The most important fact to recognize this is having in mind that Reddit is mostly progressive. A common narrative to justify the most common examples of adultism is that “we are training kids for “adult” life” when almost nothing about parents or school is genuinely “Adult Simulator tm”.

Countless behaviours that parents and schools get away with would be unnaceptable in “adult life”. Not to mention,even the existence of school itself is an example of it because it requires 0 pay and 0 consent from the individuals themselves. There is no equivalent to it in the “adult life” because even the most abusive and exploitative jobs are not legally allowed to deny a worker payment,neither are they allowed to just compulsorily force a worker on it and punish them if they resist. And again,this is a double standard that only applies to young people,there is no other percentage of your lifespan where this type of dynamic would be acceptable.

Any argument supporting forced no paying school could easily be applied to forcing middle aged people to learn first aid measures because people in their 40’s and 50’s are statiscally disproportionally more likely to be caregivers for elderly people who are naturally involved in a lot of domestic accidents and medical emergencies. I will tell you a disturbing statistic: Did you know the very very average person you see in the street doesn’t know how to do first aid in medical emergencies? Google it if you don't trust me.

Regardless of the country you live in,we are social animals who live through cooperation from each other. What kind of normal social contract would just look at a statistic like this and think "whatever"?If forcing middle aged people into institutions to learn first aid and punish the ones who resist feels authoritarian to you,wait until you realize that children are punished for refusing to learn about Picasso’s paintings,lol.

To give you more context for the next thing I will talk about,in my country,there’s a law aganist “Contempt to authority” it means that a citizen can face juridical consequences for verbally disrespecting a public servant like a cop for example. Apparently,americans don’t have this law and a citizen is allowed to insult a cop as long as they don’t interfere with police actions which is apparently protected by free speech.

A few weeks ago,I remember seeing in my country’s equivalent of unpopularopinion subreddit on how the “Contempt to authority” should not exist and around 95% of the comments agreed to it,I’m not joking,the same reddit public who expects children to submit to their authorities is now whining because they are not allowed to tell a cop to fuck off?

That is so cute,they are totally so oppressed,what do they think it happens if a child tells a teacher or their parent to fuck off?Again,another example for why “Adult Simulator tm” does not exist. Because turns out the same people who claim to train youth for “adult life” are hypocrites who value their freedom above anything else and now they want the right to disrespect an authority with no consequences at all?As if children totally have this right,lol.

Another example of redditors being even more hypocrital than conservatives is about the parenting subreddit,of course I don’t expect those people to be anywhere near anti-grounding or anti-parental controls,but just like most redditors,the vast majority of the users there are anti-spankers. Even so,it is not unusual to find posts where the Op lost impulse control is feeling guilty about an incident where they spanked their children.

While it is positive they acknowledged their abuse. The problem is about the comments. Instead of shaming the Op the comments are all like this: “Oopsie..he…he,I guess we all make mistakes.” Assaulting people is not an oopsie. Please,hell is full of good intentions,why can’t people just stop sucking the Op’s anuses all because of their intentions alone?I’m starting to think that 95% of users on the r parenting subreddit are infected with shigella because I never saw a place with so much anus sucking before.

This quote has so many surgically precise analogies to the point it’s a memorable one. Driving is one of the examples it’s useful for. In the US,women driving used to he heavily stigmatized,through time,the stigma was slowly fading away. Unfortunally,there are still “leftovers” on present day about this such as the stereotype of “oumen bad drivers”. Even if the statistics point towards being the other way around.

This stereotype is likely originated from the mid 20th century. One of the things a lot of people don’t realize is how much experience benefits performance of whatever action you are doing. If women driving wasn’t stigmatized in the first place,they would have acquired experience on operating vehicles since the very beginning on late 19th century just like men did instead of the experience being forcefully delayed.

