So...there's a debate recently to be had around social media and how it affects kids. Being a grown adult who doesn't have kids and who hasn't been a kid for almost 20 years now, I don't have a strong dog in this fight, but if anything, I come out against them. The fact is, I dislike this idea that everything is a problem that has to be solved, and my stance since I was young enough to be affected by these bans is "keep your hands off my internet." I'm a child of the wild west days of the internet of the 90s and 2000s, mostly the 2000s for me, my family was a bit behind the curve in adopting computers, internet, etc. And honestly, I think most changes made since then have been negative. Because you got all these people coming in and finding "problems" with the status quo and insisting we have to make the internet safer, specifically for kids.
Like, I'm of the generation who were the people on those unmoderated xbox live lobbies of the mid-late 2000s. And I recall back around 2015-2016 when we started moving toward "oh, we gotta make it so people can't say mean words on the internet." Me, I'm like sink or swim. I respect the trash talk, I respect the freedom, but you got these weirdos who are like "we gotta regulate this", and now you can't say anything without getting banned in some games, it's ridiculous. I forget exactly what was said but I saw someone got banned from BF6 lately for something really mild and really dumb. You truly can't say anything any more that is offensive or controversial in a lot of places. And I kinda hate it.
I also resent crap like how we need to have porn bans "to protect the kids." Use parental controls, monitor your kids' online activities. Don't make us have to submit our fricking IDs just to jack off. Jesus christ, who thinks this is a good idea? Just braindead authoritarians.
And now with australia banning social media for those under 16, there's debate here in the US about whether we should follow suit. NO! Just...NO! Again, why does everything have to be a problem solved by some law? And yes, I am aware social media is making kids depressed, I just dont think the solution is government regulation that could lead to the end of internet anonymity and the need for people to submit their IDs to actually access websites. I get it, kids should be protected from certain things, I just believe it's the parents' job to do that, and there are plenty of tools available to them.
Anyway, today I got called conservative for having this stance, given liberals are typically in favor of government regulation, and conservatives are opposed to it, preaching personal responsibility. I can see why someone might say that, but I'd like to flip the script.
For most of my life, every time there's a moral panic, it often came from conservatives. it was the conservatives freaking out over satanism in the 1990s, over violent video games, harry potter, and pokemon in the 2000s, over terrorism in the 2000s (remember the patriot act?), and more recently, they're going nuts over porn and crap claiming we gotta protect the kids.
Quite frankly, the whole "OMG WE GOTTA PROTECT THE KIDS" mentality is inherently conservative. It comes from that part of the lizard brain that embraces authoritarian and conservative thinking. When I came to liberalism, i did it via libertarianism. I rejected these conservative impulses and designed my philosophy around...well...actual philosophy. I understood the limit of government action and how just letting people do what they want is often better. I believe that decriminalizing drugs is better than prohibition. That regulating abortion access only harms people who legitimately need access to it. That teaching abstinance only education in hopes to stop people from having sex doesn't work and they're gonna do it anyway, leading to higher rates of STDs and unwanted pregnancy.
Quite frankly, when I came over, i thought liberals were just libertarian on social issues, but then you got these weird paternalists within liberalism as well, who end up having this pathological "must protect the kids" mentality. Reminds me of HRC, since she was into that, supporting conditional safety nets to protect kids, but then having a history of also crusading against violent video games in the 2000s. And I dislike that mentality. I mean, my opinion is what about everyone else? With safety nets, protect everyone. With social issues, just let people figure crap out for themselves. It's simple.
And some liberals might see me more as just a libertarian. Fair. I kinda am. Even my economic positions are in part driven by a desire to be free from the economic coercion of capitalism. Economic security is necessary for liberty IMO. But that said I'm not a right libertarian, aka, a propertarian or one of those lockean property rights guys. My views are obviously more influenced by Rousseau, Mill, and of course, more modern thinkers like Phillipe Van parijs and Karl Widerquist. So I kind of am in my own eclectic political lane here.
Either way, I'm DEFINITELY not conservative. They're the opposite of me: authoritarian on social issues, but then free market on economic issues to the point of social darwinism. I'm libertarian on social issues and very progressive and left wing on social issues. Even if I sometimes agree with conservatives on things like "instead of asking the state to ban this behavior, maybe you should take more personal responsibility here?", I do it from a perspective of anti authoritarianism. I dont believe that all problems are worth solving through state action, and on stuff like social media bans with stuff like that, I just see that as the latest moral panic where authoritarian minded individuals try to ruin a good thing with heavy handed solutions that cause more harm than good.
Some might try to insinuate that I'm okay with letting kids suffer. Okay, I'll play that game. Go ahead and say it. I dont cave to pressure from the OMG THINK OF THE CHILDREN crowd who use such rhetoric to politically pressure and emotionally manipulate me into supporting authoritarian positions. That crap doesn't work, you have no power here. Go ahead and hate me, I don't care. My principles are my principles, take them or leave them.
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