Trewq

I’m going to admit that to an extent I failed my oldest child. Not in the traditional sense. He’s a relatively good kid. He’s smart. He has a good job. We’ve been there when he needs us and thankfully he doesn’t rely on us for much at all anymore. All that said, he has in fact been radicalized. It happened slowly. He’d say things. I’d dismiss them a “young and dumb” figuring he’d mature out of your typical high school liberal turns. I’d always say, “l’ll never tell you how to vote, but I’ll never pretend you’re right when you believe stupid things.” Recently he made an anti-Israel statement. I mean, that’s fine if it’s relegated to Israeli policy and politics. Criticize everyone always, when they must be criticized. But then, he said something that was absurd. And I asked him to explain. He said, “When Israel attacked Gaza on October 7th…” I stopped him and said, “I’m sorry, WHAT!?” He had no idea what the truth was. Forget the nuance of every day politics. I mean he had been told online that Israel had attacked Gaza on October 7th. When I corrected him, he was stunned. He then said, “well why did Israel attack our ships?” I said, you mean like recently? He said, “yeah!” I said, “I think you need to seriously consider where you get your information from. Whoever it was didn’t tell you that was back in the 60s.” He looked lost. So I said, “the way it works is they tell you something that is true but out of context so that IF you look it up, you’ll see at some point something like that happened.” My point is that your kids are being radicalized. Whether Left or Right, the algorithm is showing them what they want all the time. It doesn’t care what they believe. It only cares that it captures them. And boring old truth doesn’t keep eyes in an app. Pay close attention. I thought I was. But boy was I wrong.

I hope parents realize their children can be radicalized online....and in school by radical teachers.

I am appalled by recent attempted antisemitic arson attacks in North London.  This is abhorrent and it will not be tolerated. Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain.  We are increasing visible policing and those responsible will be found and brought to justice. We will not rest in the pursuit of perpetrators.