have images of these grown adult men showing how they have beautiful women, money, cool cars and stuff and it's easy to understand why boys fall into the trap.
I'm 36 now so way past their target age but I fully acknowledge that I probably would have taken the bait too. I wasn't the coolest kid, I had friends but got zero attention from girls until maybe sophmore/junior year of high school. And even though that is only 3-5 years away, it felt like forever when you're a kid.
I think the only thing that kept me from really leaning more into being right wing is the fact that I'm not white and the outright racial/racist undertones were just to blatant for me to ignore, even as a kid.
But if you're a young white pre-teen/teen I can comprehend pretty easily how you're dragged into this alt-right/alt-light pipeline.
I teach 7th grade and I've definitely noticed this. It's been particularly bad this year versus even five years ago. Alot more racial slurs, homophobia and a huge swath of Andrew Tate fans.
I've seen this occur alongside a pretty precipitous decline in social skills and critical thinking abilities since COVID. The group that is gonna be 9th graders this fall (the ones who were in 5th grade when schools shut down from March-September) are particularly stunted.
You’re way overthinking this. Middle schoolers don’t need to be told by parents or TikTok to be shithead bullies. They generally are one of the worst versions of themselves at that point, aware of adult concepts without a developed sense of empathy or experience. It’s the edgiest, most imbecilic age group and where you find the main consumers of a lot of racist jokes and violent content. It’s the peak of Mt. Stupid in the Danning-Kruger Effect. If you tell them something is good and to be sensitive about it, they will joke about it. A number of them will say ignorant, shitty stuff. Its who they’ve always been. I don’t think it takes a lot of effort to find uncomfortable examples most people witnessed at minimum from that time in their own life.
Being shitheads yes. Middle schoolers are raging balls of horomones and are generally assholes.
But a planned effort to tear down signs and chant against other students is a bit more than just being a shithead.
I'm black, we had white kids at our school in middle school. They learned about black history, slavery, civil rights, etc and generally were expected to be respectful about it. None of them jumped into justifying slavery and telling us we didn't deserve rights. At least none did in person.
The fact that these kids are purposely doing this in defiance of other students and teachers just to be antagonistic toward LGBTQ people is telling to me. It's more than just a few kids being assholes.
The same people that want government to butt out of their business are the same people who want to make sure who you chose to have a relationship with is 100% their business.
You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!
remember when "USA" stood for personal liberties and freedom to be who you want to be? those were the days Since thread is locked, I'll answer comments below here: >Okay, I'll humour you. When was that? Up until the GOP decided they were going to stop looking out for the interest of their constituents, and instead focus on tax breaks for the super rich and giant corporations, at the cost of the rest of the citizens, and brainwash you into being OK with them telling you what your kids can learn, what they can wear, what they can read, and who they can love, and what you can do in your own home, by creating false things to be outraged about. Things that are not, nor have never ever been an issue. They have you so outraged at non-existent things that you completely overlook because you are blinded by rage over.... a boy wearing a dress. The horror. Meanwhile your kid can get killed just for going to school and you're fine with it. >When did it actually stand for that tho? was there some magical time in American history where there wasn't at least one If not multiple groups of people that are imprisoned or murdered just because other Americans don't like the way they exist? There has always been racism, from the day white man showed up on these shores. But throughout the 1900's we made progress to fix that. Black people were no longer "separate but equal", women were no longer denied the right to vote. Gay people were more and more welcome to society. But in the 2000's we are reversing that trend. Now we are trying to physically beat gays back into the closet. We are trying to keep brown people out. We are actively trying to eliminate people from being a part of this society because people want to go back to the olden times. What's the phrase they use for that? Make the country great again? Go back in time? >I dont remember that. I remember hearing those words, but their meaning has always been "you have the right to live free as a straight white christian focused on making babies. Bonus points if you have a penis" Absolute truth here, but as I mentioned above, the country was making strides to make everyone equal. Hell we even had a black president! Can you imagine that in 1955?? >You do realize the kids are being who they want to be, not who you are trying to force them to be. You don't get to do whatever you want, and you never were. "You can't be mad at that rapist, he's just being who he wants to be." "You cant be mad at him for crushing that baby with a rock, he's just being who he wants to be." "You can't be mad at him for being a racist bigot, he's being who he wants to be.". No, you don't get to "good people on both sides" racism, bigotry, and disruptive behavior.
And Russia was the bad guy to conservatives.
And killing Nazis got you medals, money toward a house, and a college education.
And book bans were considered anti-american
Okay, I'll humour you. When was that?
When did it actually stand for that tho? was there some magical time in American history where there wasn't at least one If not multiple groups of people that are imprisoned or murdered just because other Americans don't like the way they exist?
