Nick Freitas Discusses Family Estrangement

I'm a big fan of Nick Freitas. His videos are often so on target I just nod my head. He's a military vet, a Green Beret, who served two tours in Iraq.  He also spent ten years in the Virginia House of Delegates. I love listening to him because he is masculine in the best way possible. He's a husband, a dad, a Christian and had a 100% pro-life voting record in the General Assembly. And, to top it off, he's often funny. 

This video takes a serious look at the estrangement situation in families. I recently had an exchange with a cousin who has TDS. She lives on the opposite side of the country so we don't interact much and she's a generation younger (cousin once removed). She hasn't blocked me yet on Facebook, but it wouldn't surprise me. I've also lost a friend over political disagreements. People don't seem able to handle differences these days. They just cut you off.

Interestingly, those who initiate estrangement are more likely to support the view that violence and damaging property is justifiable to effect political change. Here's a graph that shows the relationship between political views and approval for violence. Freitas shows a similar graph at the 16 minute point in the video that shows that 55% of those who sever family ties think violence is necessary to achieve social change and 41% believe damaging property is justifiable. That is probably more typical of those who sever ties over politics rather than other reasons.

The beginning of the video is particularly interesting. Freitas put information into Grok and got what he described as a generic "form" letter that would be sent to the person being canceled. It was filled with buzz words that many parents who were ordinary, mistake-ridden but loving parents, are hearing. Freitas calls it a "revolutionary strategy" which it really is. Marxism and Communism aimed to destroy the family. Encouraging family cancel culture is a tool.

It's a great video. And the comments are interesting as well. Many of them are like this one:

I received a letter like that. After a minor political disagreement, my son felt comfortable calling me names. Then he said he might be willing to restart contact once I received psychological help: to change my mind. The irony is that these kids don't even realize that they are trying to take on the role of thought police. 

Dozens of parents chimed in saying they received the same kind of letter, phone call, etc. The pain in the comment section was obvious.

Freitas reminds me of Charlie Kirk. He talks about listening and asking the critic, "What do you mean by this?" Then listen. The advice in the last fifteen minutes of the video is wise and helpful. Listen, ask for definitions, repeat the issue and ask if your understanding is what they mean. 

I plan to listen to this video again because it's helpful and Freitas offers concrete ideas for fighting woke ideas infecting our children and grandchildren. I suspect that Nick Freitas helps people more than any therapist could. God bless him! I'm praying for him. I'd love to see him become a Catholic! He loves the truth and that's a good start!