Matthew got The Question on the morning after the election. At that moment, he came up with nothing but a hug. But then he chewed on it for days, and came up with eleven things to consider. So here are some notes for possible conversations with tweens about anxiety, bullies, fascism, friends, mutual aid, and love. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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| Hello, everyone. | |
| Welcome to Conspirituality, where we investigate the intersection of conspiracy theories and spiritual influence to uncover cults, pseudoscience, and authoritarian extremism. | |
| I'm Matthew Remsky. | |
| We are on Instagram and threads at ConspiritualityPod, and you can access all of our episodes ad-free, plus our Monday bonus episodes on Patreon, or just the bonus episodes through Apple subscriptions. | |
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| Okay, so today's bonus is called, What Will Happen? | |
| asks the 12-year-old. | |
| And as per the title, it's pretty self-explanatory. | |
| Wednesday morning, after the election, I've been up half the night. | |
| I peek into his room. | |
| He looks up and says, So, do we know the result? | |
| Now, we told him the night before there might not be clarity for days or even weeks. | |
| Trump wouldn't concede. | |
| There might be legal battles. | |
| But I told him quietly. | |
| She lost. | |
| He stared at me, stunned. | |
| Really? | |
| Really? | |
| Yeah, she lost by a wide margin. | |
| Later, in the kitchen, he said,"'What will happen?' I didn't know what to say. | |
| I just hugged him. | |
| But of course, I thought about that question all week as I watched things shudder and burn." One of the most baffling moments of being a parent is clocking the earnestness with which these questions are asked, as if there obviously has to be an answer, and since you are the source of so many things, you've got to have it in your pocket. | |
| Now, I don't regret that I had nothing to say at first. | |
| It's always better not to make things up. | |
| But since Wednesday, I've been taking some notes. | |
| And now I've got some trial answers here to test drive. | |
| 11 points in the form of a letter. | |
| I'm definitely not going to lecture him with this whole list. | |
| These are just notes to keep by my side. | |
| Maybe one or two points will come up at a time, naturally, as they need to. | |
| And I just want to restate that my partner and I don't put our kids out there in public. | |
| So while this list is prompted by a question from the home and it will live here in the home, I've also made this list generic. | |
| I'm not using a name. | |
| I'm not saying anything more about him other than he's sensitive and precocious enough that these answers are age-appropriate, but they may not suit every 12-year-old. | |
| But then again, they might have broader appeal. | |
| Who knows? | |
| So, here's the question again. | |
| What will happen? | |
| This is from a 12-year-old who knows there are senseless wars going on, there's a genocide out in the open for everyone to see, and they know that the climate is heating. | |
| What will happen? | |
| Okay, so, first thing. | |
| People will have a lot of ideas about what will happen, and no one fully knows. | |
| So those who speak with real certainty, they are making things up to feel better about not knowing. | |
| And sometimes they really want you to sign on to their ideas, not because they're true, but because they'll feel better if they get validation. | |
| You don't have to buy it. | |
| If you don't buy it, you can slow down on the answer. | |
| You can listen for the more informed, but also cautious views. | |
| And they'll come from people who have some history on board, or who have done close work on what Trump and his flunkies have been saying and doing over the past years. | |
| Because we're talking about the future, I think the best answer is we'll take that question out of the passive voice. | |
| What will happen makes it sound like we're tracking a hurricane and plotting out the pathway of some inevitable damage, but we're talking about people. | |
| So we're really asking, what will people do? | |
| And for everything we know about the MAGA wave, we also know that people will continue to love and care for each other and perform acts of service, and perhaps they'll do it more fiercely with more commitment. | |
| You've been listening to a Conspirituality bonus episode sample. | |
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