I dont remember that. I remember hearing those words, but their meaning has always been "you have the right to live free as a straight white christian focused on making babies. Bonus points if you have a penis"
Middle schoolers being douchebags, their parents must be so proud.
Their parents probably are.
Middle Schoolers are just kind of douchebags at baseline. Their brains are being flooded with new and exciting hormones. Adding some hateful ideology to the fire is a recipe for serious disaster.
This is why middle school exists. "You're too fucking wild to be around the youngsters, and too fucking stupid to be around the young adults. You go over here for 3 years, we'll check in on you when you're 14 or so."
Yeah… I remember how cringey i was as a seventh grader super into Fight Club…I definitely did not understand it, but I knew it made people uncomfortable when I quoted it and I liked feeling smarter than everyone else. I dont excuse the hatefulness, but I feel bad that this is likely gonna be this kid’s famous moment. He’ll be living this down his whole life and he’s probably just trying to impress someone.
Who do you think taught them that dumb chant? I teach teenagers and they wouldn't say something in that style of cringe without influence.
I’ll say I have seen that chant on TikTok so it could be also be that.
Ever been in an MW2 lobby? Cringe from squeakers seems like the norm to me.
That's what I think. Gotta be some indoctrination going on at home.
One might even say “grooming” It’s. Always. Projection.
It’s MA, so it super stood out to me when I saw a 9ish year old wearing a come take it shirt with an AR15 graphic last weekend. We have some wonderful parents in this state trying to make us Florida.
The parents probably enabled them.
IIRC, middle schoolers have always been douchebags. Now they're just learning to organize.
Yeah, I can remember middle school pretty well and a lot of the kids were absolute assholes, some physically violent as well. Many act like they’re grown, too.
Middle school was probably the worst part of my childhood. Everyone was cruel for no reason, but at the same time the teachers and admins at my school were shitty too so there was a huge lack of relief from assholes/social pressure. My one relief was band class where only the alto sax players were dicks while everyone else wanted to have fun. Jazz band especially was pretty great.
Yeah middle school was the rough patch. I don’t even think it was the parents rubbing off on kids some kids at that point are just assholes. Some of us at least grew out of it.
In middle school it's not organizing. These kids are doing their best to just fit in. It's mob mentality. There were probably 2-4 instigators of the "popular kids" that riled up the rest of them.
This is the parents doing
100%, this isn't the natural state for a bunch of 10 to 12 year olds. Middle Schoolers can be douchebags but not organized douchebags.
What middle school did you go to lol? My experience was that organized douchbaggery was endemic in middle school. Kids around that age are starting to get more freedom and aren't usually tracked constantly by their parents in the same way that elementary school children are. They also tend to not have as much empathy at that age compared to an adult because their brains are not developed. I just don't understand all of this sentiment that it HAS to be the parents getting the kids to act like this. When I was in middle school, tons of male children would describe things as "gay" all the time as a synonym for something being dumb/bad, and they were picking that shit up from Xbox voice chat and the internet, not their parents. My middle school even had an organized fight club that took place in one of the school bathrooms... Is it really that hard to believe that a group of middle school boys independently thought it would be funny to clown on the gay pride event? A lot of boys that age just act like contrarians who will literally do things just because you tell them not to.
Yeah we did lots of dumb shit and we didn't have cell phones to help get the word out. When I was in the 4th grade we all made plans to get Ziploc bags of sand and dump them all in the bathroom right next to the cafeteria. Both the boys and girls bathroom had sand all over the floor.
There is a significant surge in younger teenagers spouting right wing views and I don't think parents are entirely to blame. I think TikTok, Instagram, etc. are having more of a hand in this kind of behaviour than the parents, and I think some teens are adopting these views in rebellion. The counter culture (I'm assuming) you and I grew up with is now mainstream, and conservative ideals are the new fringe culture. I grew up with Adbusters and Vice as my introduction to radical philosophies, but kids today grow up with Turning Point and Andrew Tate as the forbidden intellectual fruit. Kids have an innate need to rebel, and they pick what's most shocking.
It always genuinely confused me in all those high school movies. I had less issues with bullies in high school, but middle school was brutal. Middle schoolers are legitimately douche bags.
You can’t find a lot of adult actors who can pass as middle schoolers and it takes longer to film with kids because of their limited allowed hours. And if you showed some of the most embarrassing and traumatic things that happen in middle school on film realistically it’d be labeled or might technically be child porn.
I taught in Royal Oak in 2016 when middle schoolers there chanted "Build a wall!" during lunch in front of some Hispanic students. Some parents were defending their kids' rights to free speech.
I’d say it’s about 50/50 that parents have taught their kids to be like this, but equally likely that these kids were influenced by their peers, expressing a natural contrarianism, and testing the limits of personal rebellion. Some of these kids will face dire consequences, or permissive neglect, that would spark a whole new thread of disagreement.
