Someone is truly in here going The hundreds of people gunned down daily is really a small percentage of the population so it's all just scaremongering. Several dozen people are upvoting it. I think I'm done with hexbear for a bit. Thanks for the fun posts, everyone
Being a child is criminalized. And the children are suffering. The point of childhood anymore doesn't seem to enjoy some innocence and learn life lessons and make mistakes in a loving or caring environment where you're shielded from most of the consequences. The purpose of childhood is to mold you into an ideal member of the proletariat. And to never ever misbehave, because the Eye in the Sky (whether that's your parents or the police state) is always watching and you'd better get used to it.
I've talked about the atrocious state of childrens' rights in this country, and had some really good discussion here about it. It's only getting worse. Don't walk or bike home from school, wait for your parent to come get you in an SUV. Don't go skateboarding, you hooligan. Don't hang out with friends or other kids in the neighborhood with only the admonition of being back before dark. Don't drink a beer, even as an adult- you'll go to jail. Don't host a party, you'll go to jail. Don't have awkward teenage sex. Don't go hang out downtown or explore the woods, you'll be raped and abducted and sold into slavery! Just stay home, on your phone where it's safe.
I fucking hate this. This shit honestly makes me despair more than climate change. I'm not sure why that is, obviously what we're doing to the climate could well spell the end of human civilization. I think I'm just really upset at this very clear, yet less dramatic impact of living in a fascist society. Being a child is criminalized.
I see this with my younger siblings. When I was 12 I was pretty much in charge of myself all day most days - not that my mom was absent, she just trusted me to get to and from school, friends' houses, the mall, the community center, etc either by bike or bus. Nowadays my siblings and their friends are about the same age and they literally can't go anywhere without someone driving them and picking them up, their only interactions with computers are locked down devices that can only do schoolwork, their group chats with their friends are read by everyone's parents, etc.
Not all of it is our parents' fault, either. These kids all have scooters and bikes like I did, and if they grab one and take off during the day it's totally fine - but our neighborhood only has one outlet to a road, and that road has no bike lane, no sidewalk, a speed limit of 45 MPH and is twisty and full of blind turns. Nobody would attempt to ride a bike down that road unless they had a death wish, and even if you did these fucking burbs are so far away from anything worth riding to it's a moot point. What, you gonna ride to the gas station? Or go in the other direction - which just leads to a different gas station?
A few years ago I remember getting into a row with some homeowners about building a playground in the neighborhood - it got shot down because people were afraid that the sight and sound of children playing outside would lower their property values, so now we have a "park" that's just a big expanse of grass with nothing on it.
The American brain is poisoned, and the suburban brain especially so.
I hate property value with such a burning passion. The idea that houses are an "investment" and not a place to live is so grotesque. : (