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I Lost My Son to the Alt-Right Movement
New York Magazine ^ | August 18, 2017 | Anonymous As Told To Alexa Tsoulis-Reay

Posted on 08/18/2017 12:22:42 PM PDT by nickcarraway

My son was in Charlottesville. He probably went with his friends, but I don’t know for sure because I haven’t talked to him in about three years.

Maybe some alt-righters were born into racist families and then they just follow along, but we weren’t like that. He grew up in a big, multicultural city. When he was a kid, he was very accepting — his friend group was ethnically diverse, we often hosted overseas exchange students. He was dating someone who wasn’t white. He was a responsible kid. I mean, he would occasionally drink and smoke pot and stuff like that, but he wasn’t getting into trouble or anything. He had a few close friends, but he was not that great with getting girlfriends.

He was a good student, smart, sweet, and we were close. He always told me he loved me. But over time he began to change. I was worried it was drugs or depression. He started treating me like shit. I remember one time I went to hug him and he nearly ripped me a new one just for touching him. He said, “We have nothing in common.” I was hurt. That was just the beginning.

When he was in his late teens, he started listening to this podcast FreeDomain Radio. After he told me about it, I googled it, and from that point forward, my life was never the same. It was founded by this guy Stefan Molyneux, who I later learned is a major figure on the alt-right. He spews horrible things. I heard him listening to the podcasts in his bedroom. My son started saying things like, If we could just get the Asians out of here it wouldn’t be so crowded. I realized he was getting into really dangerous stuff. He was beyond the point where we could have a rational discussion. Not long after, I told him I thought he should move out.

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Men’s-Rights Activism Is the Gateway Drug for the Alt-Right After he left, we stopped talking and he pretty much alienated his closest friends. The only way I could keep track of him was by watching his online presence on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube (I remembered his nicknames from when he lived at home). I saw that he was questioning the Holocaust, and tweeting about Trump, white supremacy, and all this horrible stuff about women. On his YouTube account, people were commenting that women don’t need to have education because their place is at home having babies. I panicked and approached a local religious group that’s very knowledgeable about cults and they said, Just wait it out and take care of yourself.

These days, I check up on him whenever I’m on the computer — it’s constant. I’ve got all his social-media pages pinned on Google Chrome. Sometimes he removes posts quickly and sometimes he makes things public and leaves them there. Maybe he wants me to see? I make sure I’m not logged in when I look at his accounts because I don’t want him to block me.

I recently saw him on a video, he looks healthy. Taking good care of yourself is all part of the white-supremacy thing, right? They have to be in good shape in case there’s violence, and they have to be fit so they can make good white babies. My thinking these days is God forbid he should have kids.

I knew from his tweets that he was going to Charlottesville and I was nervous because I know these things can turn violent. And throughout the day I was anxious, waiting for him to tweet so I knew he was okay. I’m horrified that he was there. From his tweets, it sounds like he was hanging around with neo-Nazis. It’s hard for me to believe. And then there’s a part of me that hopes he does something and gets caught because that’s one way to get him reformed.

I think the biggest thing with him is he needed a father figure. His dad really disappointed him. The alt-right is definitely a group that people are recruited into. I really do believe that. They take a “normal” level of fear of difference to the extreme. And I think that time of life — after school, when you are in your early 20s, is a real period of transition, of finding yourself. These kids think they have found the answer in these alt-right groups, you know? Like, I can be a part of something that’s bigger than me … and then they feel like they’re really going to make a difference, they even have a passion for making a difference.

All parents look back at how they raised their children and think they could have done something different, but I did the best I could. I raised him alone for a big part of his life. When he was younger, I had more control, but you can’t be with them 24/7. You don’t know what they’re listening to. They take their laptops to school. You can’t know everything that’s on the internet. Once they find it and feel like it speaks to them, they’re not going to listen to you.

These days the only way I can reach him is email. I sometimes send him videos of our dog. I have an extension on email that shows me if he reads it. The last thing I sent him was a video of our dog, but you could hear my voice … I secretly hope he felt something when he heard my voice, because deep inside I know he must miss me.

*Some names and details have been changed.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bummer; charlottesville
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To: nickcarraway
>>The alt-right is definitely a group that people are recruited into.

Wow. How easily that lie rolls off the tongue.

"The alt-right is definitely a group"

So much easier to vilify when abstracted into a "group" - rather than addressing specific ideological principles of THOSE...

...Individuals.

21 posted on 08/18/2017 12:32:16 PM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: subterfuge

This is a creative writing piece from a student of CUNY i’m sure.


22 posted on 08/18/2017 12:32:33 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Salvey

The alt-right is the alt-left.


23 posted on 08/18/2017 12:32:54 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Completely fabricated bull shiess.


24 posted on 08/18/2017 12:34:32 PM PDT by piasa
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To: nickcarraway

The use of the term “Alt-Right” is an attempt to smear a non-racist movement with a bunch of Wacky Cracker KKK nut jobs.

