I opened the Politico article and felt sick. Young Republican leaders—men barely out of adolescence—were joking about sending people to gas chambers, calling Black people “monkeys,” and describing rape as “epic.” These weren’t isolated comments made in ignorance. They were deliberate expressions of contempt, of sadistic pleasure disguised as humor. And then came the insult that cut deeper than the original cruelty: the Vice President, JD Vance, went on national television and dismissed it all as “stupid jokes,” claiming they were just young people being immature.
But there is nothing “immature” about fantasizing over genocide and rape. That is the voice of unresolved rage—hatred born of emotional deprivation. When society normalizes that voice, we are not forgiving youth; we are enabling fascism.
The Roots of Fascism Lie in Repression
Alice Miller wrote decades ago that the greatest danger to humanity is emotional blindness—the repression of the child’s pain. Those who were never seen, never allowed to feel, often grow into adults who find strength through domination. They become the “true believers,” desperate to prove their worth by identifying with power and cruelty.
As Miller wrote:
“Not everyone is capable of thinking in real, concrete terms. Many seek refuge in religious beliefs. In their weakness, they place their trust in relics, awaiting salvation at the hands of one stronger than themselves. Anyone who claims to be a strong and knowledgeable authority for such people… has the duty to be conscious of the appropriate facts. If they aren’t… they are acting against life by misusing the weakness and trust of the faithful and dangerously confusing them.”
This passage could have been written for our time. The leaders who excuse violent rhetoric under the banner of religion, patriotism, or “youthful mistakes” are acting against life itself. They exploit emotional weakness instead of helping people heal it.
The Real Pandemic: Emotional Illiteracy
Every act of cruelty begins as a cry for help that was never heard. When a society silences children—telling boys not to cry, girls to smile through pain, and all of them to obey—we are breeding despair. That despair turns outward, seeking targets. The result is fascism: the collective reenactment of childhood humiliation on the world stage.
The leaked messages from the Young Republicans aren’t “anomalies.” They are symptoms of a generation drowning in emotional illiteracy, raised by adults who worshiped power and scorned vulnerability. These young men learned early that to survive, they must mock empathy and glorify violence. Their so-called “humor” is the echo of their own repression.
When Leaders Excuse Cruelty, They Legitimize It
By calling this hate “stupid jokes,” the Vice President wasn’t protecting youth—he was protecting the system that produces them. Dismissing cruelty as immaturity sends a clear message: your violence is safe here. You can say anything, so long as you call it a joke.
History shows us where this road leads. Fascism always begins with language—dehumanizing metaphors, racial slurs, and threats disguised as humor. When no one draws the line, the words become policies, and the policies become atrocities.
The Way Forward: Emotional Truth and Accountability
Healing begins with truth. We must stop pretending that hate speech is harmless, and we must stop forgiving it in the name of “youth” or “politics.”
Real love for humanity means demanding accountability—while also understanding the wounds that gave birth to the hate.
As Alice Miller wrote years ago in Protecting Life After Birth:
“Consciously or unconsciously, [the moralists] represent support for cruelty against children and active complicity in the creation of unwanted existences, existences that can easily become a liability for the community at large.”
Until we protect children from emotional violence, we will continue to raise adults who mistake domination for strength and hatred for humor.
Conclusion: The Choice Before Us
The question is not whether we should forgive these young men—it is whether we will finally confront the conditions that create them. The real enemy is not youth but repression. The cure is not silence but awareness.
Every act of cruelty begins in childhood, but so does every act of compassion. Which one we choose to nurture determines the fate of our world.
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