The New York Times is running a story on a teenager called Jonathan Kron. Apparently Kron has become the new darling of the conservative punditocracy. After he published a 70 page school essay on what it means to be a conservative, right-wing talkshow lions, from Rush Limbaugh on down, are beating down his door to talk with him.
The article links to a YouTube video of Kron addressing a conservative action committee. I'm curious about your reaction to his three-minute talk.
Personally, I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. In fact I entertain the suspicion that Kron may be an undercover agent for the Onion. He has all the TV pundit motions down to a tee -- including their wise-ass posture of "let me explain the world to you", followed by three minutes of boilerplate platitudes. And the scary thing is, these platitudes quite accurately sum up the state of American conservatism today.
If this is satire, it's ******* brilliant. Please, Edmund Burke, please let it be satire!
Personally, I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. .... please let it be satire!
wow... the kid has been totally indoctrinated.
a reading of the l'il tyke's bio reveals more than it intends to, i think.
Quote:
Jonathan Krohn is a 13 year-old home schooled young man who has been performing on stage since he was eight. Inside Edition’s Debora Norville named him “Atlanta’s Most Talented Child” in 2006. Jonathan has had 3 call-backs for the Broadway part of Michael Banks in Mary Poppins.
Jonathan has recently been seen as John Darling in Peter Pan, and Scott in Dear Edwina, Young Cain in Children of Eden, Colin Cravin in the Secret Garden, as well as parts in The Wizard of Oz, Tom Sawyer, The Jungle Book, and Alice in Wonderland.
In 2007, Jonathan was Guest Narrator for the Gwinnett Philharmonic's rendition of Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. For the last 3 years Jonathan has performed on the Internet radio show “The Life Connection Show”, with the last year taking over as the principal writer for the show.
He has played the cello since he was 4 and has recently taken up the Banjo. He is active at his church, Peachtree Corners Baptist, and in his spare time he is playing with his dog Spot, and listening to anything political. He loves talk radio. He has also taken up golf in hopes to play with his favorite politicians.
sorry, but at 13 years old, a kid doesn't know what he believes; he is told what to believe. and somebody took that empty vessel and filled it to the brim with right wing born again rhetoric.
must be a better money maker than the broadway thing for the parents.
Team the kid with Sarah Palin and take it on the road.
0 Replies
dlowan
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Sun 8 Mar, 2009 06:45 pm
@Thomas,
Just looks like a stage kid to me.
He's been well rehearsed by his coach.
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Foofie
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Sun 8 Mar, 2009 06:58 pm
I believe the young man is quite cognizant of what his actual beliefs are and why. Just because he is not alienated from conservative values, like many young people, does not mean he is a victim of propaganda. Perhaps, those conservative values are actually objectively correct for someone that values one's place in American society!
Maybe frogs wouldn't bump their - Maybe he has been alienated from his liberal values by a very wicked step father.
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dyslexia
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Sun 8 Mar, 2009 07:15 pm
@Foofie,
Foofie wrote:
I believe the young man is quite cognizant of what his actual beliefs are and why. Just because he is not alienated from conservative values, like many young people, does not mean he is a victim of propaganda. Perhaps, those conservative values are actually objectively correct for someone that values one's place in American society!
yeah, right.
0 Replies
Thomas
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Sun 8 Mar, 2009 07:27 pm
edgarblythe wrote:
Team the kid with Sarah Palin and take it on the road.
dlowan wrote:
He's been well rehearsed by his coach.
I agree. He sounds like a stage kid to me, too -- as does Sarah Palin.
Foofie wrote:
Just because he is not alienated from conservative values, like many young people, does not mean he is a victim of propaganda.
It isn't the lack of anti-conservative alienation that leads me to conclude that. It's the complete lack of evidence that he has thought through any of what he's talking about. It's the total absence of any personal touch, anything you can't read up in pamphlets from the Heritage Foundation. He has none of that. Bromide after bromide, he's all prefab talking points, delivered with the routine of a well-rehearsed TV talking head.
I dislike these most precocious kids with a passion. He's probably talking
like his father resp. has been coached by his father.
There was once a TV show with Michael J. Fox who played "Alex Keaton"
an arch conservative kid whose parents were actually quite liberal and old hippies. In this show, Alex talked exactly like this kid does now! In the
NY Times article they mention that he's home schooled and an "experienced child actor" - yes I can believe that, he's definitely acting and with all probability
has a stage mother.
Of course, there is the possibility that as he ages and becomes introduced to more people his views may become more refined. Maybe not a liberal, but if he is just fed lines from his parents, his views could soften once away for college where they have less influence.
Some actors can't direct or write if you catch my drift.
I am always impressed with expressive youth though even if I find there words shocking. For more examples see the movie "Jesus Camp." There's a young boy in it named Levi who has an amazing natural talent for public speaking.
I believe the young man is quite cognizant of what his actual beliefs are and why...
my impressions are based on my personal experiences having been raised in a full on right wing republican home.
...and that kid should be perched on someone's shoulder waiting for the next cracker.
0 Replies
DontTreadOnMe
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Mon 9 Mar, 2009 02:01 am
@kuvasz,
kuvasz wrote:
another recruit for the Hitler Youth.
more like the reaganjugend, bro...
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sozobe
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Mon 9 Mar, 2009 06:24 am
@DontTreadOnMe,
That was my thought too (that it must be the parents) but they actually came out pretty well in the article. At one point his dad I think is dismayed ("Oh, Jonathan...") when the kid starts dissing Obama during the interview (can find this part back).
Also he was only home schooled from sixth grade on. Sixth grade is, what, 11 or so, so that's been maybe three years of home schooling (rather than his whole life).
He [the kid] still has the zeal of a missionary. His voice rising to a wobbly squeak, he grabs any opening to press the cause. “Barack Obama is the most left-wing president in my lifetime,”* he said.
Mr. Krohn buried his face in his hands. “Oh, Jonathan,” he sighed.
also
Quote:
Although the Krohns are conservative, they say Jonathan’s passion for politics is largely his. “Politics bore me,” his mother said flatly. “I’ve learned a lot from Jonathan about the candidates I’ve voted for.” Doug Krohn said he listened to talk radio, but with his Iowa-born soft-sell manner, he’s hardly the pontificating firebrand his son is.
Jonathan said he became a political enthusiast at 8, after hearing about a Democratic filibuster on judicial nominations. “I thought, ‘Who goes to work saying, ‘I’m going to filibuster today?’ ” he said.
Mr. Krohn, looking bleary-eyed by recent events, muttered, “And now he can filibuster with the best of them.”
I predict that Jonathan will either a) fade into obscurity or b) will become a celebrity, then keep examining his beliefs and become a liberal and then become a celebrity all over again.
*I love "in my lifetime." That means he's calling Obama further to the left than George W. Bush or Bill Clinton, right? Um, big whooop.
Yeah, I think it's possible. I'm sorry to say that I can rather easily imagine sozlet doing exactly the same at 14 (but on the liberal side...) with no machinations from me. (Well, I might actively put a stop to it, but I can see it happening without me starting it.)
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djjd62
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Mon 9 Mar, 2009 06:41 am
@Diest TKO,
i recommend everyone see jesus camp, you'll laugh. you'll cry, you'll pray for the rapture to come and take these loonies away
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