Guy was my best friend in middle school. We reconnected after I graduated from college, played and beat L4D and L4D2 together. Then he started sending me political memes, and they were all fascist.
I tried to reason with him, but then he refused to engage with anything that was longer than like a page, or any video/audio source longer than about five minutes, but didn't seem to have any problem sending me stuff way longer than that.
I still wonder if there was more I could have done. But I just didn't need that in my life. I'm not some hero, I'm a downwardly-mobile working-class schlub who's pretty good at playing piano and riding a bike. I shouldn't be responsible for dragging this dipshit back from the depths of fascism just because he sat next to me in seventh grade history class, and honestly, with some of the things he claimed to believe, I probably didn't even want him on my side anymore.
That's what I tell myself, anyway.
ik this is a shitpost but that's like the worst possible way to handle that situation
i'm like a third-generation none, my parents were both raised secular and their marriage was officiated by a guy from the a.h.a., but i had some christian classmates in like kindergarten or first grade (public school in california) and i sorta half remember asking my mom some question about something i'd heard them say at some point or another, and what she did was she explained to me (in 5yo detail, anyway) what christianity even was, which i didn't really understand at that point, and that was enough to make it clear to me how silly it all was.
one of the easiest ways to figure out who to trust, imo, is looking for who can most accurately and fairly describe what their opponents' argument is. trying to hide it away from a kid who's looking for answers is just going to make it more intriguing. going over it in detail makes it clear what the problems are.
e: damn, who'd i piss off