To think my Dad has been radicalised?

[Februaryrat]

My Dad was a teacher back in the day. A Guardian-reading, mostly apolitical teacher.

He has a (hate to use the word) redneck friend in the USA whom he Skypes regularly, and whom I believe has radicalised my Dad. Over the last three years, my Dad now believes:

• Climate change is a hoax (obsessive hatred of windfarms)
• Hilary Clinton is a murderer
• Brexit is the way forward because some of "them" (mostly Romanians when pushed) are committing 70% of offences around here (they aren't) and the press isn't allowed to report on nationality of offenders (they are)
• The NHS is being brought to its knees by health toursits
• Trump is a businessman who is likely to give the USA exactly what it needs, and will be re-elected to great acclaim at the next election.
• The Mexican wall is a good idea
• Why don't more Muslims condemn terrorist attacks?

I am a hard-left feminist, who is finding it harder and harder to have conversations with him that don't end in mud-slinging.

His "source" of news is often what I would consider to be conspiracy websites. I am willing to accept sources of news from anything I consider reputable - and would consider any mainstream media including (spit) the Daily Mail, but the websites he comes up with seem to me to be run by nutters spouting nonsense.

As a previous teacher in a subject where critical thinking and reading was key, it astonishes me that he isn't able to see past the bullshit - but perhaps he thinks the same about me in my left-wing bubble.

Anyone else's parents been radicalised? Any hope, or do we just have to stick to conversations about the weather now? Shit, we can't even do that because of climate change.

"We do respect individuals rights to live as they please within the law. It doesn't stop someone being racist or expressing an opinion about immigration. The only thing generally stopping that is social disapproval or political correctness or politeness- whatever you want to call it."

We could call it a scolds bridle if you like Iloveunicorns. Oh, and I love unicorns too, what's not to love eh?

this is a bit like call my bluff, any other oldies (rascists) remember that programme?

Sure do - but I doubt we should mention it on here in case it offends anyone with a speech disorder

And I doubt anyone much under the age of 50 will get that particular reference

That's why we must never accept Sharia law in the UK. I repeat, equality is the way forward.

Exactly, and no exceptions or further exemptions made. Do you remember the Muslim schoolboys in Switzerland who declined to shake the hand of their female teachers? Switzerland got themselves into such a tizz that they were actually debating whether to allow this exception. Ridiculous. There are schoolboys from that same faith in this country who have refused to be taught by female teachers.

Some do not want our 'inclusivity' and agitate to be separate in as many ways as possible.

"But the OP's concern is not that he has 'a different opinion to the sanctioned norm', and big personality changes along with paranoia can indeed signal dementia.

Is anyone here suggesting otherwise? Were there people upthread suggesting dragging him off to the gulags?"

Not the Gulags perhaps, but fetch the straight jacket, OP's Father has found an online friend who is leading him from the path of righteousness. Therefore he is clearly demented. Sigh!

Not the Gulags perhaps, but fetch the straight jacket, OP's Father has found an online friend who is leading him from the path of righteousness. Therefore he is clearly demented.

Nobody said that, either. That's your paraphrase, and not a particularly accurate one. For one thing: OP is talking about him believing provably false off-the-wall conspiracy theories, not 'departing from the path of righteousness'. For another: big drastic personality changes along with paranoia genuinely can be a warning sign of dementia, which is why people were mentioning it.

You can sigh and roll your eyes if you like, but the thing that you are sighing and rolling your eyes at is not the thing that is happening.

Equality for all – yes. But not multiculturalism without any rules. We’ve woken up rather late to the fact that simply modelling our wonderful society won’t change the mindset of those who adhere to medieval and misogynistic ideologies.

The Rotherham sex abuse scandal was a shocking example of how the perpetrators were allowed to continue to abuse many victims, because the authorities were terrified of being accused of racism. Even today we have the ridiculous situation of young girls being denied opportunities to dance, swim and play sports, because their cultural background demands that they’re swathed from head to toe in scarves and robes. But the authorities won’t step in for the same reason.

Call My Bluff – happy memories, the late great Frank Muir.

53rd, if the OP's Father was conversing and agreeing with an anti Trump conspiracy theorist, and there are plenty of those about (clue, you don't have to look too far from here to find them), do you think she would have started this thread?

Let's ask her. FebruaryRat, if your Dad was convinced Trump was about to start World War III or commit genocide, or pick your own conspiracy theory, there's plenty to choose from, what would your response to him be?

She's already answered that upthread, Sleep:

"It is true that I would be worried about his views if he had changed from being a right-wing Tory to a Green Party candidate too - it's about a personal shift as well as about him holding views that I feel are unpalatable."

Nice try 53rd but if he was anti-Trump then that wouldn't be a sea-change like the example FebruaryRat gives in your quote.

My question is if OP's Dad believed the anti-Trump conspiracies, would she have been so concerned that she felt she had to post this thread, or would she agree with him?

She's already said that it's not the part of the political spectrum he's on that bothers her - it's the personality change, the move towards sexism and racism, and the rigid belief in conspiracy theories which are provably false.

