Don’t make fun of right-wing children. Don’t bully right-wing children. Don’t scream at, lecture, or swear at right-wing children. I say this because I was that child. I was the child forced by my parents to stand outside of clinics holding signs that say “Abortion Kills Children.” I was the child who went to church every Sunday and could parrot every bull shit argument opposing gay marriage. I sounded smart. I sounded like I formed those opinions on my own. The reality was I was being psychologically abused. I was brainwashed and indoctrinated. I had no sense of self until I was much older. I had been wiped clean and filled with garbage. I have PTSD in part because of my childhood. Today, I am telling you, that those children NEED you! They need you to show love and patience and compassion. They need you to guide them out. Those children holding those signs are children begging to be seen. See them.
To add - this is a tactic right-wingers use to push their kids further right! The kids see well-meaning lefties being assholes and think “wow, I guess my parents were right, lefties ARE bad people who don’t think of the well being of the children and attack the underdog” etc., for real, these are kids and have in all likelihood experienced some degree or other of cult conditioning/abuse.
My husband was raised in this way. All of this is accurate.
This. This was my childhood.
Except for the few people who asked things like why I believed the thing or pointed me towards better information, people tended to be angry and, due to being isolated and indoctrinated, I couldn’t understand why.
It’s like you’ve been wearing red-tinted glasses for your whole life, and you just think everything is red or reddish. And people keep getting mad at you for saying things are red, when (to you) they are clearly red, your parents assure you they’re red, and that anyone saying differently is trying to trick you.
This isn’t the case for every child that grows up in a right-wing household, but it often was for me.