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Sunday, March 15th, 2009 11:58 pm
growing up on the internet
So it's not like I don't think it's my duty to educate my only child. I mean, I don't, I think that's TV's job obviously. And media, of course. There, he can learn exciting life lessons about rape and the women who love their rapists and so forth. However, every so often? The media fails me and then I have to actually interact with the brat and like, teach him stuff.
Important Life Lesson: Guarding Our Borders From Those Brown Peoples
Now, you might make the mistake of thinking I'm informed or something about this, which is insane, because I cannot point out enough, I'm on Ritalin for a reason, and it's not because of the high (as apparently, I can't do that, my body uses it for the practical purposes of making sure I keep two thoughts coherent and in order, which as you can see, is working wonderfully), but I will admit, with shame, I was reading through CNN the other day (it was an accident) and saw the blurb, shivered at this intersection with reality, and moved on to look for something shiny that required less critical thinking skills.
But no, then it had to show up yesterday while I was trying to eat cake as my son said, from the computer "I am patrolling the border!" Granted, my son also says things like, "I am cloning you!" and "I didn't do that!" so usually, this is a dirty lie. So imagine my shock when I went through the effort of looking at the screen (and missed a bite of cake, because I forgot to stop the fork) and indeed, he was patrolling the border and was hoping to make a report. With this like, red report button. Right there on the screen.
In the last year of my son's life, everything changed, and I think I changed the most.
In the last year, my twelve year old son has come to me after a speaker in his social studies class gave a questionable view of Zionism and the US involvement in Palestine. In the last year, my twelve year old son didn't understand why white people were chosen for Avatar casting. In the last fucking year, my twelve year old white son had to be explained to, again, why I can't go to certain countries because of my sex, my single status, and the fact I had a child out of wedlock.
He asks me a thousand questions a day, and I have the internet and a group of people I can email when I don't know what to say or how to answer. And I've gotten good at extempore speeches and hell, do I know where examples are, I do. But. It's not enough that there's all the rest of this shit in the world; my twelve year old stumbled across a website devoted to becoming a virtual internetz vigilante to report illegal immigration.
This isn't acceptable. It's just not. I'm not done with him yet. He's not done with him yet. He's smart and he's sweet and he's kind of insane and he's still a work in progress and he's wonderful and this isn't who he is and who he is going to be, and it's not who he wants to be. This is his life, and he's my life, and fuck it, let him watch all the internet porn he wants, I'll give him the address to fucking Something Awful myself and he can post crappy pictures of autopsies and goatse and make shitty cat macros and whatever, but my twelve year old child is not going to see this, do this, believe in this, ever look at this and think this is something right.
He's so much better than this.
Fuck this, I'm downloading SETI. He's looking for aliens* tomorrow.
ETA: * The kind that come from space.
Important Life Lesson: Guarding Our Borders From Those Brown Peoples
Now, you might make the mistake of thinking I'm informed or something about this, which is insane, because I cannot point out enough, I'm on Ritalin for a reason, and it's not because of the high (as apparently, I can't do that, my body uses it for the practical purposes of making sure I keep two thoughts coherent and in order, which as you can see, is working wonderfully), but I will admit, with shame, I was reading through CNN the other day (it was an accident) and saw the blurb, shivered at this intersection with reality, and moved on to look for something shiny that required less critical thinking skills.
But no, then it had to show up yesterday while I was trying to eat cake as my son said, from the computer "I am patrolling the border!" Granted, my son also says things like, "I am cloning you!" and "I didn't do that!" so usually, this is a dirty lie. So imagine my shock when I went through the effort of looking at the screen (and missed a bite of cake, because I forgot to stop the fork) and indeed, he was patrolling the border and was hoping to make a report. With this like, red report button. Right there on the screen.
In the last year of my son's life, everything changed, and I think I changed the most.
In the last year, my twelve year old son has come to me after a speaker in his social studies class gave a questionable view of Zionism and the US involvement in Palestine. In the last year, my twelve year old son didn't understand why white people were chosen for Avatar casting. In the last fucking year, my twelve year old white son had to be explained to, again, why I can't go to certain countries because of my sex, my single status, and the fact I had a child out of wedlock.
