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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

Satire.


41 posted on 08/18/2017 12:55:48 PM PDT by EDINVA
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To: nickcarraway

Ah, another glimpse into the ctrl-left-fem mind. Enlightening :)

They project their heavy indoctrinating onto others. Can’t believe a kid could come to conclusions and opinions on his own. Certainly can’t fathom rejection of their queer, feminist, spineless PC ways. LOL!


42 posted on 08/18/2017 12:56:32 PM PDT by polymuser (Enough is enough.)
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To: nickcarraway

That kid should start a consulting group called: “How to Save Your Kid from Liberalism”.

I’d sign up for a course on it!


43 posted on 08/18/2017 12:57:04 PM PDT by ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton (Go Egypt on 0bama)
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To: nickcarraway

Sounds like his mommy was taken away from him by the left-wingers.


44 posted on 08/18/2017 12:57:57 PM PDT by CodeToad (AA)
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To: nickcarraway


Don't blame me, For my son Stan,
He saw the darn cartoon,
And now he's off to join the Klan!
45 posted on 08/18/2017 12:59:21 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: nickcarraway

Touching story. How about ‘How I lost my daughter to Marxist revolutionaries and the ALT left’!


46 posted on 08/18/2017 12:59:25 PM PDT by Lent
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To: nickcarraway

He went away for the holidays. Said he was going to LA, but he never got there...


47 posted on 08/18/2017 12:59:46 PM PDT by philled (If this creature is not stopped it could make its way to Novosibirsk!)
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To: philled
“Alt-Right Movement”........

The title of that group needs to be the “Anarchists Alt-Far Right, its more fitting.

48 posted on 08/18/2017 1:07:21 PM PDT by DaveA37
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To: nickcarraway

So this idiot thinks Stefan Molyneux, a self described practitioner of the non aggression movement, converted her son to being a nazi? Good grief, the guy doesn’t even believe in spanking a child.


49 posted on 08/18/2017 1:10:39 PM PDT by magglepuss
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To: riri

More insidious.


50 posted on 08/18/2017 1:16:51 PM PDT by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - JRRT)
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To: nickcarraway

“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.” - A kid who would drink and smoke pot? That is neither a responsible kid or a good parent...

Secondly, she kicks him out of the house and then proceeds to spy on his every move in social media? Now she is reporting his actions to the public? Seems he will be one of the first to be executed if the left gets control and sets up a Nazis-turn-your-neighbor in phone line...


51 posted on 08/18/2017 1:20:53 PM PDT by VaeVictis (~Woe to the Conquered~)
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To: nickcarraway

I doubt the reporter gets away with this fabrication.


52 posted on 08/18/2017 1:28:06 PM PDT by BobL (In Honor of the NeverTrumpers, I declare myself as FR's first 'Imitation NeverTrumper')
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To: nickcarraway

The KKK ate my homework


53 posted on 08/18/2017 1:29:44 PM PDT by Zathras
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To: dainbramaged
Pathetic self serving screed which is probably total B.S.

Absolutely. This anonymous tale reeks of concocted fiction. The descriptions are something that an ignorant lefty would imagine that being in the alt-right is all about. I hope whichever 8th grader wrote this got an 'A' on this creative writing assignment.
54 posted on 08/18/2017 1:31:15 PM PDT by fr_freak
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To: nickcarraway

In this case, anonymous == fake until proven otherwise.


55 posted on 08/18/2017 2:16:19 PM PDT by GCC Catholic (Trump doesn't suffer fools, but fools will suffer Trump. Make America Great Again!)
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To: fr_freak

Yes, she doesn’t know that the alt-right is pro-abortion and pro-LGBT.


56 posted on 08/18/2017 2:31:55 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway
"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."

No lady, that was just when you finally noticed. Your son didn't go from "loving son" to "nothing in common" overnight. You missed plenty of opportunities to talk with your son and influence his life - but you didn't care enough to pay attention to him and what he was going through as he grew up. And now he's grown up and it's too late for you. But, on the brighter side, it sounds like your son made it out in one piece with his mind intact. Good for him.
57 posted on 08/18/2017 3:03:10 PM PDT by Garth Tater (What's mine is mine.)
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To: nickcarraway

White males are second class citizens. Sounds like he finally woke up and threw off the man-hating teachings of his feminist mom. No wonder his dad couldn’t put up with the b


58 posted on 08/18/2017 3:21:21 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: magglepuss

Stefan is pretty smart and studies history. He is atheist though. He had Michelle Malkin and Dinesh D’Souza on his videos recently and also spoke with James Damore.


59 posted on 08/18/2017 3:22:14 PM PDT by Mozilla (Truth Is Stranger than Fictionr)
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To: nickcarraway

Not sure about the abortion thing, but I’ve seen nothing to suggest that alt-right is pro-gaybaconlettuceandtomato


60 posted on 08/18/2017 3:40:44 PM PDT by fr_freak
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