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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsYou will have to shovel our bodies into the oven, too: Father of Charlottesville Nazi disowns him
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/08/you-will-have-to-shovel-our-bodies-into-the-oven-too-father-of-charlottesville-neo-nazi-disowns-him/One father of a marcher in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend is denouncing his own son after the young man was seen on national news spouting hate.
In a letter to Fargo, North Dakotas Inforum, father Pearce Tefft wrote that his family wasnt sure where his son Peter picked up his racist beliefs.
I, along with all of his siblings and his entire family, wish to loudly repudiate my sons vile, hateful, and racist rhetoric and actions, Tefft wrote, clarifying that he certainly didnt learn such values at home.
I have shared my home and hearth with friends and acquaintances of every race, gender, and creed. I have taught all of my children that all men and women are created equal. That we must love each other all the same, he continued. However, he acknowledged, that Peter chose another path.
The family has remained largely silent, but Tefft said these recent events pushed them over the edge. Remaining silent, he believed, would be a mistake.
It was the silence of good people that allowed the Nazis to flourish the first time around, and it is the silence of good people that is allowing them to flourish now, he wrote.
He went on to say that his son is no longer welcome in their home or at family gatherings until he renounces the hate. The beliefs of the younger Tefft has also brought hate targeted at his relatives, who are being considered guilty by association.
His father recalled a time when his son joked, The thing about us fascists is, its not that we dont believe in freedom of speech. You can say whatever you want. Well just throw you in an oven, Tefft recalled.
Peter, you will have to shovel our bodies into the oven, too. Please son, renounce the hate, accept and love all, the father closed.
Peters nephew also denounced him, according to local news outlet WDAY 6.
In brief, we reject him wholly both him personally as a vile person who has HIMSELF made violent threats against our family, and also his hideous ideology, which we abhor, his nephew Jacob Scott said. We are all bleeding-heart liberals who believe in the fundamental equality of all human beings.
Peter is a maniac, who has turned away from all of us and gone down some insane internet rabbit-hole, and turned into a crazy nazi. He scares us all, we dont feel safe around him, and we dont know how he came to be this way. My grandfather feels especially grieved, as though he has failed as a father.
The younger Tefft posted a photo of himself prior to the rally at the base of the statue in Charlottesville.
................
Now thats a denounciation Trump..............
Doc Coco
(58 posts)I would also follow the DU rules about the 4 paragraph limit.
Laffy Kat
(16,391 posts)Enjoy your stay.
greyl
(22,990 posts)so it looks foolish to accuse the person you're replying to of being a troll, doesn't it?
Original OP here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=thread&info=1&address=10029460611
Kentonio
(4,377 posts)By pointing towards DU paragraph rules and questioning the source, then it raises questions as to their motives. If you were a newbie (or any poster for that matter), would the number of paragraphs have been your first thought on reading the op?
obamanut2012
(26,180 posts)greyl
(22,990 posts)Kentonio
(4,377 posts)greyl
(22,990 posts)"Enjoy your stay." is not a question. "Source?" is a question - a good question. The person accusing the other of being a troll didn't realize the OP had been edited, no question about that.
obamanut2012
(26,180 posts)Really?
3catwoman3
(24,088 posts)...and character. How heart wrenching for him to see his son go so far astray from the family beliefs.
sunonmars
(8,656 posts)FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)You can do your best and you just never know. I got lucky with my girls and how they are growing up, but I've seen parents raise wonderful kids but one will just go off the rails for some reason. Same parents, same values, same upbringing. Weird.
sunonmars
(8,656 posts)no matter what you do, there is just something not right with that person, you can sense it.
crazycatlady
(4,492 posts)I know of many young people (teens-20s) who did things (including myself) that their parents are not proud of. As a teen I had a friend who would get thrills from shoplifting and encouraged others to do the same. It is an age where peer pressure is very intense.
obamanut2012
(26,180 posts)the other day.
Just look at Stephen Miller's background.
question everything
(47,568 posts)also the Sandy Hook shooter. These were young boys living at home and behind closed door gathered material and information and the parents were never aware of it.
This is a different topic, but I never believed in a child's privacy. Behind closed door where parents are not allowed to visit, to know what they read, whom they meet, what they collect.
Once they leave home, as this young man, or the killer driver, they are adults and this is a different matter, of course. One can always feel bad for the parents, feel their pain.
Rural_Progressive
(1,107 posts)my daughter was warned multiple times about abusing the privilege of having a closed door. I will never forget the look on her face when I took the door off its hinges. Didn't take her too long to figure that once again Dad was serious about certain things and then I got to rehang the door.
I never made an empty threat. If I told her that a certain action would invoke a certain consequence I always followed through. Made me very careful about what I said I'd do.
More than once, but not too many times, we left an event that we all wanted to attend when as a preschooler my little girl threw a hissy fit. Mama got mad at me a few times, but you know, by the time my daughter started school the temper tantrums were a thing of the past.
Patience, persistence, and consistence are very important tools in a parent's toolbox.
Mariana
(14,861 posts)You've got to be carefully taught..." Bullshit. It doesn't always come from the home, it doesn't only happen to children and it doesn't take a huge amount of effort, either. Someone can pick up hate by osmosis, if they have a weak mind and are exposed to it at the right time under the right circumstances. They can learn to hate at school, at work, or at church. They can learn it from their friends.
These parents must be devastated.
cstanleytech
(26,347 posts)he learned it from the people he hangs around with alot of whom he also attends the same church with.
Rural_Progressive
(1,107 posts)I don't go a day without breathing a sigh of relief that my lovely daughter is my lovely daughter. I'd love to take credit. I was the primary caregiver, my dear wife was doing her service to humanity taking care of critically burned patients. At best I gave my little girl a good shot at becoming a good human being. The fact that she has become one is entirely to her credit.
