My nephew is 14. His dad is, to put it diplomatically, a meathead. And I don’t want his son to follow that path. I found out recently that my nephew had fallen into the toxic social media shithole that is the manosphere, thanks to unprompted regurgitation of talking points that seemingly had no end. I talked to him for a good solid hour after that, asking him questions, listening to his answers, trying to show him the big-picture view of how there’s a lot of money to be made keeping him angry and engaged, and exploring how much of these things that anger him he’s actually experienced vs how much is him just echoing influencers.

He’s an intellectually curious kid, and that absolutely works in his favor. I know I can appeal to that, explain how I think, ask him how he feels, and just kind of work through things. But I only get to see him a few times a year. And he’s getting fed this nonsense daily. I hope I can be a positive influence for him, because the last thing my family needs is another bigot.