He asks me a thousand questions a day, and I have the internet and a group of people I can email when I don't know what to say or how to answer. And I've gotten good at extempore speeches and hell, do I know where examples are, I do. But. It's not enough that there's all the rest of this shit in the world; my twelve year old stumbled across a website devoted to becoming a virtual internetz vigilante to report illegal immigration.
This isn't acceptable. It's just not. I'm not done with him yet. He's not done with him yet. He's smart and he's sweet and he's kind of insane and he's still a work in progress and he's wonderful and this isn't who he is and who he is going to be, and it's not who he wants to be. This is his life, and he's my life, and fuck it, let him watch all the internet porn he wants, I'll give him the address to fucking Something Awful myself and he can post crappy pictures of autopsies and goatse and make shitty cat macros and whatever, but my twelve year old child is not going to see this, do this, believe in this, ever look at this and think this is something right.
He's so much better than this.
Fuck this, I'm downloading SETI. He's looking for aliens* tomorrow.
ETA: * The kind that come from space.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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From:~L
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From:Now that? Is parenting I can believe in. Good on ya.
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From:That's all.
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From:I'd've lost it at the first one but I read it already elsewhere.
*twitches*
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From:imaginary hat off to you*
You're a good mom to double check what Child sees on the internet. And you know, also the SETI thing. *grins*
creepy links are freaking creepy
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From:And among the so, so many things wrong with that is anybody who thinks any aspect of our nation's security should be in the hands of bored interwebbers is a complete moron.
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From:As many have said above me, I commend your unwillingness to let this pass as acceptable in your house--I think it's easy to let things like this slide, to say, "Don't do that" and not to engage with the deeply problematic implications for our society that this has, or with the repercussions that this will have on the future of that society--I love that you've said, "I'm not done with him yet. He's not done with him yet, because YES YES YES to both.
Er. I hope you know what I mean.
Anyway. I just wanted to say that immigration, poor enforcement ideas, vigilantes (but also positive considerations about why immigration can be difficult for the US government, and US citizens, to deal with) and I have been one for many years, so if you need/desire any further information, I would be thrilled to provide whatever you needed.
Good luck with helping him turn himself into someone amazing, today and every day.
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From:www.galaxyzoo.org/ (https://www.galaxyzoo.org/) My seven year old is better at this than me.
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From:And if he finds space aliens, please let us know?
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From:While MrHamill nearly choked to death on his broccoli, and before he could start screaming, I kicked him under the table and calmly asked her about this new belief of hers. Turned out she was really just trying to get a rise out of us (now, mind you, that wasn't what she would have said) and a calm response, refuting and questioning her statements completely and effortlessly made her think and, later, caused a one-eighty in her tiny little brain (now, she's just a 'permanent atheist', which I expect will last another five years or so).
Kids. Little shitheads can drive you batshit insane.
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From:A world where gay people were arrested for being gay? A world where "colored people" were second class citizens, relegated to service jobs? Where non-whites moving into a neighborhood were shunned because "it brings property values down"? A world where a woman was nearly a criminal for having an out-of-wedlock child, to the point where she might not be able to even get a job (because after all, we can't have someone of questionable moral character around here)? Where married women were shunned for working outside the home?
Oh, wait, that's all still today, even in parts of the good ol' USA.
And, really, bigotry against immigrants has been going on since time immortal. Even when someone's parents or grandparents were immigrants it was always "different" for the "new" immigrants.
Your profile claims you're about my age. Your parents had it just as bad -- just differently bad. Things weren't on the Internet for everyone to see 24x7, but it was still there.
The Internet makes the "bad crap" have to come out of hiding. Hate groups can have websites just like everyone else -- and things out in the open are foes you can fight against. It's the best thing for freedom of thought and speech, ever.
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From:George Carlin always said he'd rather have his children watch sex than violence. Sex is natural. Sex is normal. Violence, bigotry, selfish stupidity? They may be a part of our lives, but we don't have to teach our kids that it's normal stuff.
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From:Your priorities are in the right place. Bless you.
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