In the polarized, hair-trigger American political scene of 2012, this is somehow seen as news.
Team Liberal is all excited that... well, angst-y teen rebelliousness still exists, apparently. Like that proves anything.
Meanwhile, I understand that Team Conservative actually let this kid speak at their annual CPAC witch-burnin' in '09, which should disgust any real conservative. As archconservative Florence King so eloquently put it:
If we want to regain the respect of the world, we should begin by announcing that children have no business expressing opinions on anything except 'Do you have enough room in the toes?' As for me, I'll take cats, those symbols of adultness and chief spreaders of impetigo in sandboxes - every little bit helps.Now go inside and wash your hair, kid.
(H/T to Atomic Nerds.)
Opposite of News?
ReplyDeleteOlds?
This whelp is an Oldsmobile?
Shocking.
ReplyDeleteA teen renounces his parents.
Unpossible.
Shootin' Buddy
I would think it to be a safe bet that in about 4-6 years, if the kid grows up, he may find his views changing yet once again.
ReplyDelete"Krohn is bucking the received wisdom that people become more conservative as they get older, a shift he attributes partly to philosophy."
ReplyDeleteErm, no. People become more conservative as they get more life experience. He still isn't really getting life experience, he's getting indoctrinated in a system that teaches how wonderful the theories of left-ism are without analyzing whether said theories have ever historically actually worked.
Revisit in another 20 or 30 years and see how his feelings are. But of course, it still won't really be news then, especially when he bucks the media's preference.
They parade the kid around like a smartest puppy in the country and then get all upset when he takes a dump on their carpet.
ReplyDeleteWho cares?
Gerry
Who?
ReplyDeleteHe's a teenager...
ReplyDeleteHe's interested in girls...
Do you suppose there are a few teenage girls he might be interested in who don't share his parents' values?
Do I think it's the only reason? No.
Is it one of many possible reasons?
Yup.
Are we sure they didn't print something from "the Onion" by mistake?
ReplyDeleteThe appeal back then was that he sounded very articulate about his position. I'm sure he's an intelligent kid, but intelligent people will still pick different sides in politics.
ReplyDeleteMeh. Doesn't change any truths, nor will it change anyone's mind.
jf
Huh, so he's a teenager who started reading self-destructive useless philosophy, and now he's a liberal and he wants to sit around in an ivory tower wallowing in philosophy while the government provides for his needs?
ReplyDeleteWho could have seen that coming!
And queue the irony train that he's just discovered the biting sting of liberal "humor."
I always thought it a good idea to not get a tattoo until I was about 60. See, I figure about 60 or 70, I'll have gone through adolescence, early-adulthood, child-bearing years, mid-life crisis, and then I'll start REALLY thinking about the end of my life. As a result I figure by about 60, I'll have gone through most mind and philosophy changes. Then I figure I can finally get a tattoo tribute to my favorite band.
ReplyDeleteTeenagers can't even decide what music they like.
-Rob
"Krohn is bucking the received wisdom that people become more conservative as they get older, a shift he attributes partly to philosophy."
ReplyDeleteKrohn isn't old enough yet for this to apply. He's old enough to think he's thinking for himself. Applying the "getting more conservative with age" meme to Krohn is like an 8-year-old telling the 6-year old-to "respect your elders."
Besides, as somebody or other said, "if you aren't a leftist at 20 you have no heart, and if you aren't a conservative at 50 you have no head."
I honestly had no idea he was a kid, because it never crossed my mind that that would even be a thing. It was just a headline that crossed my news trawl.
ReplyDeleteThat's just fucking mind-boggling.
(As an aside, I'd like to thank my parents for not beating politics into me. I think my dad and I were both pretty surprised when I came to mostly the same conclusions as he had on my own.)
That kids will go through a know-it-all, have-all-the-answers phase sometime between 17-23 is a given. How you look at someone going through that phase is informitive. A leftist will look at their youthful zeal with admiration, and wonder if they have 'sold out'.
ReplyDeleteA righty will shake their head at the callow, sophmoric youth and be gratful their experience has let them see reality.
“I think it was naive,” Krohn now says of the speech. “It’s a 13-year-old kid saying stuff that he had heard for a long time.… I live in Georgia. We’re inundated with conservative talk in Georgia.… The speech was something that a 13-year-old does. You haven’t formed all your opinions. You’re really defeating yourself if you think you have all of your ideas in your head when you were 12 or 13. It’s impossible. You haven’t done enough.”
ReplyDeleteRight an now that your so much older - you have? Still Naive
I tried to read the article but I can't bring myself to care what a teenager thinks about anything, so I stopped.
ReplyDeleteBah, I took it as a publicity stunt then, and I take it as a publicity stunt now.
ReplyDeleteHe was just a kid then, he's just a kid now.
Maybe if he does SOMETHING, like form a mulch-million-dollar start-up company, and retire at age 21, maybe he'll hold a little pre-mature clout. Otherwise all I can think of is teenage me.
I knew everything, and I was immortal.
I was also full of shit, and 100% unaware of it.
I don't hold it against him, we've all done it...just many of us didn't have marketing behind us when we were young and dumb.
Around my neck of the woods, those teen years are known as the 'Age of Infinite Wisdom'. The ages between somewhere around 12-15 to anywhere between 18-25 where parents go from smart to know nothings back to not as stupid as you used to be.
ReplyDeleteRich in NC