Kids tweet the darndest things
When I heard about Joey Heck’s racist, sexist and homophobic tweets, my first reaction was to feel sorry for Nevada Rep. Joe Heck and his family. After all, adolescent brains don’t reach maturity until 22 or so, and Joey is just 16. Many teenagers do stupid stuff they grow up to regret.
But that was before I read them.
Twitter is like an illicit drug for notoriously impulsive teenagers and the perfect vehicle to display juvenile rants and offensive commentary to a wider audience—in this case, the entire nation.
Joey had only 296 followers but was fairly prolific with 3,196 tweets until he abruptly stopped in mid-May, just as he laments his lack of a driver’s license when he has a beautiful truck (Chevy Silverado) waiting to be driven. The truck in the picture he posted looks new, over-sized, and a bit much for an impulsive new driver, leaving the impression of a teenager accustomed to privilege and wealth.
Buzzfeed broke the story, reviewing Twitter accounts of Congressional children after a story emerged about Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake’s 15-year-old son’s racist and anti-Semitic tweets.
Inexplicably, Joey’s unsanitized Twitter account was still in place several days later. Reading through his tweets (@joeyj424) one can imagine the sort of adult he might become: a Fox News-loving bigot, increasingly resentful that his privileged status as a House member’s son might be threatened by minorities, gays, women, or anyone that doesn’t look or think like him.
It’s sad, really, to read his uncompassionate tweets about the Boston bombing suspect, although it’s no worse than what you hear from talk radio or right-wing political commentators:
“Why the hell would you treat somebody with shrapnel wounds that’s suspected of the bombing. Let that bitch bleed.”
His comments, which appear here uncorrected, about gays and minorities are appalling:
“There are gays everywhere. Maybe that’s gods way of thinning out the population because faggots can’t have babies,” (re-tweeted message)
“This Indian Muslim whatever she is in my class is gonna get slapped #stfu #youreannoying”
“You can’t be white and act ghetto … You’re white. If God wanted you to be black he’d make you black stop acting like you’re black #idiot”
The worst of the deplorable tweets highlight Joey’s disrespect for President Obama, saying all the president is good at is “spear chucking and rock skipping. The sports they do in his home country.”
According to news reports, Rep. Heck quickly apologized for the tweets: “I am extremely disappointed in my son’s use of the offensive and inappropriate language on Twitter. That type of language has never been permitted in our home … I apologize to everyone he may have offended. My son also apologizes for his insensitive behavior. My wife and I have addressed this family matter directly with him, and he has learned from it.”
One certainly wants to take his apology in its best light, although another one of Joey’s tweets seems to hint of at least some familial familiarity with a slur: “Fanny pack = fag bag. That’s what my mom calls them.”
Surely there are many teenage boys who are equally offensive and immature on Twitter, whose parents would be horrified if they knew what they were saying. While parents are a child’s best and most influential teachers, we cannot discount the effect of ugly political discourse on television, talk radio and from prominent elected officials day after day.
Children mimic what they hear at home, at school, on TV, and from their friends and trusted adults. We all have a responsibility to influence the young Joey Hecks in our orbit and lower the confrontational dialogue if for no other reason than to avoid creating intolerant adult Joeys, full of vitriol and dehumanizing insults.
In the end, Joey Heck may have taught us all an important lesson.