My son has gone on the march

[funkadelic]

Hi, have been on here years but only lurk, don’t post. But today is the day.
I am in bits. My 22yr old DS is in London on this march. I am shaking and utterly appalled. We differ on politics massively and have done for some time. I work in education, have travelled and am bit of a lefty hippy but to be honest it’s becoming more about values and morals. He is fully immersed in the manosphere algorithm and I’ve always thought he is exploring himself and things and have chats about why he has the opinions he does and try and understand his point of view. I try not to belittle him but try and get him to critically think about things.
But this I can’t deal with. I am so upset that my son has gone to this, and that it is something that is so far away from me and my values, something that I thought I had instilled in him as well.
I am totally aware that it’s triggered embarrassment but that is my issue and I’m not putting that on him. He is still my son and I love him and his passion and interest in the world, just in something I believe is so wrong and makes me sad.
Please talk some sense into me.

He's doing what he wants too, why does he have to have the same beliefs as you.
I should drop it, otherwise you'll cause a big divide.
They say never discuss religion and politics and they are right.

There is more than one way a culture can come under threat

I'm not extolling far left ideology either.
I want a fair country for all but a lot of the racist stuff is already filtering down to people that are born here or here legally.
I'm not advocating all and sundry walk into the UK but could do without the division and hatred.

Because of the rise of "non-crime hate incidents" where the Police are sidetracked from actual "policing", checking up on people accused of writing "hurty words" on social media.

A voice of reason. I always find your posts sensible and eloquent.

Can you explain what you mean by that?

Thankfully! 😁

This isn't the U.S. though, you need to understand the cultural context of the far right in England. I grew up in London in the 90s and it was an awful time when the racism was heightened, my brother's poor friend beaten up for the colour of his skin. It was around the time of the racist murder if Stephen Lawrence. These were very dark times and being anti racist is not 'Far left' it is not being racist which is morally repugnant!

🇬🇧❤️

There are plenty of ways of being a non-lefty hippy type without going on a march organised by a neo-Nazi.

Please expand. The Muslim population of the UK is around 6%. That is the population that Yaxley-Lennon supporters appear to fear the most. How exactly does a 6% minority group threaten the culture of the majority? I have asked this question on other threads but never received an answer.

Lol

Your cultural context is very different to that of other people.

You are shaking. Why?
You can't force your adult son to share your opinions.
Rightly or wrongly he is his own person.

What do you mean?

So how is your culture under threat?

OP, I am on the opposite side of the political spectrum (dyed in the wool Conservative) from you so you will understand how I felt when one of my DDs voted for Jeremy Corbyn! The point is, if you bring your children up to be open minded and to question things, you can’t then mind when they question what you believe. Your son’s politics may well change with time - but be proud that you have brought him up to feel that he can hold opinions that you disagree with. As one who feels very strongly about freedom if speech, I can hardly complain when my own dear children exercise it, and in terms of politics, I know they have voted every which way.

Plenty of coded antisemitic, Nazi-style and conspiratorial messages on the signs at almost every pro-Palestine march. Do you feel the same outrage about them?

Do those on the right not believe their opinions are equally sacrosanct? Or should we expect to be seeing banners today saying "Reclaim our country (but only if you all think its a good idea, because I'm kind of leaning that way, but open to be convinced I'm wrong by my friends on the left)? Isn't a belief that you're right the very reason any of us bother arguing the toss in the first place?

I find it awful when the kind of people who are shouting at hotels and graffiti spraying roundabouts try to use the second world war dead to justify their views. My dad and my uncle fought against the type of hate and authoritarianism that is currently gaining ground in the UK and in my uncle's case it ultimately cost him his life. Remembrance day this year is going to be an embarrassing s**t show isn't it? I can't avoid it because my DS takes part.

The same sentiment could be used about all the homogenous anonymous balaclava covered Antifa unwashed 😄

You didn’t answer the question?

Were you happy with the Tories’ handling of immigration? I wonder why there were no marches in 2023?

Why ask questions when you don’t want answers? You don’t like the answers anyone provides and dismiss them, so it’s a pointless exercise.

he'll be appalled by some of the signs, chants, abuse of police

It’s not just right wing protestors who abuse the police, last weeks Palestine Action protest resulted in the Met saying:

“officers have been punched, kicked, spat on and had objects thrown at them by protesters.It is intolerable that …. (police officers)….. should be subject to this level of abuse."

And?