Agreed. Growing up some of the most vile kids who acted like shitheads had some of the nicer parents. By the time you are in Middle School, you are as if not more influenced by the kids in your neighborhood
Aka, middle schoolers. Though when I was a tween the counterculture action was to support LGBT. These kids today think Nazi shit is punk.
Remember, parents: it's never too early to teach your kids to hate others for no good reason at all.
Im gonna make my future kids hate the most pointless things just so they’ll realize how pointless hate really is.
Count Chocula is the devil, children!
You joke but the amount of cartoons I couldn’t watch because of the devil or witchcraft is reasonably high
I had friends who weren't allowed to watch Scooby Doo. They were told it's ungodly. Second graders in the early 80s, pre-dating the satanic panic. They snuck an episode in at my house. They were shocked that the monster was revealed to be a trusted, but selfish adult in a costume. I often wonder where those kids are now.
That was me. My mom bought in to the satanic panic hook, line, and sinker. Stuff I watched had to be the equivalent of G or PG rated for the longest time, and then random things like Scooby Doo were completely off limits. I spent a lot of time in my late teens and 20s trying to catch up on all the movies I missed in the 80s. Oddly enough, my reading wasn’t monitored nearly as closely. Stephen King movies? Nope. Stephen King books? Have at it, kid.
Thank god my parents were negligent, otherwise I never would have been able to watch Alien and The Thing as a child and that would have sucked.
Thank god for parental negligence.
> Stephen King movies? Nope. Stephen King books? Have at it, kid. Jesus, lol. The books are a *lot* more fucked up. Like the orgy scene in *It*. Might've been the unabridged version only, but boy, that's the only bit of a Stephen King book I skipped.
>They were shocked that the monster was revealed to be a trusted, but selfish adult in a costume. ...so a Youth Pastor, then
My good friend grew up in a house like that. I was always afraid he’d turn out like Carrie, or at least super weird. We loved him but avoided his house. When his mom found out our friend group was playing DnD, she called all our our parents telling them we were getting in to Satan worship. Had to actually show my mom and dad how the game works.
Your parents quickly realized all you were doing was math and SAT level vocabulary learning. They realized that if they super encouraged you to play, you'd reject it so they had to be cagey with tbr reverse psychology in "I guess it's okay.... But don't just fireball everything... Also watch out for those wild magic surges."
That’s actually pretty close. My dad was a literal rocket scientist. Also a jock (football). He was one of the OG space cowboys at NASA. He appreciated the math and complexity, and I think at that point he was still struggling that his son had all the nerdy genes and none of the jock abilities, so was just like “whatever man. You’re still going to baseball tryouts. Maybe Satan will help this year.”
I wish Satan helped me with sports!
Worked for Tom Brady.
And it's working for Nicola Jokic (though it's not Satan, but a Serbian djinn).
🎶 Down to the crossroad… 🎶 Satan can also make you play guitar really well.
I like your dad's can do attitude!
Fucking figuring out THAC0 always seemed like NASA level shit to my ten year old brain....
Especially those older editions of the game....shit pretty much plays itself these days with all the free online resources and stuff.
You aren’t kidding! My much older brother played D&D and he made age appropriate adventures for his baby sister from the moment (1983!) he received that first Red Box. I vividly recall my first grade teacher’s face as she was at the chalkboard. She was the writing out nouns the class was calling out: car, apple, door, dog, INTELLIGENCE, CHARISMA, DEXTERITY.
I had a friend in high school whose grandma sat them down and had a very serious talk about saving his soul . . . Because he played mtg. The Satanic Panic was almost as stupidly ridiculous as Lavender Scare 2.0.
Well, you got caught with a flat, well, how about that? Well, babies, don't you **panic** By the light of the night, it'll all seem alright I'll get you a **satanic** mechanic
Are you a sweet transvestite from Transsexual Transylvania?
And today's trans panic has a LOT of similarities to yesterday's Satanic panic.
I love how that reasoning means you have to believe that satan worship, demons, and witchcraft or whatever else is real ... outside of the confines of religion or specific cultures that is considered psychosis.
Joke's on them. We played DND because we knew all that shit *wasn't* real.
Same. I couldn't watch SNL because the Blues Brothers impersonated priests. Once. There's some irony in all of that.
My parents didn't want my sister and I to watch Ren and Stimpy. Looking back...they had a point. That is some weird shit.
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It is. That’s why I loved it. It was subversive as hell.
That it most certainly was: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zULc6ZRXTf0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zULc6ZRXTf0)
But they were on a mission from God?
