Here’s a scary thought.

If I hadn’t been pulled out of my right-wing brainwashing, I could have ended up a true monster. And like, I want to say that my inherent goodness would have shone through no matter what, but the fact is that nobody is immune to propaganda.

If you’re taught evil things from a young age like I was, you know nothing else. And yeah, maybe you’ll eventually learn to be good, but if your parents condition you to accept right wing talking points, that shit comes easier, and it’s very dangerous.

I don’t think it’s right to point to inherent goodness as our saviour. Inherent goodness means dick all if you’re raised wrong. The only thing inherent goodness does is make it easier to eventually change your mind, but it still takes a long time, and it’s not fucking easy.

This isn’t a fairy tale where you can resist everything the world throws at you. Humans are predisposed to imitate the people around them. If you have bad parents and live in a bad society, you’re gonna accept bad ideologies more easily than good ones.

“But Kristine, you’re such a good person now!”

It doesn’t matter. If I had been fully brainwashed before being exposed to good ideologies, I might have become a truly terrible person. Inherent goodness, or a predisposition to accepting good morals, isn’t some magic force.

It is extremely dangerous to imply that love and goodness are unchangeable forces inside a person that override brain chemistry. It’s a beautiful thought, but it belongs in Disney movies and doesn’t at all reflect reality. The only thing goodness does is make it easier to escape.

Personality has *some* effect on ideology, but not always. This is why people are surprised that some fascists are “polite”. They think that being polite is good, and they get confused when bad people do good things.

THIS IS WHY YOU NEED TO PAY THE FUCK ATTENTION.

It doesn’t matter if someone loves animals or bakes pies or says “please” and “thank you.” They could still be a racist shitbag, because personality has a minuscule effect on ideology when compared to the influence of the world around you.

And this is why it pisses me off when people say, “Well, I was never a shitbag, because I’m a good person deep down.”

Naw, hon. You weren’t born with woke powers, I’m sorry. You owe your good morals to your family and friends, who were obviously not as shitty as mine.

“But Kristine, maybe it’s privilege that makes people bad.”

Yes, partly. But I’m autistic and trans, and I was brainwashed into hating myself for that. I’m far from the only one. Marginalized people can be affected by their shitty upbringing too.

“But Kristine, your good nature is what made you change.”

Yes, but at what cost? Before I started listening to other viewpoints, I was an awful person. I caused harm. The people I hurt shouldn’t have been subjected to that just because I needed to grow.

“So what’s the point of this thread?”

Talk to your kids.

If you’ve exposed them to right wing talking points regularly enough that it feels like a fact of life, they’re at risk.

You’ve created a potential Nazi.

“But Kristine, if teaching your kids conservative talking points makes them suggestible when it comes to fascism, won’t doing the opposite make them hardcore leftist?”

I’d rather my kids treat human lives as valuable instead of genociding marginalized people, thanks.