Are kids even treated like humans?
Are kids even treated like humans?
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 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!
Adult supremacy is a real thing. While it is very prominent among American Baby Boomers, it can afflict people of any generation. I believe we as adults have a responsibility to guide and protect youth, not forcefully shape them into some predetermined mold.
Frankly it infuriates me when I see somebody of my age (early 30s) acting just like a damned Boomer and complaining about "kids these days", when those kids are just responding to pressures of a world that adults have forced upon them. The only kind of youth I truly dislike are the alt-right kind.
I cannot speak for any other country, but the US public school experience is designed to beat the kids down until they accept their place within the capitalist system by the time they're 18 years old. Any education that happens in those places is incidental. They're primarily meant for schooling, not education.
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.