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.

Well I agree that America is pretty far gone in fascism right now. But its not like the UK hasn’t had its own homegrown fascists for decades. If you imported it that was more than 80 years ago and not from the US. As for Farage et al their money and bile is not particularly American, is it?

I suppose I might add that going to observe has more than one meaning. One is to literally look. The second is to check the conduct of the police or offer support to the protesters if the police are considered to be acting in way that is unacceptable. That second one is not very neutral and suggests quite a lot of involvement.

You're over-egging it now.

I’d be upset op, but hopefully it goes peacefully. We all have the right ( just about) to peaceful protest.
talk to him when he gets back, find out why he went, what he got out of it.

Freedom of speech means you should be able to have the freedom to express your opinion on something. It makes no difference if you don’t agree or you think it’s far right or far left or whatever. Unfortunately we are inundated with media and social forums and images and voices and it’s very hard to focus on truth and values in this environment, especially when you’re young. We have to be very careful to know how to differentiate between expressing an opinion and being hateful and racist. Sadly, it feels like this line has been crossed on so many levels. Hate speech is somewhat subjective, for example, we may feel upset about what we see in Gaza, and say things like: how can we help? What can I do to educate myself and try to understand the situation? It’s appalling what Israel is doing. To me, that’s expressing an opinion. But saying: zios are evil, Israel is a Nazi state, the majority of Jews support a genocide, that in my opinion crosses over into hate and racism. The far right are racist, there’s no question, but there is a difference between saying: immigrants are taking over, they’re criminals, and saying: I’m concerned about the balance of power and the left-wing public censoring anything they disagree with.
I want to feel safe as a minority group, I want my friends to feel safe as a majority group, and I want to surround myself with people who understand how to discuss differing opinions with me without resorting to hatred, judgement and racism.

OP the March is a free speech March..
Are you anti free speech?

Out of interest, what do you perceive “far left” to be in this country?

I don’t know… I think I’d be absolutely appalled as well if my kids grew up racist.

This is a u equivocally racist event, organised by racists (and Russian bots) and attended by racists.
It’s possible to have concerns about immigration and not be extreme right, but this march and its organisers haven’t even tried to hide their true feelings.

People really have no other historical comparison, do they? Must be nice to live a simple life without nuance, where you can just shove people into the ‘Nazi’ bin and make no effort at understanding others 😄

9/11 lit the fuse and it's still burning.

Would you not say that the pro Palestine protests are racist?

No I'm clapping the message of reunite Great Britain, let's not lose our freedom of speech, the man who called out grooming gangs & child marriages and I'll clap it again 👏🏻 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

People want their voices heard?

There is daily reporting about hotel protests and immigration

And how many of our homeless are you housing at yours?

Oh well, they’re entitled to their views, just as you are to yours. I’m not in the business of policing people’s opinions.

If we have no free speech, how is this march being allowed and promoted?

People keep biting and making ridiculous comments so I'll keep going.

The photo you are clapping of the organiser of the march contains the message 'Heil Hitler'.

Are you sure you still want to clap?

Protecting women and girls ‘crap’ is a bad thing now is it? Okay. I see you. You shouldn’t self-hate but whatever.

I remember a statistic from last year - something like a third of all men marching against immigration at the time, supposedly to protect the women and children, had domestic violence convictions or offences against minors. For most people, it’s just an excuse to air their xenophobia and hatred. We can have a grown up conversation about immigration policy without resorting to intimidation, vandalism and hate speech.

I've literally just listed what I'm clapping 🤔

The ones that behaved like this when George Floyd died but have been mysteriously quiet when Iryna Zarutska died.

https://news.sky.com/story/george-floyd-violence-breaks-out-at-anti-racism-protest-in-london-12001942

No one can have a grown up debate about it when they’re demonised and called Nazis.

Not saying that you did, but what I’m especially loving these days is hearing people who voted for Brexit complaining about the worsening state of the place… price rises, immigration, etc. Vote against their own best interests and then blame it on people in boats rather than on their own stupidity. Of course things are getting worse… it’s what people voted for. Where is the outcry about the hundreds of millions of pounds that the Tories stole from the public purse through ppe?

Totally understandable to worry if their views are extreme, OP.
But if it is essentially just a difference of opinion, maybe it feels so personal and you are reacting so viscerally, because politics can become a big part of our identity? So disagreement can feel like rejection, even when it’s not.