Emotional incest is not sexual unlike the name can suggest. It's also called covert incest. It is when an adult's (parent/guardian) relationship with their child is too adult-like. The child is burdened with adult emotional responsibility. It is considered abused.

People often wonder what's SO wrong with it, and often debate if it is *really* abuse. It is considered so because it forces children to put their parent's needs first and abandon their own emotional needs and it forces them to be adults and abandon regular growth/development.
Parents that depend on children in this way are often lonely. Either from social withdrawal, singleness or a tumultuous relationship(s). Their social/support system is not great and so they lean on in-house support from their child/children.
Emotional incest can be tricky to recognise because children sometimes like it, it can make them feel very special, powerful, helpful and grown-up for their age. It can also appear really loving from the outside looking in.

Forms that emotional incest take place:
Asking children to mediate in their parent's relationship is one way in which it takes place. Children should not have to offer emotional support for romantic and social woes and be in positions of responsibility in regards to adult interactions.
Another form is when children are responsible for the validation of their parent. The child is expected to constantly praise the parent's parenting, beauty or personality etc. The child is a massive part of the parent's reassurance/validation system
When a child is put in the position of a therapist, this is also emotional incest. A child should not be responsible for managing the thoughts, emotions or the crises of their parents. A child should be shielded from such and not given the detailed intricacies.
And lastly, a child should also not fulfil the role of being an adult's literal best friend where they have social and emotional duty and need to be exceptionally dependable to an adult.
The result of emotional incest often means neglect takes place. The child isn't treated like a child because boundaries are crossed. The appropriate structure, routine and discipline isn't put in place because the child is assumed to be adult-like. They can struggle to adjust.
People that grew up like this can grow up with anxiety and hypersensitivity to other people's emotional needs, they may often not be able to identify their own emotional needs. It is said that such people frequently become therapists...
Another effect is that people like this can subsequently enter a series of co-dependent relationships where they are mostly doing labour for a dependent partner and toxic cycles occur.
Emotional incest often leads to a lack of boundaries, people that experienced this often struggle to recognise when to place boundaries or how to accept boundaries in social/romantic situations.
Parents with multiple children often do this with 1 child and that can create favouritism and resentment from the other children. The "favoured" child can also eventually resent their siblings for not having enough duty to the parent too.
Another effect is that children do not confide in their parent. Children can hide information that would "upset" their parent, similarly to how adults should shield children from distress. So when a child encounters a troubling matter/abuse, they keep it to themself.

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The meat of the criticism is that the history Adler gives is insufficiently critical. Adler describes a few figures who had a great influence on how the modern US university was formed. It's certainly critical: it focuses on the social Darwinism of these figures. 2/x

Other insinuations and suggestions in the review seem wildly off the mark, distorted, or inappropriate-- for example, that the book is clickbaity (it is scholarly) or conservative (hardly) or connected to the events at the Capitol (give me a break). 3/x

The core question: in what sense is classics inherently racist? Classics is old. On Adler's account, it begins in ancient Rome and is revived in the Renaissance. Slavery (Christiansen's primary concern) is also very old. Let's say classics is an education for slaveowners. 4/x

It's worth remembering that literacy itself is elite throughout most of this history. Literacy is, then, also the education of slaveowners. We can honor oral and musical traditions without denying that literacy is, generally, good. 5/x
Fake chats claiming to be from the Irish African community are being disseminated by the far right in order to suggest that violence is imminent from #BLM supporters. This is straight out of the QAnon and Proud Boys playbook. Spread the word. Protest safely. #georgenkencho


There is co-ordination across the far right in Ireland now to stir both left and right in the hopes of creating a race war. Think critically! Fascists see the tragic killing of #georgenkencho, the grief of his community and pending investigation as a flashpoint for action.


Across Telegram, Twitter and Facebook disinformation is being peddled on the back of these tragic events. From false photographs to the tactics ofwhite supremacy, the far right is clumsily trying to drive hate against minority groups and figureheads.


Declan Ganley’s Burkean group and the incel wing of National Party (Gearóid Murphy, Mick O’Keeffe & Co.) as well as all the usuals are concerted in their efforts to demonstrate their white supremacist cred. The quiet parts are today being said out loud.


The best thing you can do is challenge disinformation and report posts where engagement isn’t appropriate. Many of these are blatantly racist posts designed to drive recruitment to NP and other Nationalist groups. By all means protest but stay safe.