Kids These Days

So, there's this kid. He's 14. And the new conservative whiz kid. He's in the eighth grade, and a home schooled Christian. Right there I have some problems. Home schooling is bad, it closes a person off form society. It's not just an issue of social retardation but also that they well never meet opposing view points. How can one form opinions if one never has them tested? How can one understand social issues if one is so isolated they never meet a minority?

The very thought of a child Conservative pundit rubs me the wrong way. I am sure he is very intelligent, and he probably knows more about politics then I do, if his biography is accurate, but it seems to me that a child who is given this much of a soap box to stand on, particularly one who holds traditionally conservative view points, is going to be full of himself. Smug and implacable in his assurance that he holds the right and true ground. Children think in black and white. They have issues empathizing and inferring and thinking critically in general. It's why many kids have problems with algebra. My biggest problem with the far right is that it is dominated by fundamental Christians who want to legislate religion. One of my biggest problems with mainstream Conservatism is it's lack of nuance. There seem to be no shades of grey. The poor should work harder. The rich get what they deserve. Personal responsibility fixes all problems.

Life is just not that simple. (Liberals do this too, of course, socialized medicine will not be an instant perfect fix, but this fact undermines my point, so I will ignore it.) What I fear is that a child conservative is going to combine and amplify these undesirable traits. When added to his Christian background untempered by life experience, this hot mess is going to create one unbearable person.

In light of all this I thought that I would take a gander over to his website.

Effffffffff. I was right. Resoundingly so.

The first thing I noticed when I skimmed through his blog entries was that they were dominated by divisive rhetoric. Liberals. Conservatives. Us. Them. Moderatism was treated as a greater enemy then liberalism. Compromise was villainized. There is a series of articles called "Hammering the Dems."

My favorite (And by favorite I mean most frustrating) bits show up on page six. I can only quote.

"If you listen to the rest of the song, besides its first line, then you will here the following, “Barack the Magic Negro, lives in DC. The LA Times they called him that….” In other words, it is merely making fun of the mainstream media’s own statement about Barack Obama. "

That's right. He is defending “Barack the Magic Negro" as not racist. He also attempts to say that the media paid a disproportionate amount of attention to this while ignoring the Blaggo scandal. I don't know what news he was listening too.

"Liberals are quite lax in their moral viewpoint; actually saying that Liberals even have a moral viewpoint on things is being somewhat generous. The Liberal actually believes that a moral compass is not necessary."

Thank you for treating a large group of people as a monolith. I appreciate it. Also, also, your random assertions are extremely valid. True facts, kid, true facts.

"This Liberal view of morality, that we should push moral views out of the way in political circles, ties directly in with corruption. ... In other words, this basic precept of the Liberal social view is the clear and decisive basis of political corruption. Let’s look at some of the most recent examples of political corruption that highlight this quality:"

Kid. You are NOT winning the scandal wars.

If there is one thing that binds people together, old and young, rich and poor, black and white, liberal and conservative, two examples that are orthogonal to each other, it is stupidity and malice. (Wait... that's two. Oh well.)

Ugh. This kid grates on me.