So I’ve been thinking for a while about this subject, and I finally decided to make a post about this some time after I saw a YouTuber say what I put on the title of this post.
Thing is, I’ve noticed that very often young people and especially kids are treated as lesser beings, like if they were not humans beings with problems and lives of their own but just an annoyance that people have to keep up with.
I remember when I was a kid and I wanted to cross a zebra crossing cars would just pass by without stopping more often than not. Now that I’m an adult they stop pretty much every time. I suspect it was because they didn’t want to stop for someone they consider to be lesser than them.
Also, a lot of people seem to think that being a kid means that you just play videogames or whatever all day, but don’t these people remember when they were kids? I sure do. Going to school has been the worst thing I’ve ever had to endure. The only difference with having a job is that you don’t get paid.
Kids 10+ are somewhat worse at controlling their impulses, usually, but other than that they’re already just as smart as most adults, especially taking into account they’re more up to date on modern tech/developments. I never understood why we as adults collectively decided to act like we’re so much superior when we’re really not
I think you are giving kids too much credit. Even the most intelligent and emotionally mature children at 10-18 years of a age have a lot of growing up to do.
Technology is a moot point because most gadgets are anti-consumer walled ecosystems and information is highly regulated by big tech companies. Therefore it doesn’t necessarily make them smarter.
You could be really smart AND have a lot of growing up to do, and I think this is true for many adults as well.
I agree that children are actively stupefied by propaganda. They’re also stupefied by poor education and hegemonic abuse from teachers, parents, employers, etc, and they then may go on to reproduce this. Our world needs to fundamentally change before we can see and gauge the true potential of children, I’d say.
As someone who’s only grown a year and has already seen the copious amounts of cringe I’ve put out, I can confirm this is true. Children don’t really stop developing rationality until they’re 18 or so.
As someone with siblings, children always seem annoying af to me. Maybe I’ve been too harsh on them.
My 11 year-old brother has recently been saying he “hates small children.” I used to too, but I’m coming around to them. Even as I’m technically still a child.
I have two siblings and they are the most annoying people I’ve ever known.
I have maybe a very different perspective from a lot of folks here on this one, as I am childfree (borderline antinatalist) and really don’t like being around kids, at all.
Given the above, I am quite biased but I find the attitudes listed in the OP to not necessarily be true, if anything I find it increasingly the opposite. Fewer places are actually childfree these days. I totally understand that if I go to a public park there will be children, I have no qualms with that, but maybe the whole family doesn’t need to head out to the local brewery.
Going to school has been the worst thing I’ve ever had to endure.
This one I am mixed on. Middle school and high school were awful, at least socially, but I also had magnitudes more free time back then than now. Getting home by 3 or 4 PM as opposed to 9 or 10. I could, and frequently did, spend all day reading. University, on the other hand, while stressful was probably one of the best periods of my life.
I also am childfree, am getting a vasectomy in the next few months, and am also a borderline anti-natalist. I still think that bringing a person into the world is an inherently selfish act.
But after deep thought and growing over the past several years, I’ve come to realize some things and re-orient some of my beliefs and attitudes.
For one, I don’t think that selfishness is inherently a bad thing. Selfishness is alot like sugar and potassium. You need a certain amount of it to function and fulfill your needs, but when it becomes too much and starts hurting you, others and the ecological and social environment is when it becomes a problem. Though other people constantly describe me as not being selfish at all and being almost saint-like, so take that for what you will.
I’m also developing a belief that is influenced by Taoism/Daoism, and also inspired by the video game series Destiny.
Almost everything in reality has Light and Darkness in it. But Light isn’t inherently good, and Dark isn’t inherently evil. This isn’t to say that a perfect middle-ground exists or that the right answer is always perfectly in the middle, that is neoliberal centrist horseshit.
Most people would agree that murder is wrong. But killing someone in self-defense, protecting yourself or someone else, or preventing tragedy and suffering to save or improve the lives of thousands of people by killing an individual is perfectly reasonable and results in a “net good” in society.
Likewise, while many religions think of themselves as “purifying” humanity, they are merely committing unspeakable atrocities and enforcing oppression in the name of “goodness”, such as Christian colonial missionaries or Buddhist soldiers that fought alongside the pedophile monks that China liberated Tibet from.