You're free to berate her for the things you imagine she would do or say in a hypothetical situation of your own devising, I suppose? But that doesn't really tell us a lot about the actual situation that is actually happening.

We’ve woken up rather late to the fact that simply modelling our wonderful society won’t change the mindset of those who adhere to medieval and misogynistic ideologies.

Especially if those who criticise those ideologies are tarred with the brush of 'radicalised right wing bigot' by such enlightened beings as the OP, who is clearly so insecure in her beliefs that she is incapable of accepting that, in this country, it is still legal to hold personal political views.

And who bandies about pejorative racist terms but excuses them as 'shorthand'
The term redneck is a derogatory term chiefly used for a rural poor white person of the Southern United States. [wilipedia].

Nice.

Limer, as ever, for your sense

*wiki

You're just making it up now 53rd, this is what she said (which you quoted)....

"It is true that I would be worried about his views if he had changed from being a right-wing Tory to a Green Party candidate too - it's about a personal shift as well as about him holding views that I feel are unpalatable."

Read the last line.

And I'm not berating her, I am asking if she'd feel differently if their political views were aligned?

who is clearly so insecure in her beliefs that she is incapable of accepting that, in this country, it is still legal to hold personal political views.

Nobody - not the OP, not anybody else, literally nobody - has suggested it is or should be illegal for her dad to hold whatever batshit political views he chooses.

There is such a bizarre persecution complex among the far right about this - any disagreement at all, however it's expressed, and it's right to toys out of the pram and "the Thought Police are trying to have us dragged off to prison!". Honestly.

Limer, I think a section of posters on here need to go back and read Orwell's Animal Farm where true equality is concerned.

I believe the pig's manifesto was...

All animals are equal....But some Animals are more equal than others.

I am asking if she'd feel differently if their political views were aligned?

She's already said that she'd feel the same no matter if he joined the Tories or the Greens, so I am guessing so, yes? That's covering quite a broad spectrum of political views. But I'm not the OP. Maybe read her posts on the rest of the thread, in which she's answered the "ah-HA, I bet you're just saying that because he's conservative!" point about eight times now already.

Read it again 53rd, she doesn't say Tories OR Greens, she says TO, indicating a sea-change. Now my question was if the "batshit" conspiracy tallied with her own political leanings, would this thread exist.

Or perhaps Or is "shorthand" for To and it's not just racially offensive words she writes by mistake. Actually, as the word 'Redneck' is according to FebruaryRat "not rascist" I wonder why she "hated to use it"? You either know it's a rascist term or you don't FebruaryRat. Which is it?

You're right, there is - but I doubt it's an argument that would find favour with some members of such communities. IME they might even argue that it's precisely because they're such staunch believers in (insert religion, belief, etc) that they feel the need to live among others of like minds.

Not really, I come from a line of integrating families and it's bloody hard work when the town is racist and some people even sell up and move to Barnsley like my neighbour did.
I'm staunchly pro - integration but if others accidentally form ghettoes because they follow other people of colour for in order to feel safe then that's not racism.
Many elders have mentioned that they chose their area due to easy access to the mosque. Or because their wives wanted easy access to the Indian grocers.

People and the media are too quick to label it as racism or isolationism. It's far more complicated and much less racist then what they would like to suggest. They also conveniently fail to mention how racist these towns were when foreigners first entered.

There is such a bizarre persecution complex among the far right about this - any disagreement at all, however it's expressed, and it's right to toys out of the pram

Surely if that were the case, it would be the OP's Old Man on here, whining about his daughter's radicalisation and falling into a bad lot of online lefties.

But it's not. Because, unlike the intolerant left, most conservative people are happy to accept that others have different political beliefs and don't view them as personally threatening, dangerous thoughts that must have been planted by rednecks bastards and must be mocked and reshaped forthwith.

These irony-free threads make my day.

"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

Homophobe? Anti-women's rights? Anti-free speech, regressive? No excuses. Not one. When Intolerance of Intolerance is seen as intolerant something is very very wrong.

Sorry I've gone off topic I must admit. Just a bit fed up of all these blanket 'reports' in the news, not anyone here. But yes it's not because of just sharing a faith and it doesn't happen deliberately.

Because, unlike the intolerant left, most conservative people are happy to accept that others have different political beliefs and don't view them as personally threatening

Keep on telling yourself that, snowflake.

It's called ghettoisation SeetheGood and it's a problem.

Do you see the other side? When one particular group of people moves enmass to an area, another is displaced? Do you have elderly people in your area who do not share your faith? If you do, what do you do to be inclusive?

most conservative people are happy to accept that others have different political beliefs and don't view them as personally threatening, dangerous thoughts

Most? Have you seen the Mail, Express, Sun and Telegraph recently? The level of intolerance of and aggression towards people who dare to express the faintest anti Brexit view is staggering.

OP I think it was obvious from your first post that it was the dramatic change in his thinking, in such a short space of time, that was your primary concern. I certainly read it as such.