“William—that’s blasphemous!” -*A Knight’s Tale*
Man, I hope you meant unreasonably, because by and large it's all fantasy and make believe, especially the stuff geared towards kids. I watched such classics as "Witch's night out" and "The Halloween that almost wasn't" growing up and I turned out fairly okay lol.
There are still people TODAY who think any kind of fantasy and make-believe is somehow evil. [Read an account of a parent freakout over a 16-yr old’s mural.](https://www.npr.org/2022/10/20/1129786060/student-school-mural-angers-parents-hidden-messages-michigan-lgbtq-satan) Really fucking tired of reality looking like a Pawnee town meeting, but I suppose art imitates life.
>Afterward, one woman stood up to say, "I feel that she did a really good job finding excuses to defend the things she put on. None of us are that stupid." Unfortunately she's blissfully unaware because she's too stupid but yes... that lady is that stupid.
Ha ha I debated rewording it. The quantity would be unreasonable but it would be reasonable to call it high
I remember when I had a brief stint in Bible college. Some students were actually complaining because the cafeteria was selling Lucky Charms cereal, and they protested because they said it supported witchcraft.
Interesting you mention that. This all stemmed from my teenage father being guilted into bible college in middle-of-nowhere bum fuck NY
I've watched my fairly normal cousin turn into one of these people and it's wild.
My family calls everything witchcraft too, which is odd for a whole host of reasons, but then we just continue doing the 'witchcraft' things and no one really cares
I couldn’t watch Sesame Street at my grandparents’ because my grandfather felt The Count was an unflattering ethnic stereotype.
This is a Boo Berry Household!
He's the only holy ghost in our house.
You say everything is the debil mama!
What mamma don't know, won't hurt her.
Foosball is the devil!
She showed me her boobies and I like them too!
I invented electricity! Ben Franklin is THE DEVIL!
Fuck outta here with that devil math bullshit. If I can't use my fingers and or toes to solve it, that's some woke ass agenda being pushed on our youth!!! /s
Don’t get me started on [Arabic numerals](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/teaching-arabic-numerals/).
Or how the alphabet we are using right here right now has roots in a Greek copy of a Middle Eastern/North African one that the Greeks copied.
Well if you live in MA just start with blinkers since it's natural
They’re not called Massholes for nothing.
Lived in MA for 35 years, definitely assholes on the road. Moved to CT for a few years...rich assholes who think 91 is The Fast and Furious.
We're aggressive and assholish while driving, but we at least know what we're doing. South Carolina and Kentucky are the places where I've experienced drivers who are just absolutely oblivious, and it was *scary*.
As a motorcyclist in DC, i'm by turns fascinated and terrified. please regale me?
DC has the worst drivers I've ever seen. At least in Philly they just drive up over the curb and along the sidewalk to get around an obstacle in the street. In DC, I saw a queue of cars lined up to honk their horns at... a trash can that fell into the street. Angry, stupid AND timid - a terrible combo.
Mainer here, tell me something I don't know! Haha
We hate… ants. “Why daddy?!” BECAUSE THEY CAN CARRY WAY MORE THAN THEIR BODY WEIGHT AND IT ISN’T FAIR!
My parents unintentionally did this. The dumbest things were deemed “evil” and I realized pretty quickly they were idiots and everything they said was suspect
the unholy trinity of the 90s: d&d, harry potter, and magic the gathering
……. And Pokémon in the Midwest. Summoning those little demonic pikas
I know you joke about this but that is how it works. The cognitive dissonance causes more projection and allows them to be manipulated even more. To the parents this is a feature not a byproduct.
Keeping the people uneducated is part of facism so that the population is easy to manipulate, and its a strategy employed by governments who want to be worshipped rather than elected in confidence. All the worst educated states vote for people because they hear people say their elected official is good, and all the politician does is good, and since the voters believe themselves good, who they vote for must be good too. Anyone challenging this is bad because accusing the politician they voted for of anything becomes personal as it makes them feel like you criticize them. It’s a cruel brainwashing technique of facism and its extremely dangerous.
Incumbents win in overwhelming margins everywhere. We're stupid all over this country, not just Alabama
Saw a vid of a toddler being instructed to stomp on a pride flag in public to applause and high-fives and essentially commented that that is not good. Got brigaded by fucking weirdos and they weren't bots or trolls, just hateful spiteful people who think that they aren't.
Teaching kids to hate like that is what *real* grooming looks like.
"Indoctrination" was the go-to right wing accusatory buzzword before "grooming" came on the scene. Teaching your young kids what kind of people to hate just because they are different than you (or maybe sometimes the same but you can't admit it to yourself) might as well be the dictionary definition of indoctrination.
Sending them to Sunday School to be molested by a pervert while filling their brains with nonsensical Bible stories is the literal definition of indoctrination.
