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.
I honestly don’t have any thoughts on this right now other than we need to discuss this. At the time of me writing this, there are no comments on this post.
This issue is often dismissed, but we Marxists criticize and breakdown every amount of our society in hopes of building a new one, and the role of children and/or childhood shouldn’t be an exception to this.
Also, what are your guys’ thoughts on the concept of youth liberation? Do you support the idea or reject it? Should it be implemented immediately under socialism, implemented gradually as productive forces grow, or not be considered at all?
I support Marxist abolition of the family and education reforms to get rid of the “factory model of education.”
That being said, I don’t think getting rid of education entirely, for example, is a good idea.
Our conditions aren’t conducive to maintaining a proper state of mind. After having been put through the barbaric, traumatic education typical to the west, I can understand why people foster a belief that education is bad by default. Like those put through conversion therapy who develop a disdain for psychologists. Or those wronged by their government who become anarchists. All three have applied to me in the past. When one is a victim of poor education and trauma, getting them to see the truth can become an extremely delicate act.
In addition to Rondomi’s reply, I wanted to point out that I interpreted OP’s post as perhaps implying that meaning, when they wrote:
Going to school has been the worst thing I’ve ever had to endure.
This was further confirmed when the first result when searching “youth liberation” was this anarchist article that called schools concentration camps and unironically suggested the word “children” is equivalent to the N-word.
I support the concept of youth liberation. I can say without a doubt that if I had an “out” from my family, that I would have taken it. Aldous Huxley writes of a concept in his fiction novel Island, where families are assigned to a unit. If children need an escape from their immediate family, they’re able to stay with other families in the unit. I think the saying “it takes a village” is true and we’ve been ignoring it for at least the last century here in the west.
Any resources on what the concept of youth liberation is and how it might be implemented? This is the first time I’ve heard of it… (Yes, I know I could look it up, but considering how search engines can be biased or low-quality, I would rather ask someone already familiar with the concept.)
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.
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.
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.
Or maybe the opposite:
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.
It’s also noticeable with the way we act and talk to children, like when I was a kid I didn’t like talking with anyone because adults talked to me in the annoying voice thing and they always used to dismiss what I say and underestimate my level of comprehension.
First thing is that obviously, children are far weaker than adults (I’m not included since I got once into a fight with a 6th grader and lost) there’s also knowledge gap from age which creates a power domination dynamic thing.
This also can be a result of self hatred and regret, as we were all young and made dumbass decisions that we look back on and project into kids going through the same.
This also is because of capitalism and the worth of humans being tied to how much value they produce, infact one of the first questions kids get asked is “what do you want to be when you grow up”.
