Off My Chest
RULES:
I am looking for mods!
1. The "good" part of our community means we are pro-empathy and anti-harassment. However, we don't intend to make this a "safe space" where everyone has to be a saint. Sh*t happens, and life is messy. That's why we get things off our chests.
2. Bigotry is not allowed. That includes racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and religiophobia. (If you want to vent about religion, that's fine; but religion is not inherently evil.)
3. Frustrated, venting, or angry posts are still welcome.
4. Posts and comments that bait, threaten, or incite harassment are not allowed.
5. If anyone offers mental, medical, or professional advice here, please remember to take it with a grain of salt. Seek out real professionals if needed.
6. Please put NSFW behind NSFW tags.
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I think I was about 11 when I hit the youtube conservative rabbit hole, 12 when I started improving. Main context is this: my dad has always been conservative, and he loved(s) Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson. My mom and her family are vaguely democrats (not leftists, they don't actually give a shit about anyone). All of my family is believing Mormons.
When I was 11, I got my mom's old iPhone. Obviously, I started watching youtube videos, and as the algorithm has done so many times before, I ended up being served with Isaac Butterfield videos about "schoolboys being forced to apologize to female classmates for rape", and "etsy store owner makes tiny wool penis prosthetics for transgender infants", which are both obviously bullshit. Maybe it was the fact that I'm just really neurodivergent, but my reactions never went any further than, "huh, that's weird". I never hated queer people, and I didn't say anything crazy to anyone.
When I was about 12, I started to stop believing in Mormonism and religion in general, after watching some videos from this ex-Jehovah's Witness called Owen (Morgan?). Then one of the teachings gave me so much shame that I spent a couple years hating myself so much that I either had to stop believing or stop living. Then I heard stories from ex-Mormons about the actual crimes and hatred and genocide, and I was just flabbergasted. I learned that there were secret temple rituals, and that I wasn't even supposed to know that they exist. Anyways, when I started disbelieving in that, that spread to the other stuff my parents taught me. I wasn't a good person by any means, but I could recognize that there was no point in listening to my parents about anything, just from the fact that they can excuse child rape from a man that they claim to have been a prophet of God.
I watch(ed) tons of gay shit on youtube, and saw that Then I actually met queer people, they were pretty chill. Then I became friends with some. Now I have three diagnoses and I'm aroace, so tha's cool.
So, yeah, be patient with more conservative teenagers, most of them probably haven't figured things out, and it's just their parents and church leaders speaking through them. God this is long, mb lol, I can delete it if you want. Glad that you had character growth!
I will be patient with this one queer teen I knew even if they bullied me. She might not know better but she thinks she's one of the "good lesbians". And that LGBTQ+ people are evil with an "agenda". I don't talk to her anymore because she blocked me and thinks that Latinos are evil and that they're all illegal. What a shame, her grandma is actually Korean and came to the U.S.
But yeah, I hope she changes her ways.
I hope she changes too. Sounds like she's got quite a bit of cognitive dissonance, that's unfortunate. Considering yourself to be "one of the good ones" has never gone well.