Is there anything that can be learned from cases like Buttigeg and Harris where at least one of their parents was ostensibly a proponent of Marx? Have any of you known or had communist parents?
I’m trying to avoid my own kids becoming reactionary and the only thing I know to do to avoid that is show them internal consistency with my own views(valuing consent, consistency, openness, compassion, reason, creativity, and an unbreakable will), educate them on class conflict and historical materialism, and give them opportunities to reinforce the innate kindness within them while also introducing them to various other groups so that they grow up to feel a human connection to anyone regardless of differences in age, gender, nationality, etc.
I’ll be closely involved in their school work to help counter imperialist propaganda in their public school education.
I’ll be involving them in programs like 4H so they don’t become alienated from the means of production and their environment.
I’ll be insisting they get part time service industry jobs when they’re old enough to help radicalize them against the inhumanities of capitalist exploitation
Additionally, the only communities I can think to raise them as a part of are SRA, and UU. If y’all have any suggestions I would love to hear them.
I’d rather my kids grow up Quaker than Unitarian Universalist, having grown up UU!
That said, my guess is that having a good relationship with your kids is essential. Listen to their feelings, talk to them, let them know you respect and admire them. Don’t hit, yell at or punish them. Reason with them, redirect them, compromise with them. Set them up to behave with clear expectations and routines. That’s the best chance you’ll have of them listening to anything you have to say, but know that you’re one small part of their world, and you can’t control what they believe.
That’s a great point, I am by far their favorite parent and I think that is in large part due to how I listen to them and place great importance on their consent.
I haven’t had a direct connection to the UU church, I just read a lot about them and had a UU friend who was very well adjusted. I live in California so idk of there’s a quaker community out here. Is there anything about UU you think I should know?
Teach them the stuff we all know we wished we were taught in school. You got some good early childhood advice already, so teach them about the cool radical stuff as you feel they are ready for it. The militant labor movements and unions that attained the few rights as workers they still enjoy today, the unwhitewashed version of the civil rights movement, the real badasses of history and the cool stuff that gets omitted. So much of what they will be taught by schools and their peers will not only be wrong but not nearly as cool as real history.
Kids love to feel like they’re being let in on a secret or some forbidden knowledge.
Teach them the stuff we all know we wished we were taught in school.
You know I keep that mf-ing thang on me (Zinn’s People’s History, Dunbar-Ortiz’ Indigenous Peoples’ History, etc) I’d love any recommendations you have for essential reading/viewing though.
Kids love to feel like they’re being let in on a secret or some forbidden knowledge.
Hell that’s like all I ever wanna talk about! They’re 2 now but I can’t wait to tell them about all this shit.
Most UUs are ime perfect liberals. I once watched one storm out of a racial justice seminar. They’re all woke and tolerant until you test it at all.
I honestly think that that is, in the end, beyond our control, and not accepting that could lead to the opposite of the desired effect. Instead of some grand plan, I think we should just be there for our children, try to have the kind of relationship where you can openly talk about these kinds of things, and gently nudge things in the right direction.
I would still watch their internet activities, though.
I would still watch their internet activities, though.
The alt-right playbook series should be required teaching in schools
I mean, it was kinda a joke, but there is a definite anarchist to lib pipeline.
Look at the number of cringe anti-china tweets from otherwise respectable anarchists.
There is a fundamental respect for liberal values in some strains of anarchism and that can lead to unfortunate outcomes.
Oh for sure, but mostly I see that sort of stuff online, and in person I’ve had an unbroken record of convincing people why even if they do think china is bad, they can hold that position while also acknowledging there is literally nothing they can do about it without supporting interventionist foreign policy and that their energy is better focused on domestic issues.
I have mostly anarchist friends and they’re some of the best people I know. Fuck off with that
Once again the riddle of history is solved by material analysis. You put your finger right on it.
Where did the children of those middle class type academics grow up? Comfortable suburbs surrounded by other comfortable middle call folks. Little wonder they absorbed the norms of thsir environment.
The most recent research I can recall is that a child’s attitudes best correlate to the attitudes of their peers. So in most cases that is the answer right there
I heard somewhere that Harris’ communist parent was not the one that raised her. That could explain it. Imo, Buttiges is someone who learnt from his father and understood Marxism yet due to his priviliged position attempted and succeeded to rather reap the benefits of capitalism rather than try to eliminate it.
My mom was staunchly anti-communist, so probably a similar situation caused the break of sorts. I figure a bad relationship with the said parent was a major contributor, the whole adaptation to one’s environment thing. Harvey’s pretty lib but he was on point saying children are naturally dialectical.
Harvey’s pretty lib but he was on point saying children are naturally dialectical.
can you expand on that , sounds interesting
They adapt to their conditions and realize the change and motion of said conditions/life, not so much in a material framework though. It tends to be more in the line of OG Hegelian over simplified tricohomy of thesis-antithesis-synthesis (parents say no, grandparents say yes, ask grandparents for candy) but you do see more of the standard in complex cases like language learning or moves for example.