There are people who just should not have children. Yet some of those kids figure it out and overcome the obstacles put in their paths. Go figure?
Being a father was not something I ever wanted to be. Toughest job I've ever had. Wouldn't have missed it for the world, and lordy, I would never chose to do it again.
So what gift do you think my 31 year old daughter presented me with the evening before my 65th birthday? Of course, if all goes well, I'm going to get to be a grandfather. Never let it be said that the Universe doesn't have a wicked sense of humor.
klook
(12,174 posts)The father did the right thing, but this is gut wrenching to read.
question everything
(47,568 posts)I wonder whether the son was actually exposed, by name, or whether family and friend recognized him from news clips
Ligyron
(7,644 posts)There are a few people in my life who did this insane RW turn thing. Even Trump wasn't like this 20 years ago. Oh sure, he was a racist but not a CT enthusiast and GOP mouthpiece.
I think it was AM hate radio and Faux.
Hekate
(90,978 posts)...be thrown in prison for life, ginned up a lot of public hate that found them "guilty" before there was even a trial.
As far as his upbringing, Daddy Drumpf taught him how to be a racist landlord from the get-go.
Ligyron
(7,644 posts)That's why I said he was a racist. He and his Dad both with their housing discrimination left no doubt as to that. The Central Park Five thing was a really, really bad example of his hatred of AA's and even when it was shown beyond any doubt those kids couldn't possibly have done it, did he appologize?
Hell no!
Just like with the birther nonscence. But beside the bigotry he was pretty much a Democrat with social issues. He was not against abortion or woman's reproductive rights f.i. and as much as they would allow it, he hung out at the 54 with the "beautiful people". Not CT, WS folks like Bannon, etc.
He was, however, always a jerk.
iluvtennis
(19,897 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(49,064 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(49,064 posts)erpowers
(9,350 posts)Imagine if Donald Trump has given such a strong denunciation of the KKK, Nazis, and white supremacists as these two men. Yes, those were real denunciations. It was clear that they were opposed to that young man and his ideology.
AlexSFCA
(6,139 posts)those types of views are typically formed early adulthood and parents may not be able to do much at that point. By all means, the father should be applauded; this is exactly what we are trying to achieve: to make sure these alt right nazis are publicly denounced by friends, family, employers, etc. And also, I am hoping someone maintains an online public registry of confirmed nazis so that we never forget and they are forever enshired into the history. All of it is necessary to discourage young people who are considering joininrg alt right
Tarheel_Dem
(31,250 posts)OutaHere
(53 posts)There's still hope.
Betcha his son watches Fox, and listens to Rush.....
ck4829
(35,096 posts)His father recalled a time when his son joked, The thing about us fascists is, its not that we dont believe in freedom of speech. You can say whatever you want. Well just throw you in an oven, Tefft recalled.
This is the far right today, their ultimate vision.
sunonmars
(8,656 posts)Ilsa
(61,710 posts)Their son has turned into someone they don't recognize. Shame on the boy for embracing hate.
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)Nevernose
(13,081 posts)The thing about us fascists is, its not that we dont believe in freedom of speech. You can say whatever you want. Well just throw you in an oven"
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)I don't see this often, but I've seen this a time or two. When one in a family is so different. It's usually because he didn't have much one on one contact w/the parents. Kids pick up their views from their parents through osmosis, seemingly. Just my opinion. But if they don't spend much time with them, that doesn't happen, and they become a blank slate on which someone else can write.
Maybe that's part of becoming a hater. You have intense anger at the world, at your situation. Some people turn their anger inward, some use it to become successful or funny, and some turn their anger outward.
chia
(2,244 posts)... research shows that genetics and peer groups far outrank the influence of parents.
Personality influences:
Genetic: 50%
Peer: 40-50%
Parental/home environment: 10%
Social Psychology Myers and Twenge (2013)
In addition:
"Two children in the same family [are on average] as different from one another as are pairs of children selected randomly from the population."
Plomin and Daniels (1987)
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)You are not born or genetically inclined toward a viewpoint. Viewpoints can also change as time goes on.
Example: Trump says he's the same as he was as a 3 or 4 yr old boy. (Unfortunately, that's probably true.) But that's personality. He didn't have many viewpoints at that age. Those develop over time, most importantly from whoever the child spends time with. Those things imprint.
Trump's viewpoints are much like his father's. He spent a lot of time with his father as he grew up, but in a business or more mature way. Trump's father had drive, was all about money, had a viewpoint about minorities and being of German stock, etc.
I've read that a person's personality is done by the age of 7 and doesn't change much. But that's not views on things.
So this Nazi may have had a bad temper, brash personality. But a lot of people have that personality w/o being a Nazi. He became imprinted with a Nazi viewpoint somewhere along the way, which means he spent more time with those people at a young age than with his parents who did not. I think.
Interesting. I'm going to read up on that. Ultimately, it doesn't matter as regards this guy. He chose to try to kill people.
chia
(2,244 posts)but the point I'm making is that people not only can be and are radicalized by their peers - by their peer culture - it's been argued they're influenced by them by a greater percentage than by the influence of their parents.
One example that comes to mind is the way Dylan Roof was radicalized - in a short period of time, by his online interactions with white supremacists. These Gab, Pepe, 4-chan, Daily Stormer, #AltRight, MAGA groups are exploding under the Trump umbrella.
I'm just adding another viewpoint to the mix: the idea that the "like father like son" adage isn't an absolute, as we've seen apparently regarding Pearce and Peter Tefft.
samnsara
(17,656 posts)Hieronymus
(6,039 posts)thanks to cellphone photos.
Duppers
(28,130 posts)This son could be a psychiatrist's case study.