there was a time when there were working class parents like deniro's character who believed in something that was bigger than money or status or material possessions, who saw guys like sonny for what they were and tried very hard to teach their kids to stay away from guys like that and not to be fooled by their fancy suits and their flashy wealth and their slick talk about how the working man is a sucker and a real man cuts corners and lies and cheats and steals his way to the top, but now the noble working class parental figure is an extinct mythical dinosaur and the modern parent is the exact opposite of deniro, they're telling their kids to run towards guys like sonny and listen to everything they say and trust them completely, don't be a sucker, don't become one of those working class losers driving a bus to earn a living, forget about your family and your friends and your principles and just go out there and get rich by any means necessary, and in fact, don't come back until you do because we don't want to have to feel embarrassed when people ask us what our kid does for a living. the most absurd joke of all is that these people are what is known as "conservative parents" now, these people who have literally abandoned everything they ever believed in and turned words like "tradition" and "values" into a punchline. that's where america lost it's soul, not with woke culture or queers or drugs or violent videogames, it was when guys like sonny became the heroes instead of the villains. sad!