WIBU to call out my racist cousin on facebook

[kikisparks]

My little cousin aged 15 posts men’s rights stuff and racist false info on his Facebook page and it enrages me. The most recent is actually satire but I think he has posted it believing it is genuine- it’s a famous pop singer duo dressed as soldiers and has a caption that they were refused service in Tesco because they were dressed as soldiers and it was against the cashier’s religion, “share if you think this is a disgrace”. He has shared it.

He’s posted racist stuff in the past so I think he’s posting it seriously, also the singers are from the 70s so he probably doesn’t know who they are. WIBU to embarrass him and say something sarky about it on Facebook? Might cause family feud but I’m not very comfortable having fake far right crap put out there and left unchallenged.

I was trying to stick to positive comments only on Facebook though, it would be good if there was some way to educate the racist and misogynist out of him as he’s so young but I don’t think I have enough influence sadly

I have an uncle who's doing the same, and I'm not challenging it. BUT. I was listening to a professor the other day who made a good argument that our lack of challenging is what's causing the extremes in polarisation.

When people post and share this sh*t, their motivation is not discourse, but the narcissistic approval of people who already agree with them, and think the 'other side' is worthlesse.

This contempt can generate the same biological response as a physical assault, which is why we can feel so angry. Which then leads us to think 'it's not worth it' - thus perpetuating each side thinking the other is less than them, and increasing the polarisation.

I feel like the old mumsnet adage for off-hand comments in real life here, is pretty perfect for this online situation "what makes you say that?". It helps turn the attack into a conversation, and shows that we want to understand someone's POV.

Then again, I'm just a lady who's too chicken to say the same to her own family, so maybe don't listen to me!

out of interest what picture was it?

I would definitely challenge it. Not challenging it just encourages him to think that it's acceptable. I constantly call my family out on things like this, and slowly, very slowly, I am starting to educate them.

It doesn't have to be a public comment. But please DM him to say something along the lines of, "Hope you know that's fake. Bit embarrassing!"

Unfortunately you can't simply change mind of this type of people. You can try to find out if he believes the things he posts are real and then explain to him about fake news and satire.
Or you can share an article on fake news and tag him in there suggesting nicely he and few others, so he doesn't feel singled out, read it.
He is 15 so he is at the age he can be easily influenced by bad people, however, he can still be influenced by the good ones too!
What are his parents saying about it?

This reminds me of when Britains first shared a pic of RAF pilots saying "They fought to save our country, not to give it to others. Out of EU!" And people shared it like crazy commenting "Yeah, fuck off foreigners".
It was a pic of very successful Czechoslovakian RAF unit...

Here you go Choccy . Saw it yesterday and wanted to share it but have a few iffy relatives on fb that would probably think it's genuine 🙄

Report him to South Yorkshire Police, this is a non crime but could lead to further things in future.

We all must get on board with the thought policing!!

I would comment, ‘ha, love these parodies’ or something. And then add another, equally funny, link from Southend News Network which is where the guy is from.