Over the weekend, as most of America was recovering from Thanksgiving, a truly shocking thing occurred.

The 13-year-old conservative video sensation CJ Pearson announced he was no longer a conservative. While this development might come off simply as a teenager — gasp! — changing his mind on something, it’s a news item due to how serious Pearson’s words have been taken by conservative movers and shakers.

Sadly, the story of this young man illustrates a very dumb tendency of the conservative movement: to elevate any conservative-leaning person under the age of 16 to the status of a serious pundit. (RELATED: Kids Have No Place In Politics)

The then-12-year-old first rose to fame after posting a videotaped rant against the policies of Barack Obama back in April. Many conservative outlets ran the clip as an “epic takedown” of the president, instantly catapulting the teen to renown. Additionally, Rand Paul’s campaign was happy to broadcast the fact that the youngster had endorsed the Kentucky senator’s bid for the White House.