The author of this article is fully aware that the Alt-Right was not in Charlottesville.


25 posted on 08/18/2017 12:35:25 PM PDT by The Toll
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To: nickcarraway

Here’s the problem.

“Alt-right” “movement”.

It is used as if (a) it is a monolith, (b) an “integrated movement” of “all alike minded” folks, and (c) universally racist, “White Supremacist” and bigoted.

It’s dishonest.

To, intellectually make that characterization of “Alt-Right”, then on that basis one could claim that given a dominance of Marxists on the podium at the “March on Washington in January”, the “movement” that represented was 100% Marxist and EVERYONE that went there was too.

Would the media and those writing for it ever use that one intellectually honest standard comparison? No.

Why. Their double standard and the agenda it serves.


26 posted on 08/18/2017 12:35:27 PM PDT by Wuli
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To: nickcarraway

My spidey-sense tells me that this is ficticious.


27 posted on 08/18/2017 12:36:26 PM PDT by choirboy
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To: LibWhacker

White people having white babies is racist but we need to import millions of illiterate third world people who don’t speak English to signal our virtue. Got it.


28 posted on 08/18/2017 12:36:35 PM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: subterfuge

Fake, fake, fake!

Probably written by two homosexual men...partners..just my guess.


29 posted on 08/18/2017 12:38:01 PM PDT by Leep (Less talk more ACTiON!)
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To: nickcarraway
Absolutely hilarious commentary.

For a while there I though good ol' Lucky9teen had reprised the Official Friday Silliness thread!

30 posted on 08/18/2017 12:38:16 PM PDT by glennaro
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To: nickcarraway

Some day soon it will be, ‘Christians took my son away!’.
Dumb is not recognizing tyranny.
Just because I am not a Nazi does not mean that they should not be allowed peaceful constitutionally allowed protest.
Just turn your back!
Dumb is not seeing how the tables can turn on you when you allow it to be turned on others.
Many will soon ask,”why didn’t we do something?”


31 posted on 08/18/2017 12:38:23 PM PDT by right way right (May we remain sober over mere men, for God really is our one and only true hope.)
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He was a responsible kid. I mean, he would occasionally drink and smoke pot and stuff like that, but he wasn’t getting into trouble or anything.

He was getting into drinking and smoking pot, moron. and that was apparently OK with you so, with no disciplinarian in his life , instead an enabling mother.... who was there for him to respect?

Maybe his opinion of women was actually just his opinion of a weak mother?

32 posted on 08/18/2017 12:39:15 PM PDT by piasa
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To: nickcarraway
It was founded by this guy Stefan Molyneux, who I later learned is a major figure on the alt-right. He spews horrible things. I heard him listening to the podcasts in his bedroom. My son started saying things like, If we could just get the Asians out of here it wouldn’t be so crowded.

IF, and that's a big if, the kid ever said anything like that he didn't get it from Stephan Molyneaux.

33 posted on 08/18/2017 12:39:32 PM PDT by pgkdan (The Silent Majority Stands With TRUMP!)
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To: nickcarraway
This reminds me of the self-obseesed, tattooed WaPo blogger who posted about her son a few weeks ago. She had raised indoctrinated him to be a "feminist."

The young man rebelled, straight into the arms of Breitbart.

34 posted on 08/18/2017 12:41:44 PM PDT by shhrubbery! (NIH!)
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To: nickcarraway
From his tweets, it sounds like he was hanging around with neo-Nazis. It’s hard for me to believe. And then there’s a part of me that hopes he does something and gets caught because that’s one way to get him reformed.

That's genius lady...hope for him to get arrested and go to prison...that way MS-13 or The New Black Panthers or even Skinheads will get him all straightened out.

Sounds like this kid's biggest problem was growing up in this crazy lady's house.

35 posted on 08/18/2017 12:43:04 PM PDT by pgkdan (The Silent Majority Stands With TRUMP!)
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To: DiogenesLamp

I noticed a few times, as I read the article, There were tidbits where I said to myself, “There’s your problem right there.”


36 posted on 08/18/2017 12:43:32 PM PDT by robroys woman
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To: nickcarraway

Fake Azz Story.

Even if it were true then your son is an idiot and an amoral Fk. I’d disown him...

What didn’t you give him as a child he is now receiving as an adult.

You haven’t spoken with our son in 3 years but, you stalk him somehow enough to know his whereabouts?

Story is fake....


37 posted on 08/18/2017 12:43:59 PM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: Army Air Corps

Men’s-Rights Activism Is the Gateway Drug for the Alt-Right


That is something a misandrist says. ;)


38 posted on 08/18/2017 12:44:31 PM PDT by robroys woman
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To: nickcarraway

you even have an extension on your email enabling you track your son?

There are too many things wrong with this work of fiction.


39 posted on 08/18/2017 12:47:04 PM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: nickcarraway

As told to? How about As imagined by?


40 posted on 08/18/2017 12:47:21 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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