Object Lessons

I've blogged about Jonathan Krohn before. He's the tween conservative fire-brand that has been coached by his parents to be a mini-Hannity. His book has been all the rage in conservative circles since his speech at CPAC09



Ads for this tome of conservative, pubescent, angst in the modern world have been popping up again around the internet and I have to revisit this, if only for this reason - what happened to childhood?

I'm not going to get all sentimental and pander to base emotions by conjuring images of kids playing in sandboxes, on swing sets in the summer, or splashing around in the public pool with their friends. I'm just wondering why kids are being forced to "grow up" so soon.

After all, what does this kid ( yes, he's a kid for fuck sake ) know about the real world or childhood for that matter? I can recall at 14 that I knew very little about what life had to offer, and was honestly from a very "sheltered" family. I learned at my own pace, made mistakes and assumptions, and took life one step at a time.

But that was before the internet, before technology had such a foothold in the process of growing up, and before the 24 cable news wars. Growing up back then was much different but there was still such a thing as indoctrination, only now kids like Krohn have people like Hannity, Limbaugh, and Fox"News" to speed the process up.

I can't say this enough, but I honestly feel sorry for this kid.

Of Gimmicks, Indoctrination, And Children

In any case where a child has not put themselves into the media spotlight, or their family hasn't put them there, I would say that talking about them is off limits.

That being said, which one of these kids do you think has been coached endlessly with Right-Wing talking points?



Don't you just love the way that Doocy feels he has to explain what mini-Hannity was saying to the 11-year-old that just graduated from college.

Notice how the other kids were calm, honest, and forthcoming with their responses - even though they seemed compeltely disinterested with the questions given - while Krohn was practically auditioning to replace Glenn Beck or O'Reilly. This is what right-wing indoctrination does to children.

CPAC's Gimmick: Jonathan Krohn

I can't count the number of times that I have read a multitude of conservative/ideological postings and comments that talk about "using children as shields". While those rants were primarily used as their own type of "use children in order to protect your ideological nonsense" tripe, I'm starting to think that Jonathan Krohn ( author of "Define Consevatism" ) is just another gimmick of the movement that he allegedly espouses love and adoration for.

Make no mistake, the boy is as sharp as Coulter's forked-tongue and able to articulate in ways that would make Hannity and O'Reilly blush. But, is he the alleged "prodigy" that the right-wing is now holding-up as a shinng example of courage, or he is just "coachable"?

As is seen in many lunatic-fringe, conservative, families, the parents favor indoctrination over free-will. Is this another case of such? Who knows. But, what happens after CPAC..........?



And, true to fashion, he gets put on Fox"News"



Having watched these clips over and over since they were originally posted, I have noticed one thing that should be pointed out - he's not saying anything that people 3 times his age haven't said.

When you realize this, that is the point when you begin to see that even though Jonathan is a very confidant speaker, his message falls as flat as those that he may call his heroes. That being said, it's no wonder that he was published at 13. What publisher of far-right ideological drivel does't dream of a teen that is willing to espouse those viewpoints that he/she won't fully understand until they are older.

Chalk this one up to another case of the conservative movement favoring gimmicks over substance.