Kids as Political Weapons

Lately we have seen kids all over the news. They have appeared on CNN, took part in a 2 minutes of hate style (from Orwell’s 1984) town hall where they called a representative from the NRA (Dana Loesch) a murderer and likened a US senator (Marco Rubio) to a school shooter.

Of course these are the same group of kids over and over again, and they have the same agenda as the mainstream media. They want to capitalize on the victimhood of these kids to make the public feel sympathy for their cause: Gun Control.

It is a clever tactic, because who is going to argue with a kid who has been traumatized, you just end up looking like a bully who does not care about school shootings. Yet this weaponization of school kids goes too far.

There are times when the adults need to stand up, put the kids in time out and tell them they need to be quiet and let the adults talk. Kids are not possessed of any special expertise or experience except in the realm of being kids.

Inexperienced and Short Sighted

The world is a complex place. So complex that adults cannot even understand the whole of it. Children, having less time and living less life, have no clue how the world works due to this complexity and lack of experience.

There is a reason we do not allow children to vote, drink, go to war, smoke, or enter into legal contracts. They have a hard time understanding the long term ramifications of these actions not only on their own life but on the community as well.

This is why we should not take advice from children on how to act. Sometime children are able to state things clearly and honestly but this is the exception, not the rule.

Kids, go back to class, put in the time and work and come back when you actually know what you are talking about. Do not attempt to lecture me or anyone else on morality or what is right and what should be done.

You are an inexperienced, uneducated child who has lived under the protection of your parents and those who came before you. Grow up, stop whining, and show a little respect for the system they built that allows you to grow up in relative safety and security.

The system is not perfect by any means, but all things considered it is a better system then what is found in most of the world. If it were as truly awful as you think or have been told then why do people risk life, limb, and liberty in an attempt to come here?

The Western World is a light of civilization in a dark world, a little gratitude for the benefits you gain by being born into this system would go a long way.

State Sanctioned Truancy

When these protests and walk outs are planned it is usually with the consent of the teachers and administrators of the school. We are paying the state to educate our children and instead they give the kids signs with slogans on them and tell them to march in the street.

Most kids will see this as a chance to skip class, hang out with friends and feel good about their virtue signaling. If you ask teenagers what would they rather do, math, history, and science or go out on the town, hang out with your friends, and fight for ‘change’ and make the world a ‘better’ place, all without getting into trouble and at the encouragement of their teachers, which do you think they are going to pick?

Not to mention the fact that these protests are probably not going to change anything other than missing out on a day of school. We are living in a world where you need to fill out a permission slip in triplicate and pay a fee to send your kid to a museum but no such precautions are taken to allow your children to run around the street of town shouting at people and getting in the way of traffic.

Publicly Funded Revolution

I personally do not have children, but I do pay property taxes. A good portion of those property taxes goes to these schools, which is fine with me because there can be a public benefit to educating children.

I know I personally do not want my money going to fund these sort of protests. Do you really want to pay teachers and administrators to, at best, sit on their hands and do nothing or, at worst, push their own political agenda?

I want kids to be educated and taught TO think, not WHAT to think. There is a benefit to educating the public, but there is only harm in indoctrinating the public.

Child Soldiers

It is clear that these children are being weaponized to push a political agenda. Kids should not be a political tool to use against your political opponents regardless of which party you belong to. Some lines should not be crossed.

These children are human beings, impressionable minds looking to figure out the world. As such, they have no place in the adult world of politics. To be clear, I am not saying do not talk to your children about these things but do not put them in front of a camera and tell them what to say in order to push an agenda.

Teachers, parents, and the media are all failing these kids in this regard. Instead of teaching these children how to look at a problem and work to solve it on their own, they are teaching children that it is okay to use manipulation of other people’s emotions in order to get what you want.

They are also being taught that if that person does not immediately give it to you than they are an enemy of yours that truly does not care for you and is worthy of your hatred and scorn. Sometimes no is one of the most loving statements you can make to a person.

Children are our future, do not squander that future by playing political games with them. Let them learn and grow and work out small things on their own before you tell them they need to go out and be an activist dead set on fixing the world. Chances are, due to their inexperience and lack of maturity, they will only make a complex problem worse.