As back to my original point, having children is inherently selfish, since it places multiple sociological and psychological burdens on someone and robs them of their “peace of nonexistence” and forces almost guaranteed mortality on someone at some point in the future, you grant a sperm cell decades, (hopefully in the future, centuries) of life that they wouldn’t experience otherwise out of the billions of other sperm cells.
Life is shitty, but after capitalism is overthrown, life will become much less shittier. Sometimes I wish my mother aborted me like she almost did, and other times I’m truly thankful to be alive, despite having BPD, autistic spectrum disorder and OCD.
If I was never born, of course I wouldn’t consciously “know” it or have a frame of reference, but there would be so many beautiful colors and shades and hues I’d never see, wonderful smells, tasty food, orgasms, comfort, security, or entertainment I’ve ever feel, or knowledge I’d never know. Life can be what you make of it.
Even though I say that I “hate” kids sometimes, I don’t truly hate them or wish ill on them. Kids can be spoiled brats, but they are still just little humans who are thrust into a shitty world against their consent without the proper know-how of basically anything, so of course they are annoying and gross and act-out, but its rarely anything that you can or should blame on them.
My heart also tears and becomes enraged at stories of child abuse and exploitation and suffering and murder. Nobody deserves any of that, especially children. They have decades they deserve to live out, not suffer for. Life is a beautiful thing, especially when we share it with other people stuck in our same mortal situation.
I hope I’ve given you food for thought at least.
Even though I say that I “hate” kids sometimes, I don’t truly hate them or wish ill on them. Kids can be spoiled brats, but they are still just little humans who are thrust into a shitty world against their consent without the proper know-how of basically anything, so of course they are annoying and gross and act-out, but its rarely anything that you can or should blame on them.
My heart also tears and becomes enraged at stories of child abuse and exploitation and suffering and murder. Nobody deserves any of that, especially children. They have decades they deserve to live out, not suffer for. Life is a beautiful thing, especially when we share it with other people stuck in our same mortal situation.
Speaking on these two points specifically, I agree entirely. I don’t ever like being around kids at all, but I also don’t wish any harm to happen to them. If anything, I am more inclined to express my distaste to the parents who insisted on bringing kids somewhere they honestly shouldn’t be, it isn’t fair to the kids anymore than the people around them. It’s not like the kid bought a ticket on that plane just to annoy me. I know as a child I was bored out of my mind when I had to go to weddings, as an example.
I hope it goes without saying that I also would never support any kind of child abuse or exploitation. Someone who opts in to having a child owes it to them to do everything in their power to raise the child well; I just personally have no desire to ever have to be in that situation.
PS. Grats on the vasectomy, welcome to the club!
Even though I say that I “hate” kids sometimes, I don’t truly hate them or wish ill on them.
I thought I hated kids for most of my adult life. Then I found out that some friends are awesome parents and thus have awesome kids. The reality is, I hate shitty parents. And that’s a surprisingly large amount of the population.
Sometimes I do think that you should have a license in order to have kids, as controversial as it sounds.
I was just saying yesterday, ageism is on a bizarre rise recently. Today if someone says “I find everyone 5 years younger than me a stupid child lol” and you don’t immediately agree, you’re the weird one.
I don’t get it where tf it’s coming from. One partial theory is that people are so deathly afraid of csam and being accused of being pedos, that they need to virtue signal how they reaaaaaaaaaaaally don’t care about kids, but there has to be more to it. Casually hating on boomers is completely okay too, so I just think it’s another way of humans hating on everyone that’s not like them.
Today if someone says “I find everyone 5 years younger than me a stupid child lol”
How young are these people? I don’t want to come off defending ageism, but it does make a difference if the person saying that is 18 or 38.
I’ve mostly heard/seen it from people in the 25-35y range. Lower than that and it gets absurd, with even a 2 years difference apparently being an insurmountable obstacle to just having a conversation.
Obviously not everyone is like that, but I do get the vibe that it’s becoming the new standard.
These guys are anarchists and you’ll find that they often make references to their own fantasy world to make a point, but this episode i think is relevant:
https://srslywrong.com/podcast/284-a-childs-right-to-read-and-know-w-librarypunk/