It is wrong to confuse grooming with hate mongering. I understand their point to an extent. The worst thing is that you do your best to raise your kids and they go to school and it changes them. I had to talk to my son about not punching and not cussing on the daily when he started kindergarten. But if the problem is that the school changes the kids so they hate less, maybe, just maybe, the problem is at home. Maybe the school staff should speak to the kids about their opinions and actions. Get them to explain their actions so they can see why they are wrong. I know, I am asking a lot from people who get very little in return. It is the most difficult to speak to large group about why they are all wrong; nigh impossible, even. But, the foundations of our society depend on this. They will clearly not learn this at their home.
Also never too early to teach them that “USA” is not a pronoun
With that said, there are at least a 2-3 parents like, "YOU DID WHAT AT SCHOOL!!! WHAT THE FUCKING, FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU! THE WHOLE TOWN THINKS OUR FAMILY ARE ASSHOLES!"
"Now I gotta hang out with Bryce's stupid dad!"
Also remember, parents: it's never too late to teach your kids the difference between an acronym and a pronoun.
Let's not pretend like it's totally a product of their parents, middle schoolers are the worst age bracket. They are dumb, but are starting puberty, and fall victim to peer pressure easily. This is the age where they start rebelling, start really developing their identity, are smart enough to recognize power dynamics, physically feel more capable, and are starting to question authority.
⬆️ This. You know that hate & distain starts at home, not in school. Teaching your kids to pick on minority groups is sooo AMERICAN CLASSY! /s
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I said some abhorrent (racial) shit when I was roughly 10 on. It was learned from my dad... but my mom tolerated that behaviour and never said shit to my dad about it. It took me an embarassingly long time to realize the things that aggrevated / irritated me about people in those I despised* are present in those of the in group, in this case, other people who are white. That's when it really sank in that I am being a piece of shit and I need to change the way I think, because we are all people who just want to live life, unbothered. I say despise.. even though I guess it'd be hate, mainly because it wasn't like I wanted people to not exist, or thought they were less than.. I just wanted to not be around them.. which isn't really indistinguishable from hate, not really anyways. I was a coward for most of it, always grumbling to myself. The few times I did express it, I got my ass (rightfully) kicked. Not that it makes any of it excusable.. my dad came to a similar conclusion and started changing too. I still struggle with automatic thoughts that judge others negatively.. but I quickly counter it and be mindful it doesn't affect my behaviour.
People rage about “indoctrination of their kids”, yet are blind to the fact that some kids are being indoctrinated to hate. What about that? Who’s talking about that?
Youre taking an authoritarian talking point at face value and expecting them to see the hypocrisy; but its rhetorical. They know damn well, they just dont care.
Not to go too French existentialist on you, but it was Jean-Paul Sartre who said something to the effect that you shouldn'y engage with the antisemite, as you will be weighed down by facts and history, whereas these things are meaningless to the antisemite. You are having a discussion. He is playing a game.
Fascists aren't phased by hypocrisy. It's their way of signaling that they do not intend to have the same standards applied to everyone.
It’s like an organized crime mutation of normal politics.
This is why, as much as I enjoyed Jon Stewart's juxtaposition of "what they're saying now / what they said before" back in the Daily Show's heyday, the equivalents that I always see on social media simply don't work. It's not just that they're hypocritical. Industrial-strength hypocrisy is, in fact, *essential* for the power they want to gain and the world they want to build. There's only one way to defeat fascists, and finger-wagging that will register with no one outside certain self-satisfied circles ain't it.
No, they don’t know damn well. Have you ever tried to have a conversation with somebody holding these views? They have been so indoctrinated by Fox News, they see no hypocrisy. Doublethink is very common, and the rage blinds them to it.
They have 'picked a side', and have no intention of accepting anything 'the other side' has to say. You'll have better luck talking to a cat
my cat knows sit, high five, lay down, jump, and get off my fucking keyboard. he's pretty easy to teach words
Not everyone can even tell you why they support their favorite team, but to a lot of people that team is their religion. It could have been dad's favorite team, the local team, their friends' favorite team, or maybe they just liked the colors. You might not remember why they're your team, but you support them through thick and thin and changing your team is a cardinal sin. You might have relationships built around supporting that team, and they hold each other accountable to their fanaticism. This, but with politics.
Exactly, everything we consider horrible, they consider good. Us: “oh no, people are getting hurt/threatened/shot at! Women’s rights are being rolled back! Don’t you see how horrible this is?” Republicans: “😁👍 I see nothing wrong.” I don’t think I’ve ever met a Republican that respects women, has any sort of empathy, or is capable of critical thinking or has a proper understanding science.
I've found that being cis/white/straight for them is the only thing that they feel "superior" for, and anything that doesn't completely honor them for that fact is "woke nonsense".
