AI Is A Gateway To The Welfare State
October 6, 2026 |
Keith Giles
I grew up in a Republican home with deeply Republican parents. My dad treated Rush Limbaugh like he was a god, and once Fox News hit the air, it was all over from there.
Now, I also grew up in what was supposed to be a Christian home — and you might imagine that meant warmth, family dinners, and moral integrity. But it wasn’t like that at all. My father was a casual racist pastor. He even had Black members in his congregation at one point, but those people never saw who he really was. Because our true character isn’t who we are in public — it’s who we are when no one’s watching.
Behind closed doors, the man who preached love and grace on Sunday was the same man who brutalized my brother on Monday. It was like living with two different people — the pastor and the perpetrator. Most people would never have believed they were the same person. But we knew.
The physical violence wasn’t the only damage done. There were lessons taught in that house — lessons that burrowed deep into my bones before I ever knew they were wrong.
My dad proudly flew the Confederate flag in our yard. Even in the ’90s, when people started to recognize it as a symbol of hate, he didn’t care. “It’s our heritage,” he said.
He taught me to racially profile my neighbors — to be afraid of brown-skinned people. I was told that if I ever had to fear anyone in public, it should be a Black man, because “they want to assault and murder you.” My mom told me to lock my car doors when we drove through the city so “no one would jump in.”
And the N-word? That word wasn’t limited to Black people. My father used it for anyone he didn’t like — a catch-all slur for whoever he deemed less than.
These are the same people who told me not to date a Black boy because it would “make my life more difficult.” And now, these same people feign ignorance when they’re called out for racism.
So when a group chat between young Republicans gets leaked — filled with violence, racism, homophobia, and threats — people act shocked. But I’m not shocked. You shouldn’t be either.
Those kids didn’t come out of nowhere. They were raised in this. They learned it at the dinner table, at church, at home. They were discipled into hate, just like I was. Racism, homophobia, sexism, patriarchy, and misogyny weren’t just present in my home — they were normal. Casual. Expected.
When you grow up hearing that women are supposed to submit, that gay people are going to hell, that immigrants are dangerous, and that America is God’s chosen nation — it shapes you. And when those beliefs are never challenged, they calcify into identity.
That’s why these young Republicans can laugh about hate. They’ve been groomed for it — not by strangers on the internet, but by parents, pastors, and politicians who modeled it long before they could spell the word “Democrat.”
No, I’m not shocked when I see the screenshots. I’m grieved, but I’m not surprised. I’ve seen where it starts. I’ve seen the dinner-table sermons and the living-room tirades. I’ve heard the same words, just dressed in different clothes.
The only difference is that I chose to unlearn it.
And maybe that’s the part that scares them most — not that their children might turn out “liberal,” but that we might finally name the rot for what it is.
