Conservatives completely oppose the exploitation of children for political purposes. Except, of course, when they’re pro-Trump, Black, and willing to provide cover for the far right.

Conservative teenager commentator CJ Pearson sparked a firestorm when he put out a (since retracted ) tweet yesterday saying “white nationalism” is perfectly fine. And over the last few days, Pearson has relentlessly defended the Turning Point USA ambassador fired after socializing with open anti-Semites and white nationalists. Meanwhile, he pals around with fringe figures like Scott Greer, the former Daily Caller editor who wrote under a pseudonym for a white supremacist journal.

But CJ, I thought there was nothing wrong with being a white nationalist, at least according to you https://t.co/7hEsV3Giq9 pic.twitter.com/TQnNzN5dBv — Alec Sears v2 (@alec_sears) October 1, 2019

CJ Pearson is the king of reversing his positions, but he never learns from his mistakes. CJ's support of white nationalism and subsequent reversal was due to a conversation we had in a group DM. It's obvious he doesn't really believe in his "apology" he just didn't want the heat pic.twitter.com/ve6RdUMdIF — Alec Sears v2 (@alec_sears) October 1, 2019

To be blunt, Pearson is a gullible teenager being used by bad actors to push a radical agenda. Sound familiar? Well, he’s basically a right-wing version of Greta Thunberg. The same way the Swedish teen is used as a prop by progressive radicals to push climate change alarmism and socialism, Pearson is used to provide cover to a far-right movement with suspect stances on racial issues and an unacceptable tolerance for fringe figures in its midst.

And just as Thunberg uses alarmist, insane rhetoric about climate doomsday and the "betrayal of her generation" to advance a liberal narrative, well, Pearson too uses cheap, Candace-Owens-esque “plantation” rhetoric to push a pro-Trump narrative.

They said that wearing a #MAGA hat would be the end of @kanyewest.



Instead, he went on to be the highest paid rapper of 2018.



Free-thinkers won and the liberal plantation owners lost. — CJ Pearson (@thecjpearson) September 30, 2019

Every day, I’m told by white liberals what I should and should not offended by and that I shouldn’t support @realDonaldTrump.



Hate to break it to y’all but slavery is a relic of the past.



You don’t own black folks anymore. #KAG #MAGA 🇺🇸 — CJ Pearson (@thecjpearson) June 20, 2019

This is basement-level thinking and analysis. It’s also a grossly insensitive comparison to equate possibly misguided ethnic voting patterns or harmful consequences of the welfare state with the mass genocide and oppression of millions of black people.

All that aside, Pearson can’t even seem to make his mind up as to what exactly he believes — it seems he supports whatever stance will keep the viral internet attention flowing at any given moment. He made it big as a young critic of former President Obama, then flip-flopped and renounced conservatism, saying he was “tired of being a champion of a party that turned a blind eye to racial discrimination.” Pearson even came out as a supporter of Bernie Sanders a few weeks later.

He literally wrote an article titled “I'M 13 AND DONALD TRUMP BECOMING PRESIDENT SCARES THE CRAP OUT OF ME.” Now, Pearson is all in on the Trump train, defending the worst of the Right’s excesses and dismissing racism at every turn.

I don’t necessarily fault Pearson for changing his political views as a teenager numerous times — that’s pretty typical for a young person coming of age. But it does show that his views are too shallow and ill-informed to offer any substantive guidance or be worth amplifying on their own merit. Pearson, like Thunberg, ought to be no one's thought leader on his merits. He is being amplified by people who seek to exploit his minority status and age and use it to their advantage.

Yet the thing that Pearson and Thunberg have in common most clearly is the way they and their supporters reflexively exploit their youth both as a prop and a shield. First, they’re elevated in part on the basis of their youth, we’re told they represent the next generation, and their young age is mentioned in headlines as a reason their voice is worth listening to. But as soon as you criticize the beliefs or stances they offered into the public domain, they flip-flop and play the victim: “Why are you attacking a child?”

None of this is to say Pearson is necessarily a bad person. Frankly, like Thunberg, he’s just a teenager in over his head. Still, at 17, he ought to have enough agency to realize what’s going on and wise up to it, before it's too late.