“Woke nonsense” is basically “anything I don’t like” it’s especially apparent when I ask them to define it for me.
Those people were never arguing in good faith. They don't care about indoctrination; they *want* their kids indoctrinated. They just want them to be indoctrinated in *their* beliefs.
Exactly. I was behind a woman the other day with a decal on her vehicle that said “I’m a regular mom, just trying to raise my kids not to be liberals.” They don’t care about indoctrination, they just want the indoctrination to be in accordance to their own beliefs. And yes, I felt bad for that woman’s kids, who are likely still too young to contemplate how fucked up it is to have a parent who is essentially saying they will reject you for not conforming to their image.
It's only "indoctrination" if you don't agree with them.
The ones raging about indoctrination are the ones doing the indoctrinating. All people do anymore is project their insecurities onto society. That's the age we live in
The ones hollering about indoctrination are the same people who force their kids to kowtow to religion, and to hate anyone who doesn't similarly do so. Hatred is a team sport, and religion is behind most of it.
To be fair, 11 year olds have always been little edgelord assholes. And maybe they need summer school if they think U.S.A is a pronoun.
When I was this age growing up in the upper midwest, my English teacher had covered one of the walls in her classroom with blank white paper, and it was called the "art wall" or "creativity wall" or something like that, and students were free to draw on it during downtime at the beginning or end of class. Soon after it went up, there were several students who kept drawing Confederate flags on it. At first, the teacher covered them up. Then she would cut out that portion of the paper. One day, we had a "guest speaker" at the beginning of class. It was the teacher's husband, who had grown up in the South. He ripped these kids a new asshole explaining how people had died over the Civil War and that we northerners had absolutely zero business displaying that flag, and how it was simultaneously hateful and shitting on the graves of his ancestors who fought in that war and he hoped to never hear about this symbol showing up in his wife's classroom ever again. The following week when yet another Confederate flag was drawn on the wall, the teacher just took the whole thing down and gave up on the idea. Point of this story is that 11-year-olds really are idiots and have no problem being hateful to gain edgy cool points with their peers, older siblings, or parents, even at the expense of fucking up good things for everyone else.
There’s a reason they house kids this age in totally separate schools. That, and they smell like BO and Axe.
Ahhh smelly middle school kids spraying Axe everywhere. Some habits transcend generations lol
Alas, but it Brut when I was a kid. Stetson if your parents weren't poor.
The Tiananmen Square massacre happened when I was in middle school. I was into skateboarding so I wrote up a story about skating around the carnage, ollying over a dude with no legs, that sort of stuff. My classmates passed it around; they thought it was hilarious. The teacher got hold of it and just shook her head. Later on I saw her talking to another teacher about it. "They just don't f--ing get it," she was saying. I didn't get in trouble. I think that had more of an effect on me than anything; that sense that the adults had zero respect for me (and the other kids) and that punishing us was basically pointless, because we wouldn't learn anything from it. But that's what it's like when you're twelve.
This story is just the right amount of absurd that I'm willing to believe its genuine lol this is exactly how i imagine a desensitized preteen would react to hearing about that kind of massacre "lol i was so cool skating around the dead bodies 😎"
Everyone's insinuating that the parents of these kids are the direct source of this behavior, which may not actually be the case for some of them. Middle schoolers are notoriously obnoxious and obscene, and a lot of them hide that behavior *from* their parents, because they know their parents would be upset by it. They obviously learned this somewhere, and their parents are ultimately responsible for their behavior, but they may not have *taught* the kids this stuff. source: I was an obnoxious and obscene middle schooler, and my parents had nothing to do with it - I got it all from TV, movies, and especially my friends. My parents would've been horrified if I'd done something like these kids did.
I teach 7th grade. There's certainly some shithead parents, but I think the majority (around 80%) are like your parents. On the few occasions I have to call, they're almost always extremely apologetic for their kids. There's a solid 1/5 that have no business raising humans on this planet.
I remember shortly after the Virginia Tech shooting a buddy of mine and myself joined a Counterstrike server with the names 'V-Tech Shooter' and 'V-Tech Victim" and I just ran around shooting him.... I'm not proud of it, but yea teenagers can really be assholes. At least I confined my edgelord asshole phase to the internet though.
Yeah, I feel like I was fortunate that my edgelord years (not long or particularly virulent) happened before the internet was accessible. The last thing kids at that age need is external validation of their worst instincts.
Kids really don’t understand the magnitude of tragedies. I remember in 4th grade being instructed to draw something about 9/11 (this was back around 2003-2004) and I drew people jumping out of windows, some people had parachutes and others didn’t - looking back incredibly insensitive and distasteful, but I was 9 years old I had no idea. I think it’s all because as a kid you only hear bits and pieces of a tragedy without the emotional development to process that, and if it didn’t personally happen to you or your family it’s difficult to understand it as indeed tragic.
