"there should be some kind of test you have to take before having kids" -> wrong, extremely dangerous and highkey eugenicist and racist "the youth should have safe and effective legal pathways at their disposal to make sure their human rights are constantly protected and upheld" -> based, centers the youth, gives minors more power to fight inequality and does not reinforce the idea that parents are immune to scrutiny from their kids
"kids are so whiny and annoying" you want them to be dependent on adults and obedient and silent and convenient but also independent and not needing anything but also without any sense of autonomy and agency but also going outside and getting off their damn phones but also staying inside so they don't get into trouble but also recognizing they have it good but also that the new generation is mindless and stupid but also just say what they want in clear and emotionally mature words but also stop asking for things AND you want them to not be pissy about it? get real
Epstein files discourse has me more convinced than ever that we need to be talking a lot less about "pedophiles" and talking a lot more about child sexual abuse.
I talked about how conservative authoritarians define "pedophilia" as "youth autonomy," but even among less overtly authoritarian communities, the spectre of The Pedophile is, at best, a distraction from the reality of CSA.
"Pedophiles" are a distinct, discrete type of person. They're Not Like Us, but also, they Could Be Anywhere. They're hiding in plain sight among us, lurking and sabotaging. Anyone could secretly one of them. They're queer, they're Jewish, they're vaguely foreign. They conspire. They're a cabal. They have secret signals. They're rich and powerful and secretly control governments, but they're also poor and dirty and hide in alleyways. They're sexually deviant. They're everywhere and nowhere, and you should constantly be on guard against anyone who might be one.
Child sexual abuse, on the other hand, is abuse. It's an action, not a type of person. Anyone can commit it, because it's an abuse of power, and all adults and many other children have power over all children. Any adult has the ability to sexually abuse a child, because every adult has the ability to wield power over any child. Child sexual abuse is part of the continuum of child abuse, which in turn is part of the continuum of abuse, which can be committed by anyone who has the power to commit it.
The Epstein clients are the most prosaic phenomenon in the world. Rich, powerful people trafficked powerless people to force the powerless people to serve them. Rich, powerful people got away with breaking laws. Rich, powerful people uses people as objects -- in this case, as sex objects, but by the same structural mechanisms by which they use people to clean their houses, pick their crops, and assemble widgets in their factories.
It's not A Secret Cabal Of Pedophiles Conspiratorially Running The Government. It's just kyriarchy working as intended. Absolutely, keep up the pressure to release the Epstein files and prove what we already know, but if you're using "pedophiles" in a sentence where "illuminati" would make sense, put down the conspiracy juice and pick up the youthlib juice instead.
The biggest bullshit with Adultism is basically that the people will defend it with: "Well, if we did not force X on kids, kids would not do it, because they hate X."
And then you actually look onto the research.
Kids do not generally hate learning or school. Quite the opposite. Children tend to enjoy learning and are naturally curious. It is exactly the fact that they are forced into school and into the rigid structure of it that often punishes curiosity but also is hostile towards the differences inherent in people, that kids hate it.
Kids do not naturally hate medical care. While medical care is scary at times, the fear usually comes from medical care scenarios being defined by adults overriding a child's agency, not explaining things to him, and otherwise being abusive, that makes children afraid of medical procedures. Additionally the way a lot of medical procedures go hand in hand with denying a child's reality ("Look, it is not that bad") tends to be traumatizing to children.
There have been studies done in this. If you explain a child - even a toddler - what you do and why, children will generally be a lot more okay with stuff like needles and simple procedures, and will even agree to necessary surgical interventions.
If you create a learning environment that allows more for self-directed learning, and involves less specific testing, most kids actually will enjoy learning.
The way kids hate school, and are afraid of doctors is the result of those interactions being associated with violence and coercion. The hatred is because of the coercion, rather than the hatred making the coercion necessary.
it's not acknowledged enough that a lot of the sleep deprivation, a really big number, that is seen in children and teenagers is due to their parents. "my kid's up all night on their phone" and why exactly is that? because nighttime, the time when they're supposed to be sleeping, aka unconscious in bed, aka not causing you any trouble, aka unable to be immediately put to work by you, is so much of the time the only true "free time" they have. that's what it is. if the moment they step out of their room you give them something to do and berate them for breathing; if every moment they're in their room you're calling them out to do work, and then chiding them for trying to lock their door ... when is there a moment for them to just do what they want? to have fun? to be happy?
there isn't one. not unless they're awake when they're meant to be asleep.
I hate how every time a kid-friendly game that includes romance comes out (recent example: Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream), and fans express a desire for polyamory in the game, polyamphobic people come out of the wood works to say "Don't do that, that's a game kids play!"
Minors can be polyamorous. Minors can have polyamorous parents or other relatives. Minors are not harmed in any way by exposure of polyamory. I knew I was polyamorous by the age of 12. I felt extraordinarily othered by the lack of representation.
Polyamory isn't inherently some super explicit NSFW thing.
It's literally no different from the "don't let same-gender relationships exist in video games!" argument.
-Mod Arwen (he/him)
it's so funny to me when i see pearl-clutching articles about how "teenagers are diagnosing themselves with mental disorders via tiktok" because like. this is not happening in a vacuum. teenagers are severely and i mean severely medically neglected. i cannot stress this enough. teenagers do not have free access to medical care. those same news outlets would be clowning on women with housewife psychosis in the 1950's.
i sometimes go pale when listening to some of what my friends have gone through in their childhoods and teenagehoods. they talk about it so nonchalantly, things that would be considered straight up torture if done to an adult, can't fathom the effect this has on children. they are on multiple anti-psychotics and several antidepressants and anxiety meds now that they are adults. medical neglect has legally and effectively disabled them. a timely diagnosis and intervention could have saved them.
of course teenagers are self-diagnosing using tiktok. if your knee-jerk reaction is to scoff at the idea and dismiss it as dumb teenager shit instead of being radicalized because the best shot young people have at attaining the mental health support they need is a fucking dancing videos app, you're categorically a political enemy of the youth.