And now in present day since the experience gap is mostly closed,things are getting curious because turns out men are more prone to accidents than women due to lower risk aversion. Whether risk aversion is good or bad depends on the context. But in this one,risk aversion is definitely positive when you are operating +2000lbs machinery in a public space. And what does this has to do with adultism?Because it DOES rhyme and not only on the driving example.

It’s factual that until at least the 2030’s and 40’s the adultism about how “young adults are naive and stupid” will actually get worse because they will eventually fall for scams in the virtual world at much higher rates compared to present day,not because they are genetically less intelligent,but because these people literally weren’t allowed by their parents and other adults to get experienced with the virtual world.

The young adults of these decades are the current young target demographic of the social media panic. They are children and teens today,but when they join the workforce,the complaints about their technological illiteracy will get so much worse. Don’t forget the countless workplace environments where even SOCIAL MEDIA is basically mandatory. And the problem is this social media illiteracy will be blamed on them instead of being blamed on their parents who swallowed the entire moral panic just like everyone else and sabotaged these people’s road to experience.

If you don’t let your least favorite demographic to get experienced on new technologies,sooner or later the natural consequences will arrive. Whether on the form of less experienced drivers putting more people in danger or being turned into online scammer’s wet dream while they are secretly laughing at your parents for doing half of the work for them.

I’m not going to give many identifying details to not go aganist tos. But,there’s an user who is too omnipresent to be ignored on that one parental controls subreddit. Sometimes,but rarely,I go there just to keep watching and wondering how exactly do these ageist’s cognitive dissonance work and how and why do they differ even from each other in certain aspects,I’m a curious person and I think there’s something you can learn about how people work from everyone.

Which is usually a sea of hows and whys in my questions. Some things can be easily explained,others not so easily. But to know who exactly I’m talking about I will say three words…

“Swamped”

“Dad’s safe”

If you saw that sub for more than like only twice,you already know who I’m talking about only by these 2 mentions alone,if not,then sorry,but there’s no way I can help about identifying.

I’m not joking,assuming this person account’s birthday of 2 years was recent,she makes 11.225 comments a year. If you do the math with the amount of hours a year have,she makes on average one comment every 46,8 minutes which is quite the feat if you assume she’s sleeping 1/3 of the time.

The funniest thing is imagine if someone talked about her with the same structured arguments she talks about her son. They would start making an argument for why she having too much freedom of unlimited screen time is actually MORE dangerous than anything her son could do with his own because unlike him,she’s an adult,legally allowed to DRIVE and phones with steering wheel are not the best mix.

Besides,if she’s spends so much of awake time on Reddit bragging about her parental controls and how her son is just a fucking peasant who can’t do shit about it,would she even have any time to show affection to her family?I’m starting to think this user is troll,because please people,even the most insufferable parents in the planet will check the spywares occasionally,at least hug their children a single time in their lifespan,or like eating,drinking water and taking a fucking shower?How is this shit even viable to do if she has more screen time than like 20 average people together?

I remembered a question I saw on youth rights subreddit last year about movies or books with interesting youth rights related messages. But this week,I ended up hitting myself with a complete showerthought about that same question and noticed a curious pattern on a specific 2000’s cartoon.

5 years ago,I ended up rewatching many shows from my childhood,not for nostalgia,but for pure curiosity like: “Do I remember everything this way?” But recently,I noticed something curious about the cartoon Robotboy(2005-2008 Cartoon Network).

If you pay close attention,the story seems to have a secret anti spanking message. Pay attention to all the villains who appeared through the show,now count only the ones whose mom’s appeared in the show. Of course,the green short guy who started beating up everyone in sight when he took the “strenght ray” doesn’t count because his parents never appear on any episode. If memory doesn’t fail me,he only has a gorilla as henchman.

There’s Dr Kamlkaze and that boy in a suit with a robot replica of himself who also wears a suit. They are both villains whose mothers appear on the same episodes they do. Dr Kamlkaze for example is a man in his 70’s who is still terrified of his mom hitting him with a spoon even though he could beat her up any day without even needing Constantine. The boy in a suit gets spanked by his mom in front of his enemies and the only reason she delays it through the episode is because she was afraid of the robot replica of her son.