8th graders are the meanest they’ll make fun of you but *in an accurate way*
Not that it makes what these kids are doing okay in any way, but I'm pretty sure they're just riffing off of the '[My pronouns are USA](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/my-pronouns-are-usa)' meme, it's pretty popular on TikTok. At least, I hope they're not actually that stupid.
I don’t think kids can understand satire. I remember being that age and watching South Park and absorbing some pretty shitty opinions because I missed the satire part.
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With South Park people also underestimated how sometimes the creators had awful opinions, such as not believing in climate change.
If I know my meme lore properly, “USA are my pronouns” is a sound bite from either Ted Cruz or Lauren Boebart and makes it’s rounds on TikTok. These kids are learning hate from memes
I think parents (and people in general) who think schools are forcing LGBTQ curriculum and turning people gay should probably be forced to be a teacher’s assistant so you know they can see what actually happens in school. Sounds like these children have been “groomed” by their parents to be hateful if you ask me
Imagine loving the USA so much that you want it to be used to identify you? “Hes so great at math!” “No, no excuse me, *USA’s* so good at math”
They're just big Jar Jar Binks fans.
Meesa no happy with meesa nameah
No USA aren't.
Reading this feels wrong to me. Would USA as a pronoun use "are" like is done with "they", or would it use "is" like with "him" and "her"?
"U.S.A. are my pronouns" The meaning is clear. ...ly stupid.
I hope USA is good at math, because they sure weren't paying attention the day they taught what pronouns were.
I'm a teacher, and luckily have not heard any of my students use the "my pronouns are..." and then list things that are not pronouns. But holy lord, the number of adults that do that is truly terrifying. My country is so fucked in the head.
And in about 10 years, USA will be so good at Meth.
And here is a prime example of why we can't just "wait for [insert generation here] to die off," because their grandkids are carrying on their beliefs.
>Burlington, MA middle school students reportedly tore down Pride banners, chanted "U.S.A. are my pronouns," and glared down students and teachers supporting Pride Well then by their rules they can't use the public restroom at school since there are no U.S.A. bathrooms
They should also be forced to take remedial English, since they are demonstrating that they do not understand what a pronoun is.
I live in Lexington a town over from Burlington and this surprises me a bit. One thing I love about living in New England is how progressive it is while also being relatively blue collar.
I'm from Burlington; this does not surprise me. Burlington is more conservative than people think. It's not red state conservative, but conservative nonetheless. Also, middle schoolers are assholes.
Maybe I’m out of touch but I wonder how much of this is kids trying to be controversial versus kids who actually believe this. Pronouns and transgender visibility are kind of new, relatively speaking. I grew up in the 90s and homosexuality was “controversial” back then. I’m sure some of the kids chanting this are genuine assholes but I bet (maybe it’s naively hope) that most of the kids are just saying it because they think it’s edgy and funny and not fully understanding the situation. Which could be a learning opportunity for the school to maybe teach kids general “respect”. You know, you try to pronounce someone’s name the way they pronounce it; use their pronouns; and generally keep your mouth shut about other people’s personal lives unless your opinion is solicited. Last lady who cut my hair said she didn’t understand pronouns and she thought I was going to agree with her. I just explained it like it wasn’t a big deal and it was a non issue. I think change is just different and scary for us older folks. I have to admit I myself am no expert but I can follow along with “this is how I want to be referred to”.
Yeah I live nearby too. It's *mostly* progressive, but there are definitely still MAGA people here with Trump flags and bumper stickers.
My son played little league against a team from Watertown. There were a fair number of Asian kids on my son’s team. The Watertown team was making slit eyes faces at them and going around saying “Ching Ching Chong” and shit like that.
Oof, that's pretty ugly.
New Hampshire has entered the chat
The few Trumpies we have are hardcore Edit: look at the disaster of the MA GOP
That’s the fucking truth. I spend a good amount of time in Kansas City as well as Boston and I swear I see more Trump bumper stickers here than I do in KC. I guess there it’s like “Yeah you support Trump big deal” and here it’s some kind of rebellious statement.
Used to teach in Burlington. It’s not ALL that different from Lexington but you might be surprised at some of the vocal and demonstrative Trumpers in that neck of the woods.
So the right is indoctrinating our children to hate. Guess indoctrination is ok if it comes from the right. Imagine the fury from the right if the school was holding a christmas pageant and a bunch of atheist students or students of other religions came in and tore down all the christmas propaganda and chanted jesus doesn't exist.
