The AfD is a serious issue – even in Germany’s nurseries. Just a few days ago, a stern colleague had the sobering realization: “My child would vote for the AfD.” She was horrified that her 14-year-old son had suddenly become conspicuous with trite, inhumane statements from the right-wing spectrum for no apparent reason. The colleague found out that the podcast “Hoss
According to the company’s own information, the format reaches around two million individual listeners every month. In the podcast rankings of platforms such as Spotify and Apple, “Hoss
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Thorsten Niebling is responsible for such questions. He works at the Hessian advice center “Red Line” and is co-head of the educational center for right-wing extremism. In his work he specializes in dealing with young people who are on the right-wing fringe. “We have been receiving an increasing number of inquiries from schools for a few weeks now,” says the social worker in an interview with stern. “The issues of the extreme right are booming again and don’t stop at even the youngest people.” According to Niebling, this shows how much the social discourse has changed in the meantime.
It is usually a shock for parents when they see their child drifting to the right – especially if they may have a completely different view of the world and believed that they had passed this on to their child in their upbringing. Trying to have a conversation in this heated atmosphere often presents parents with major challenges.
When communicating with children, the most important thing is an emotional approach, says right-wing extremism expert Niebling: “It helps if parents are interested in what their children are watching and what sources they use to form their opinions.”
But how exactly do you best have such a conversation with your child? In the stern, Niebling reveals seven sentences that he gives parents for such a discussion.
