“I raised my daughter conservatively, then she went off to college and got brainwashed … What do I do?”

RUSH: We had caller yesterday who was just the nicest woman, … she called back (laughing) by all means, It’s Rebecca in Houston, you are responsible today for a caller clinic. We do these caller clinics now and then to help demonstrate how it should be done. So you’ve made it back. We’re gonna forget the ban and let you take another stab at it.

CALLER: (laughing) Thank you. My question is, I raised my daughter conservatively — I have two children — raised her conservatively, and then she goes off to college. And I’d like to know how to — I’m very frustrated because I want to respond eloquently to these Millennials that are buying the snake oil that “Occasional Cortex,” otherwise known as AOC, is the snake oil that — they’re buying the snake oil, and I just don’t understand how to respond to them eloquently because they are — One of my children. The other child I read the first Rush Revere books, I don’t have the rest, but I’ve read those to my younger one. But my daughter that’s in college, you know, I tried to tell her you’re entitled to your own opinion, but you’re not entitled to your own facts. And, you know, immediately they go into defensive mode. And I want to be able to eloquently respond —

RUSH: Rebecca? I have the same challenge here every day. I know that the Millennial age-group is largely represented here. A lot of people think that talk radio audiences, particularly the daytime, skew to older demographics. And we do own the 45-plus demographic. But we’re big 25-54. There’s a lot of Millennials listening here. And I know that they’re listening and don’t call. And I have the same challenge: how to get through to them.

Grasp the Problem.

How do you talk anyone, and especially young people, out of believing something they want to believe? Especially given the reason they want to believe it: it makes them important. They matter. They get to be the ones to bring justice, right wrongs, fix the planet. They don’t want to hear that its all a bunch of garbage. They done want to hear that their no such thing as man made climate change or that their beloved socialism destroys everything it touches. They want to believe because their belief promises to put them in the driver’s seat.

Start with Compassion

When you’re the parent, as far as your college kids are concerned, you don’t know much. Parents are not generally considered credible sources by young people. So begin with what is strongest between you: your family bond. Tell her that you want to speak to her from the heart about something that is is bothering you. That you’re worried that she not believe things that are not true, that she’s your daughter, you only care about her. And when you think that she is believing bad things, wrong things, wrong people, you want to at least give her an opportunity or an alternative way of thinking because you care about her.

If you make it about “Cortex” and you say that Alexandria Ocasio-“Cortex” is an idiot and is a child and doesn’t know what she’s talking about, your daughter is just gonna be motivated to defend “Cortex.” So make it about her. Make it about the fact that you don’t care about anything other than your daughter getting the truth about things, because it’s going to matter as she grows up.

Tell the Blessed Truth.

Her position is the result of decades of indoctrination by leftist teachers and radical environmental activists. Such propaganda doesn’t faze you because you have the benefit of experience; use it. Tell her directly & unapologetically that she lives in the greatest country on earth and there’s literally no reason to be apocalyptic about her life. There’s no reason in the world to think that this planet is going to die. It isn’t. You can tell her that people have thought this since the first humans walked around in the muck and came out of the slime. Every generation, Rebecca, has members thinking it’s the last day, either for religious reasons or scientific reasons or cult reasons.

Every generation has thought this. And you tell her that every generation has been wrong. The earth is still here. It is providing more opportunity, more prosperity for everybody than it ever has! There’s no reason to be running around pessimistic and apocalyptic about the planet.

And if you want to take it real deep with her, ask her what she would do to fix it. Or ask her what we’ve done to cause it. And I guarantee, you’ll get whatever she’s a heard, SUV, CO2, cow farts, whatever it is, and just kind of chuckle and smile and ask her “how long have cows been farting?” You know, “How much pollution do the ChiComs put in the air, the Indians and so forth?” There’s all kinds of different ways to intellectually nuke every argument.

It’s about the need to believe that the end days are upon us but that your daughter’s generation is not responsible. Your daughter’s generation can fix it. And that gives their lives meaning. And that gives them purpose, and it makes them think that they matter. Everybody wants to matter. But you, when you talk to, you’re just trying to save her from the pain and the unhappiness of running around constantly scared, constantly in misery, constantly apocalyptic when none of that is warranted, none of that is occurring.

She ought to be making her life plans based on the abundant optimism

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