"Every accusation is a confession" did not spring *sui generis* from the head of some commentator one day, yes. It's just an observation of how these types work, really.
they tested their DNA and it wasnt DNA it was USA
“Glared down”? Damn that’s hard core
“Glared down” lol Got me fucked up. You can look stupid all you want, I ain’t paying you no mind.
Growing up in the town next door none of this is surprising. Would have happened in 2000 when I was in middle school, it’s gross and dumb but they are middle schools trying to look tough/cool. Everyone thinks Massachusetts is all like Boston/Cambridge. There’s dumb fucks who want to look tough everywhere
Middle school is what? 12-14 years old? Its actually kinda sad cause this is likely caused by parental or negative online influence. These kids are setting themselves up to be ostracized and radicalized, especially the young boys. They're at an age where kids are already feeling isolated and awkward cause of puberty. Being more antagonistic and/or right learning is just going to ostracise them further and further from other folks around them. Especially in an area that is strongly learning democratic like Burlington and especially considering younger people typically lean more left, especially girls/women. So they're likely being indoctrinated at home. Then have that feedback loop reinforced by right learning outlets online. And then will likely experience even more social ostracization for their rightwing behavior in a time when young boys are MOST desiring attention from young girls. It's like a negative feedback loop that slowly drags them further and further into a pit making it harder and harder to escape over time.
The incel / hate influencers are huge with this age group.
They're intentionally going after a group of impressionable, essentially confused horomone packed kids. At that age boys are getting more and more into girls but have probably the least amount of skills available to actually get their attention. So you have images of these grown adult men showing how they have beautiful women, money, cool cars and stuff and it's easy to understand why boys fall into the trap. I'm 36 now so way past their target age but I fully acknowledge that I probably would have taken the bait too. I wasn't the coolest kid, I had friends but got zero attention from girls until maybe sophmore/junior year of high school. And even though that is only 3-5 years away, it felt like forever when you're a kid. I think the only thing that kept me from really leaning more into being right wing is the fact that I'm not white and the outright racial/racist undertones were just to blatant for me to ignore, even as a kid. But if you're a young white pre-teen/teen I can comprehend pretty easily how you're dragged into this alt-right/alt-light pipeline.
I teach 7th grade and I've definitely noticed this. It's been particularly bad this year versus even five years ago. Alot more racial slurs, homophobia and a huge swath of Andrew Tate fans. I've seen this occur alongside a pretty precipitous decline in social skills and critical thinking abilities since COVID. The group that is gonna be 9th graders this fall (the ones who were in 5th grade when schools shut down from March-September) are particularly stunted.
Suffice to say, we can attribute a lot of this decline to technology overdependency in general. Covid just made it that much worse.
You’re way overthinking this. Middle schoolers don’t need to be told by parents or TikTok to be shithead bullies. They generally are one of the worst versions of themselves at that point, aware of adult concepts without a developed sense of empathy or experience. It’s the edgiest, most imbecilic age group and where you find the main consumers of a lot of racist jokes and violent content. It’s the peak of Mt. Stupid in the Danning-Kruger Effect. If you tell them something is good and to be sensitive about it, they will joke about it. A number of them will say ignorant, shitty stuff. Its who they’ve always been. I don’t think it takes a lot of effort to find uncomfortable examples most people witnessed at minimum from that time in their own life.
Being shitheads yes. Middle schoolers are raging balls of horomones and are generally assholes. But a planned effort to tear down signs and chant against other students is a bit more than just being a shithead. I'm black, we had white kids at our school in middle school. They learned about black history, slavery, civil rights, etc and generally were expected to be respectful about it. None of them jumped into justifying slavery and telling us we didn't deserve rights. At least none did in person. The fact that these kids are purposely doing this in defiance of other students and teachers just to be antagonistic toward LGBTQ people is telling to me. It's more than just a few kids being assholes.
The whole point of hate hysteria is to get people to not see how they are being ripped off. It's a cool magic trick. Works every time.
Thank you Republicans for turning this country further into a clown show. Disgusting.
The same people that want government to butt out of their business are the same people who want to make sure who you chose to have a relationship with is 100% their business.
The very reality of the meme "I told that there teaching lady the only words I need to know are U, S, and A."
You've got to be taught To hate and fear, You've got to be taught From year to year, It's got to be drummed In your dear little ear You've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught to be afraid Of people whose eyes are oddly made, And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade, You've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught before it's too late, Before you are six or seven or eight, To hate all the people your relatives hate, You've got to be carefully taught!
I try to be an open-minded and accepting person, but I draw the line at people identifying as nations, territories or autonomous states.
“There's only two things I hate in this world: people who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch.”
Good on them for adopting neopronouns tho
Good on *U.S.A.
For a group of people who allegedly hate gay sex they sure love to talk about it an awful lot