Resources for parents of tween fan of alt-right/gamer YouTube celebs?
July 18, 2017 12:37 AM Subscribe
My wife and I have recently become aware that our 13 year old may be immersed in YouTube fandom of personalities who espouse some values and claims that we find disturbing and hurtful. He's a wonderful and caring kid, but I'm embarrassed to say he watches a certain amount of yt videos about which I know almost nothing, other than that they are 'video game humorous commentary'. I'm aware that there is some alt-right overlap into gamer culture, especially when gamer culture is criticized for being exclusionary of marginalized groups. The event that pushed me from clueless dad to 'what the?' Was when he posted a pic and tribute to an alt-right 'independent journalist' on a certain photo-sharing service. This woman's recents video topics seem to be anti-immigrant, defense of men's rights and 'women's lib and sexual liberation were a bad idea'.
As an adult who is aware of more history and world events than the cherry-picked ideas and opinions of these videos, I can see the missing bits and the sad anti-human rights twisted logic. But before I talk with my son about these ideas and messages, I feel like I need some resources for talking about this with a tween. A tween who is an independent thinker, who also likes to position himself a bit out of the mainstream- but who (I wonder) may unwittingly view my liberal politics as 'the dumb old mainstream'...
Are there beginners guides to conversing with a kid who we feel has been tricked by seductive but hurtful ideas that are masquerading as alt-right 'open minded' ideas?
As an adult who is aware of more history and world events than the cherry-picked ideas and opinions of these videos, I can see the missing bits and the sad anti-human rights twisted logic. But before I talk with my son about these ideas and messages, I feel like I need some resources for talking about this with a tween. A tween who is an independent thinker, who also likes to position himself a bit out of the mainstream- but who (I wonder) may unwittingly view my liberal politics as 'the dumb old mainstream'...
Are there beginners guides to conversing with a kid who we feel has been tricked by seductive but hurtful ideas that are masquerading as alt-right 'open minded' ideas?
If he's big on You Tube personalities, I suggest steering him towards Philip DeFranco. Phil has a 10-15 minute daily show that he posts, he's very popular on YouTube, and he's into pop-culture and gaming and those kinds of things your son would lean towards. Phil's got a middle ground take on most things - sometimes more left, sometimes more right - but what's great about Phil's show is that he's about having a conversation and he's great at breaking down sensationalized drama and peeling back the layers to find the truth. He encourages his viewers (the "beautiful bastards", part of his catchphrase greeting everyday) to seek truth and have conversations about topics ranging from You Tube personality drama, (many personalities your son is probably familiar with), to Trump drama, to every day stories that catch media attention. Check out a few of his videos yourself. Yes, there's occasional f-bombs and mature topics, but that is the way of today's youth. You know your son best and if he'd be ok watching Phil or if it's took mature for him.
I guess as a teacher, I'm steering you towards Phil because he is a great example of someone who breaks down issues and really finds his own ground, not just believing what people say and getting on the bandwagon; he's a great role model in how he thinks and seeks the truth.
posted by NoraCharles at 5:29 AM on July 18, 2017 [6 favorites]
I guess as a teacher, I'm steering you towards Phil because he is a great example of someone who breaks down issues and really finds his own ground, not just believing what people say and getting on the bandwagon; he's a great role model in how he thinks and seeks the truth.
posted by NoraCharles at 5:29 AM on July 18, 2017 [6 favorites]
Facing History and Ourselves Is a non-profit org that provides support to teachers on this subject, but I think they also facilitate student workshops. They do amazing work and I'm sure would have resources for parents also.
posted by raisingsand at 8:27 AM on July 18, 2017
posted by raisingsand at 8:27 AM on July 18, 2017
'video game humorous commentary'
I'd say the twitch streamer and 'personality' video commentary is some of the darkest, most fucked up shit available in games media, it's the 4chan/8chan/etcChan crowds biggest toehold on YouTube and other more common media outlets.
In twitch streams and lets plays on you-tube you're gonna hear a lot of hate speech. And not just random bad word hate speech, where a racial slur is inserted like a normal curse word, but like directed, fleshed out hate speech. "Kill all the {religion}" "{horrible thing} just like a {gender slur}" "this is the problem with {race} always {stereotype}" This is usually played for laughs (which is possibly worse) but it's extremely common.
My best suggestion is getting him into contact with non white male communities. It's harder to casually ingest this shit once you know people who these slurs are denigrating.
posted by French Fry at 12:19 PM on July 19, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'd say the twitch streamer and 'personality' video commentary is some of the darkest, most fucked up shit available in games media, it's the 4chan/8chan/etcChan crowds biggest toehold on YouTube and other more common media outlets.
In twitch streams and lets plays on you-tube you're gonna hear a lot of hate speech. And not just random bad word hate speech, where a racial slur is inserted like a normal curse word, but like directed, fleshed out hate speech. "Kill all the {religion}" "{horrible thing} just like a {gender slur}" "this is the problem with {race} always {stereotype}" This is usually played for laughs (which is possibly worse) but it's extremely common.
My best suggestion is getting him into contact with non white male communities. It's harder to casually ingest this shit once you know people who these slurs are denigrating.
posted by French Fry at 12:19 PM on July 19, 2017 [1 favorite]
hbomberguy is another YouTuber, a gamer & game-enjoyer, who has often focused his vids on making fun of and pointing out the hypocrisy/idiocy of certain hateful/ignorant MRA/GamerGate/anti-feminist online personalities as well as those arguments commonly found online. there are several vids with general political (US & UK) perspectives too. it's really goofy and has made me cry with laughter sometimes -- a great pressure release, after despairing over how easy to think the rest of the population is totally on-board with hateful-white-guys world (and lots of video commenters agree that hbomberguy's vids are very special/necessary). see also this short thread in "AgainstMensRights" subreddit.
molehill of caveats: hbomberguy is a white 20s-ish guy from the UK; they've endorsed socialism (in the Labour party way); I am not white, not a guy, am in my 30s, and am not a gamer; I haven't watched ALLLLL of the videos; there's some curse words (parental review beforehand). but in addition to other educational resources, having this as backup could be good for subconscious/funny reinforcement.
posted by cluebucket at 9:27 PM on July 20, 2017
molehill of caveats: hbomberguy is a white 20s-ish guy from the UK; they've endorsed socialism (in the Labour party way); I am not white, not a guy, am in my 30s, and am not a gamer; I haven't watched ALLLLL of the videos; there's some curse words (parental review beforehand). but in addition to other educational resources, having this as backup could be good for subconscious/funny reinforcement.
posted by cluebucket at 9:27 PM on July 20, 2017
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posted by flibbertigibbet at 4:10 AM on July 18, 2017 [1 favorite]