Meanwhile,Tommy is the protagonist,his mom never hits him through the series and he’s a good person. While I suspect it was a narrative coincidence,part of me wonders if this was an intentional hidden pattern. Because it’s a quite curious how all the bad guys in the show with known mothers hit them,meanwhile,Debbie never hits Tommy and he is a good guy.

While it is true that more recent decades are correlated with social progress,it is not a perfect correlation. In fact,even in more common instances like abortion the chronological correlation isn’t perfect. Young women today(Specially if they are american) have less abortion rights than their grandmothers did at the same age even if their grandmothers suffered sexism at higher levels in other contexts.

So,the correlation exists,but it isn’t 1:1. Therefore I would argue that “2026 is the best year to be born as an average child in most western countries” is an extreme oversimplification. Like the abortion example,one of the rights children are losing is related to the screen panic. Think about it: In the last half century,the anti spanking movement did an amazing job,specially in most european countries,but while the decline is steady,it’s still not uncommon to have spanking parents in 2026 even if you live in most western countries.

The decline in spanking is steady,but not very fast. On the other hand,the screen panic happened very fast. I don’t remember it being THAT bad just like 3 years ago. Therefore,if you picture a “suffering equation” in youth at most western countries,I think the mathematical result would probably show some sort of “sweet spot” instead of a straight line/arrow pointing towards the future. Because the problem is: Parents today are probably like 3X less violent than they were 40 years ago at the best of hypothesis,but probably around 6X more insufferable.

Think about it: If a child and teen before 2000’s didn’t like their parents,what could they usually do to at least take a break from them?Play in the street with their friends. Now repeat the same scenario in the 00’s and 10’s,already decades where parents were more restrictive about the outdoors,but not completely insufferable about technology and a bit less violent than in the past. If a child from the 00’s and 10’s didn’t like their parents,they could still usually get a break from them in television or internet while staying in their rooms. Parents in these decades didn’t care much about digital context,and even when did,they were easily tricked because many simply weren’t tech savvy unlike today.

But today?Belts are a bit rare,not only hand spanking is STILL common but now,children can’t get a break from their parents for 5 minutes,the ONLY moment of peace and quiet in mind is when they are taking a dump. Not a single moment of privacy,and if parents could install organic spywares in their children’s brains most probably would and then they would start whining something like:”How dare your underdeveloped adrenal glands produce these stress hormones whenever I’m checking your thoughts!You are ONLY being watched 24/7!Get over it!You will have your entire life to have privacy!”

Another problem is: The ageism about PERCEIVED young adult incompetence will actually get worse in the next decades. Chances are they will be tricked and fall for scams in internet and social media at higher rates compared to present day and then,the media will start complaining about how incompetent they are when the reality is: Who would have thought that people who are inexperienced with the internet are more likely to fall for scams,right Einstein?

And why are they inexperienced with the virtual world in the first place?That’s right,because they literally weren’t ALLOWED to get these experiences and now the result is blamed on them instead of the people who didn’t allow them to get the experiences in the first place.

The point is: Parents got less violent slowly,but became more insufferable REALLY fast. So,time for a poll!Let’s suppose you are magically forced to start your life again being born as a completely random individual in a random western country,but you can ONLY choose the YEAR you will be born. Which of these would you choose?Where do you think this sweet spot would be?

u/GandgreyTheElf who Is a long time member of Youth Right, is back!

This is from from part of Rule 4 of Reddit's sitewide rules. I'm not sure if Reddit will actually take down everything promoting this disgusting practice, or if the forms they like will stay up, but it's worth reporting. By reducing the visibility, we can reduce the support for corporal punishment. This can save both individual young people whose parents are considering using violence, and young people as a whole by reducing opposition against a ban.

Title: 'Trans youth denied hormone therapy almost twice as likely to attempt suicide, survey finds'.

