Radicalizing High School Students
No healthy society is led by its adolescents. Here's my letter to a Seattle-based anti-gun "student group" that somehow got my phone number and sent me a text asking for support and, of course, money!
Tuesday, April 25th, 2023
Dear Freedom Friends,
Yesterday morning, I woke up to a text from a phone number I didn’t recognize. It was an unsolicited text from Chetan Soni, presenting himself as the “Executive Director of Seattle Student Union.”
Today, before writing this substack, I dug around for a bit, looking for information about Seattle Student Union. I can’t find any real information on their website. I’ve been all over it, and it’s nothing but promotional content. So, who owns it? Who pays for it? Who organizes it? What is its legal structure? They’re asking for donations, but under what legal framework?
Perhaps it should be unsurprising that they’re using ActBlue (of money laundering fame - We The Governed covers and explains the growing controversy). I only know this because, at the end of the very long text, I was offered an ActBlue donation link. ActBlue is not otherwise mentioned on their website.
Usually, I delete unsolicited requests for donations, but because this group purported to be led by, created by, and run by teenagers, I read the entire text. Too few adults listen to youth. I do.
The gist is elucidated in the third paragraph: “We are tired of witnessing our friends and peers become the victims of gun violence. Since adults won’t protect us, we’re protecting ourselves through advocacy.”
The text I received, the propaganda-laden website, the use of ActBlue to solicit donations, and powerful, savvy adults using inexperienced teens as a front for their own sophisticated operations is wrong and needs to be called out.
So, I decided to respond. I’m not even sure if my text will reach a human, but…maybe Chetan Soni will see it? Maybe he’ll read it? Maybe.
Here’s the letter. I always try to reach out to people in a way that they can hear. To be respectful and creative, constructive and solution oriented. Maybe, if you know young people who are becoming radicalized about this or any other issue…maybe this analogy-based letter would reach them, too?
In all other ways, I hope your day goes well. And, thanks for sticking with me, as I’ve become so heavily involved with my new role as “community newspaper owner and editor” at the Vashon Loop.
Warmly,
March Twisdale
My Text Reply to Chetan Soni:
Dear Chetan,
When you walk along 3rd street in downtown Seattle, and you witness the exploding homelessness, drug abuse and crime...where do you place the blame?
Chances are, your answer will be a list of various factors. Can you lay blame on any one cause? If all the drug cartels south of the American Border disappeared...would homelessness be solved? If we built a studio apartment for every homeless man and woman (and larger units for families with kids)...would that solve the problem of mental illness? If we gave SSRIs to all the mentally ill, would violent crime go away?
The obvious answer is no. The solution truly must match the problem with regard to complexity...and it must arise from an increase in community cohesion and health.
Simple slogans. Accusatory slogans. Shaming slogans. Uninformed slogans. Generalizing slogans. Bigoted slogans. Divisive slogans.
DON'T SOLVE THE PROBLEM.
They make it worse.
I can't give you the solution to violent gun crime in America. But, I promise you...the solution will be found when you seek to understand the causes of "violent crime." Solve that, and the guns won't be fired, except at the firing range, by hunters and for sport.
BTW - if you want to understand mass shootings in the USA, start by understanding the emotional & physical side effects of SSRIs (routinely handed out like candy to distressed youth)...and the nearly identical incidence graphs between the two.
What students need is a society attending to sources of distress and helping kids adjust and develop coping skills during these challenging times...not drugging them into suicidal ideation and homicidal fantasies.