When I was 10, as many young people do, I had a fascination with history. I loved learning about the world wars.
I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the chat room I was using, it was similar to omegle but without the video chat feature. You would put in “tags” of things you were interested in talking about, then get matched to people with those same tags.
I wanted to talk to people about WW2 and black metal, two things I was super interested in at that time. Very quickly I was sought out by Neo Nazis who began to try to indoctrinate me with their ideology.
From the ages of 10-12 years old I was a hardcore skinhead. I would talk to these men online, they were anywhere from the ages of 18-30. I never publicly expressed my ideology except for under the anonymity of the internet, with these skinheads.
I think this is a super important conversation to have now, because what happened to me happened FAST. I’m so grateful that I only knew these men online, because I can’t imagine how much worse it could have been if this happened in person.
Comments
Are you still a skinhead?
When and what forced introspection into your Nazi beliefs and what is your current political ideology?
It never crossed your mind hate is wrong during this period? Why were you specifically interested in WW2? What type of chatting did you expect from using this tag? Were you enthusiastic to be a part of? How did it stop? Would you brag about yourself to your classmates? Do you think you also committed a mistake besides the men?
As someone who has been to the “other side,” why do you think so many young people today follow the far right ideology?
Haha WW2 and black metal can be a wild ass combo as a kid. My Nordic roots mixed with burzum as a preteen was probably a slippery ass slope. Thank God I navigated it into a leftist punk phase