Father laments ‘losing’ his autistic son to Trump cult: He ‘was a sweet kid'

A special education teacher described Monday how his son became "lost" in the MAGA movement and "toxic masculinity" as a result of right-wing message boards.

Speaking to The Guardian, the dad told how he didn't get a call this year for Father's Day. He admitted he's a progressive who protested the Iraq war with his son, who was then in a stroller.

"Nick [not his real name] was a sweet kid," the father, who was not named so as not to identify his son, told The Guardian. "He was really quiet. He’s on the upper end of the autism spectrum, so he can have difficulty interpreting social cues. All he wanted to do was follow whatever the big kids were doing."

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"He can’t tolerate cruelty to animals or people who are vulnerable, which feels ironic, given his politics now," his father explained.

He said Nick fell in with a crowd of hackers who would rebuild computers. That's how Nick found the right-wing message boards. The more he emulated the extreme, the more those on the message boards praised him, he said. As someone looking for acceptance, Nick was hooked.

"Nick was 15 or 16 when he said that he liked Trump. I can understand how Trump appealed to a childish sensibility: he’s this clownish figure who does whatever he wants," the dad said.

When Nick's parents divorced, Nick went back to Texas and now focuses on what it takes to be "a man," taking cues from his MAGA friends, the dad said.

For example, "men smoke," so now he does. Men shoot guns, so when Nick turned 21, his MAGA friends took him to the gun range, and he bought him his first gun.

Now, Nick has a wealthy friend who buys him dinner and who fills his mind with allegations that poor people are "parasites," his dad said. So,he said, because his parents aren't wealthy, Nick thinks they are just "lazy, stupid hippies."

He explained that he finally reconnected with his son, but only via text message. At the very least, the father said, he's able to tell his son that he loves him.

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