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.

Thank you Desolate
"the Times: the Sun but with less obvious tits and longer words"

whoputthecatout -another wise post.

I do think that when the people who are in their thirties now suddenly find that everything that they believed is considered unacceptable, everything they worked for and saved for is now under threat, their values are being challenged, their achievements belittled and the defences they built being torn down - they may change some of their views.

Pretty sure it's up to him if he wants to do that

Didn't say it wasn't. Just think it's ridiculous. Would he turn down life saving surgery if the consultant was 'tory'

He did change dentists after finding out he was a Tory though.

Fuck me, I'm actually speechless. That isn't something I'm known for! That's so stupid it makes me squint. It does go hand in hand with the type of man i'd expect to see on a "women's' march" though.

Yes, I think having a fanatical support of womens' rights is not a bad thing. Are you telling me you do?

Yes. Fanatical support of anything is bad. Racism, disability rights or feminism. Black Panthers, IRA, modern feminists, BLM... I agree with some or many of the points they are (or were) making but when taken to an extreme is as ridiculous and abhorrent as that which they're fighting against.

There is nothing I can think of where fanatical support is a positive.

As I've grown older, I've realised moderation is the key to life. Chocolate, alcohol, politics... fanaticism is a sign of ignorance and lack of education.

Op if anyone sounds brain washed to me its you.

You have grown up with a lefty teacher DF who read the Guardian and now his views have changed a bit. You cant handle it.

Utterly bizarre we are starting to see more and more of this. Your description of yourself has hard left sounds apt to me. It sounds like you would be comfortable to offer him up and report him for thought crime.

Give him up to a struggle session, where you and your cronies can hold him to account and purge him.

Sans I couldn't agree more.

Februaryrat You may spit on the Daily Mail, but do you realise that it was the first British newspaper to properly report on the sex attacks in Cologne 2016 while the Guardian was fannying around, choosing its language carefully and trying not to describe the perpetrators. DM continues to report on the rapes of boy and girl children in the swimming pools of Europe by the recently-arrived.

To me he sounds like he has been radicalised. His views are pretty extreme, especially for someone who you describe as being previously apolitical.

My dad is not like this, he is now and has always been left wing. He taught me about feminism and anti-racism when I was a child. He always calmly listens to other people's points of view, but he never moves away from his moral base.

I believe my brother who is in his early forties has been radicalised online. He always used to argue with my dad about the Israelis/Palestinians on the side of the Israelis, but now he is the opposite, but to an extreme degree. He watches David Ike videos and loves George Galloway, and it's really hard to talk to him now without him bringing everything back to his politics. It's quite upsetting. I sympathise.

OP - I think your dad has just had a surfeit of Regressive Left propaganda into every facet of our lives. Don't get angry with him, get angry with the real haters and racists - like those responsible for 7/7 and 9/11.

P.S. The excellent Maajid Nawaz coined the phrase "Regressive left" (or regressive liberal). It has caused untold brainwashing and hypocrisy.

It describes a section of left-wing politics who paradoxically hold reactionary views by their tolerance of illiberal principles and ideologies, particularly tolerance of Islamism, for the sake of multiculturalism and cultural relativism.

You could show him this. It's US-slanted, but still useful.
www.unit587.com/bbs/leaked/370972-convenient-diagram-quality-news-sources

And Muslim Maajid was thanked by the American left by being placed onto their anti-Muslim Islamophobic extremist list. Regressive doesn't even cut it.

Crikey! Looking at some of the replies to this it seems a fair few others have been radicalised by all the right-wing nonsense as well. Opinions that used to be fairly in the centre are now considered to be far left. This is worrying.

@BiscuitMillionaire I love that diagram. He won't accept the BBC as a reputable news source though, saying it's controlled by left-wing ideology.

The funny thing is, I have leftie fb friends who are convinced that the BBC is controlled by right-wing ideology!

I have a lot of respect for the BBC's attempt to be unbiased.

It sounds like you would be comfortable to offer him up and report him for thought crime. TheFullMrexit - this is has worreid me about so many people recently.

I remember being on a thread in which a tutor in someone's home decided that the 15year old she was coaching for GCSEs had made a "potentially racist" remark.

Lots of agonising and virtue signalling later the tutor decided to resign but in this case not to report the child to the school or mention it to the parents. She did however tell her story.

People are regularly called racist or worse not because they have expressed a racist view but because they "probably are" racists. (This made on the basis of other random facts like the paper they read, the clothes they wear, the friends they have. Very dangerous territory indeed.

Sounds the same as my dad, he's got some extreme views on what's wrong with the world (immigration is a big trigger for him) and while I have had discussions with him which, up to a point, remain reasonable, I tend to avoid. We have completely different views and experiences of the world and now he's in his 70s I don't see the point on arguing or trying to change him. He does believe in climate change though and is surprisingly environmentalist, so at least we agree on something! My sister, on the other hand, is a fucking nightmare. She lives in America, pretty normal & middle class, and her and her husband support Trump (she doesn't have a vote but he's American ). They have a massive issue with immigration, think there's terrorists round every corner and that the country is far too PC. Oh yeah, and gun control - that's a no-no too. I had massive fallout with her about it. I cannot get my head round her views, particularly concerning Trump et al, even though I get why a lot of people voted for a different government. So, we just don't talk about it now - or at least, I have to change the subject if there's even a hint of politics in our conversation. It's very difficult. She's visiting in the summer so I am anticipating some major arguments but I won't be able to keep my mouth shut. I'll probably end up on here ranting about it

I BELIEVE HE HAS RADICALISED MY DAD.

So the high moral ground is now the exclusive prerogative of the liberal left.

Could it be that the oldies, rather than being radicalised by their choice of media, exhibiting early onset dementia or hounded by thought police (even within their own family), are just sick of having their concerns overlooked and being castigated for having a differing opinion.

Refusing to engage with people deemed to be not sufficiently "modern" in their thinking or actions leads to them express themselves by the only method left - the polling booth.

He won't accept the BBC as a reputable news source though, saying it's controlled by left-wing ideology.

Funnily enough many on the left thing it controlled by right-wing ideology.

*think

Our politics are directly formed and influenced by our experiences so you would expect views to differ.

There is no right way and extremism of any shade is bad news.

I've been totally triggered by this thread. retreats to safe space

Cough cough...blame the left for the rise of the right. Why do all threads now sink to this?

We have friends of most non radical political nuonces and religions

My beautiful white grandmother married a black man in the 1940s she didnt have an issue. So why do so many posters older relatives have one? What is the justification people?

Is prejudice normalised and acceptable now?

This thread is taking a bit of an ageist tone tbh.

Hate to tell you this op but it will happen to you

Disagree. IME, many people get less extreme in their political views as they age, whether they started as Left or Right.

My DF went the other way from the OP's: having been a moderate(ish) Tory all his life, he moved to the centre and was even heard to say the odd kind word about Tony Benn. Fortunately Dad died before the Corbyn era - that might have been a stretch too far

Not sure how it's ageist at all