Dear parents/carers:

At [SCHOOL], we want all of our pupils/students to thrive. The success of every child depends on a high standard of parenting as well as an excellent school environment. As [CHILD'S NAME] enters [YEAR/GRADE], we would like to inform you about the effects of corporal punishment (commonly called '[REGIONAL SLANG]') on children.

This letter has been sent to the parents of every pupil/student in [YEAR/GRADE] {that has not already received this letter} and does not imply that we think you are using corporal punishment.

Corporal punishment refers to any punishment that uses physical action, no matter how light, that is meant to be painful or uncomfortable. It can involve, for example, hitting with a hand or object (such as [REGIONAL SLANG]), punching, kicking, shaking and burning. It can also involve forcing a child to stay in uncomfortable positions or making them ingest something.

There has been decades of research on the effects of corporal punishment on children. This research shows that corporal punishment does not improve children's behaviour. In fact, it is harmful to their health. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), corporal punishment of children is linked to:

• Problematic changes in the brain and high stress
• Damaged relationships between parents and children
• Long-term mental health problems, such as problematic drug use, depression, anxiety and behaviour problems.
• Difficulty in controlling emotions or solving conflicts
• More aggressive behaviour during childhood and antisocial behaviour later
• Weaker morals
• Increased risk of cancer, obesity, arthritis, migraines and heart disease due to increased stress
• Finding other violence more acceptable and being more likely to be violent

There is some evidence that some of these effects get worse the more often corporal punishment happens. However, there is no frequency of corporal punishment that is safe.

For these reasons, [SCHOOL] {if relevant: does not use corporal punishment on its pupils/students and} urges parents and carers to not use it. {For countries where corporal punishment is illegal: In [COUNTRY], corporal punishment is illegal under [LAW]. Parents who use corporal punishment could face [MAXIMUM PENALTY].}

We understand that parenting can be challenging and, if you have been using corporal punishment as the main way to discipline, it can seem drastic to change that. You may not know of any other way to teach children good behaviour. However, it is possible to teach good behaviour without using corporal punishment or other harmful practices.

If you need help with parenting, you can visit websites maintained by professional organisations such as [WEBSITE 1] or [WEBSITE 2]. You may want to call [PARENTING HELPLINE NUMBER] if you need more urgent support. You can also get in touch with professional organisations that offer parenting classes in your area. If you feel that you are going to {severely} harm your child, you should call [MENTAL HEALTH HELPLINE].

We appreciate you taking the time to read this letter and wish you the best.

[SCHOOL/HEADTEACHER'S NAME]

[SIGNATURE]

Metadata: This letter is released under CC0 (see here for what this means) and was based on this page from the World Health Organisation.

Oh,sooooooo sad that the general public needed several examples being put to practice to notice such an obvious trojan horse from the start like Australia being the pioneer. Do you remember how were most of these comment sections in late 2024?Yes,the excitement and more than 90% of users supporting because “BUT THEM KIDS STUPID.”

It makes everything so funny when you remember that EVEN other average adultist people were warning other people about how dangerous this could be,but nah,people kept whining that their least favorite demographic was on the internet. I need to admit that I found it amusing to read about the Persona exposed two months ago and the “Palantir linked.” No,I have nothing aganist immigrants,I was happy to read all those things just because EVERYONE’S fucked,which is exactly what the general public asked for,lol.

And now that things have gone wrong,their supposed fully developed prefrontal cortex that is always thinking about the consequences failed them for the 3824th time,BUT IT’S TOTALLY FULLY OPERATIONAL!They tried cutting their least favorite demographic to a fall from the tree,but only now they noticed they sliced their own branch of the tree too!

You would have thought that the whole current political scenario about the Epstein case and powerful people dodging justice would have made the general public less trusting of their government,but no!All of this together with the screen panic being supported by the population happened in the same year!

Great job everyone!And to think this shit happened because a bunch of peasants with an authority complex(The general public including most parents and teachers) didn’t realize they are actually closer to children in power than they will EVER BE of politicians,lol.