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Original poster

How to handle my son's troubling far-right views and online influence

257 replies

TheCatCushions · 12/04/2026 11:46

DS (14) is extremely bright, highly intelligent and adhd/autistic. He has recently been coming out with troubling views about wanting the UK to be all white again like in the 1950s, he talks about immigration and closing our borders and stopping the boats etc and doodles pictures of Hitler with worrying slogans. He has admitted to saying certain things deliberately to shock but he genuinely believes that the UK should be all white and compares us to say, Zimbabwe remaining all black.

He has not been brought up to think like this and I am concerned that he is going down a rabbit hole online. I teach him the benefits of other cultures and how the UK has evolved, what it means to be British has changed over time and that we are now multicultural. Although he is highly intelligent, he is also very black and white in his thinking.

He also believes that we should go back to the 1940s where it comes to gender roles and women need to stay at home and men be the providers. He also talks about feminism meaning women that hate men. I try my best to gently correct these views and question why he believes this.

Does anyone have any advice on how to approach this? Thank you.

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InterestedDad37 · 12/04/2026 12:01

Straight away I'd question the 'highly intelligent' bit. He may be quick-thinking, but intelligence also includes insight and the empathy with others, both of which he clearly lacks.
If his 'black and white thinking' also extends to race, then he is highly ignorant and lacking essential defining aspects of intelligence.

Original poster
TheCatCushions · 12/04/2026 11:56

urghhh47 · 12/04/2026 11:51

I would talk to his school and see whether they can help. Keep communication open as the last thing you want is him becoming isolated from you. Challenge his views but I'd be careful about making statements that just make him wrong or feel wrong for having these views (even though he is) because that will likely push him even further into these ideas. There have been a couple of documentaries made recently about this so maybe he and you could watch them together?

Thank you, I gently question him and we debate lots of different topics-he knows all there is to know about politics and retains an impressive amount of knowledge. What are the titles of these documentaries? Thanks!

OP posts:
CocoaTea · 12/04/2026 11:55

Zimbabwe is not all black. Speaking as a Zimbabwean. He is factually incorrect - I would pull him up on this as a point of fact leading to a discussion about where he is getting information from and the importance of fact checking.

I would also cut down social media access. His algorithm will be feeding this.

Do you have time to take him to museums / libraries to get factual, balanced information?

urghhh47 · 12/04/2026 11:51

I would talk to his school and see whether they can help. Keep communication open as the last thing you want is him becoming isolated from you. Challenge his views but I'd be careful about making statements that just make him wrong or feel wrong for having these views (even though he is) because that will likely push him even further into these ideas. There have been a couple of documentaries made recently about this so maybe he and you could watch them together?

Walkthelakes · 12/04/2026 11:51

My stepson has gone from being a labour supporter to being an active member of reform. He’s knows it’s not my point of view and we have respectful discussions about it and what I find problematic, but he is entitled to his own views and I respect that. I counteract what he says calmly and he counteracts what I say calmly and we agree to disagree. I still love him immensely and think he is a good person but we try and avoid politics

ThreeB · 12/04/2026 11:49

I think the first thing you need to do is remove any access to social media/internet. His algorithyms will now be reinforcing this messaging and he needs to be completely away from these views.

InterviewGhost · 12/04/2026 11:48

My only advice would be to question - not attack - his views and offer counter points. Where is he hanging around online? I’m a believer of free speech in it’s entirety so wouldn’t necessarily advocate removing all online access - can you watch some of the stuff he listens to together and discuss is afterwards?