A mother's warning: If you have white teen sons, listen up

[tulipsandroses]

This is an article from 2019. But a more recent article below made me think of it

A mother's warning: If you have white teen sons, listen up ...
By Sara Sidner, CNN

Joanna Schroeder has a warning for parents of teen and tween white boys: If you don't pay attention to their online lives, the white supremacists will.
They've studied the way that our young men interact online, and they have looked at what these boys need," she said. "And they have learned how to fill those needs in order to entice them into propaganda."

That's what she found when she asked her own teenager if they could go through some of his social media together. He was scrolling quickly, really quickly," she said. "It was so fast, and he slowed down, and I saw an image of Hitler and I stopped him, and I said, 'Wait, is that Hitler?'"

It was. A meme depicting Hitler and implying a time traveler would have tipped him off about the future to keep him alive had popped into the boy's Instagram suggestions.

"I know my kids understand Hitler, but as I scrolled through his [social media] I saw more memes that joked about the Holocaust and joked about slavery," Schroeder said. The impact, she said, seemed to be "desensitizing our kids to things we should be sensitive to."

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/10/22/us/california-mother-warning-white-supremacists-soh/index.html

Mom agonizes about how to reach her son, a man with a Buddha tattoo who turned to hate
By Sara Sidner, CNN
Updated 12:59 PM ET, Sun July 3, 2022

Provo, Utah (CNN)The first sign of trouble was brief. Just a couple of comments during the hustle and bustle of regular life.

Karen Amsden was chatting to her son in the driveway while picking up her grandchildren when she mentioned something about a quote by Anne Frank, one of the most famous victims of the Nazis who wrote a haunting diary before she was captured and murdered in the Holocaust.
"He just said something about, 'That's not even real. The Holocaust isn't real,'" Amsden recalled.
She thought her son was joking. Now she says it's clear he was not.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/03/us/mom-tries-to-help-extremist-son-sidner/index.html

[Maraya1969]

1. It amazes me that people can believe an entire part of history didn't happen.

I know it is what the leaders of these movements want and/or believe but the contortions that put themselves through trying to get to a place where they can bask in their hate without cognitive dissonance is wild.

The videos and photos were all faked? The history books are all faked?

But why the hatred of Jews? I do even know what their latest take is on that one. Judaism is a small but powerful group. Maybe that is why some others chose them to pick on. ???

[Kali]

8. whole swaths of us ignore chunks of history all the time

we have ignored and continue to ignore much of our own unpleasant past in this country.

[LeftInTX]

2. My son is 1/2 Hispanic

There is plenty of hate to go around.

[Haggard Celine]

3. Yeah, white nationalists are going all out

pushing hate on those kids. Alex Jones and Roger Stone and others of that ilk are constantly busy scrambling the brains of young people who don't have good critical thinking skills. The fight we're in with the right is just going to get worse and worse unless those assholes are thoroughly discredited. Right now, the J6 Committee is moving us in the right direction.

[czarjak]

4. The hate cycle unfortunately will never be broken?

[panfluteman]

5. OMG - This Has Got Me Shaking in My Boots!

And then, when they turn eighteen, they can go out and get an AR-15.

[CaptainTruth]

6. This is the REAL "grooming" parents should be concerned about...

...not LGBTQ or CRT issues.

[Model35mech]

7. While trying to understand your sons and their beliefs is a great idea

I'm not sure demonizing all white teens is going to have a desired effect.

Most teens are going through angst in preparation of separating from parents and becoming independent. It's a time fraught with difficult conflicts over desire for independence and fear of independence. Most teens hate helicoptering parental interventions.

I totally encourage people to know their sons and wish them well in coping with all the issues that arise. I feel lucky my son and I got through that period with some level of good will.

That didn't happen between him and his mother... she raged at him about the evils of Dungeons and Dragons which just made him love it more.

[fishwax]

11. who is "demonizing all white teens"?

I'm not sure demonizing all white teens is going to have a desired effect.

[Model35mech]

15. I think that's the nature of naming only WHITE TEENS as the problem

sorry but I do.

The other colored sons would seem to be looked over, getting something of a pass on needing close attention from their parents.

[fishwax]

16. The article doesn't do that, though. It describes a vulnerability specific to white teens,

but it doesn't imply that only white teens are the problem.

[Model35mech]

17. but they are the ones with the specific vulnerability...

this seems rather circular

[fishwax]

18. the specific vulnerability of being recruited by white supremacists

Discussing the problem of white supremacists grooming white teens through social media isn't in any way "demonizing all white teens" or "naming only WHITE TEENS as the problem."

[Withywindle]

19. White teens are more likely to be recruited to white supremacy

For several fairly obvious reasons.

Pointing that out is in no way "demonizing all white teens.

[Model35mech]

20. National Youth Gang Survey Analysis: look at the demographics

https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh176/files/pubs/96natyouthgangsrvy/surv_6c.html

This report will help understand racial groups within gangs over all types of community, rural, suburban and urban. If you only look at one type of gang, you not surprisingly see only that picture.

The above data really suggest to me that parents of sons face different gang related issues depending on size of their community and the their community's setting rural, suburban and urban.

Like so much in US society, our the urban vs other divide shows a pattern in this data as well, although the reports finding on racialized membership in suburban gangs will likely surprise many.

[LeftInTX]

9. Shooter's mom is Hispanic (Mexican-American)

[vercetti2021]

10. Here's my experience

I was once a boy. Not anymore. I'm a trans woman. But I was targeted by this sorta thing in my teenage years too. Mostly from gaming communities. White supremacists and such infuriated these games and their voice servers to convert these types of teens into their way of thinking.

I played MMOs growing up a lot. These guys are very impressionable on young teens. I was in a guild that had these troglodytes in it and this was during the time Obama was elected the first time. They made character names being quite hateful and racist to the former president. They were very vocal in our voice chats about how evil the left is and Obama is the antichrist and all that shit. They tried to rope me into their way of thinking. I said I voted for him and I was a Democrat.

But they didn't mind it as I was young and could be converted. Was until I reported their character names to the game admins and they got suspended. They knew I wasn't going to flip and they decided to come after me hard. It was a game. I blocked them and that was that. They are powerless once you block them.

But this was and still is a reality for online gaming. They call it redpilling the youth. Now they target games like minecraft and roblox which is popular to kids and especially pre teens. They are indeed the true groomers. It all can be traced back to 4chan, 8chan. You name it.

[tulipsandroses]

13. Wow. Thank you for sharing your experience

There are a lot of articles that draw a through line from GamerGate to the insurrection.

[vercetti2021]

14. You're welcome

Yeah that gamergate was just a humongous shit show of a stupid mess. never seen so many virgin incel losers get so intimidated by a bunch of female gamers

[blogslug]

12. Thank you for this link

The story is a good companion to this one:

https://medium.com/curiouserinstitute/a-game-designers-analysis-of-qanon-580972548be5

[Amishman]

21. I can see rightwing extremism being an enduring problem with young white men

Part of understanding the need to explicitly celebrate women and non-white racial/ethnic groups is realizing the past injustices. This requires a well adjusted individual with a solid understanding of history. Without significant efforts by parents to help give that background, young white men are not likely to have that foundation.

As a result, it is all to easy for young white men to feel excluded and marginalized as they see other groups get specifically recognized and celebrated - but not them. This makes them especially vulnerable and susceptible to recruitment by fringe ideologies.