So...apparently a GOP candidate from texas said something inappropriate about parents and politics, and to paraphrase it, "just because you let somebody (blank) you, doesnt mean i have to give a crap about your political opinions". It goes on, but it just gets worse from there.
This quote got a lot of ire from people as it was disgusting, and considered insulting. But I kinda wanted to discuss it. Yeah, it's crass, but he has a point. There is a kind of person who tends to perceive the entire world through their parenthood, and many of them have crap opinions. Like if you have to qualify all of your opinions with "I'm a mom" or some crap, I automatically take you less seriously, same with any group that tends to have "moms" or "mothers" in the title. Many of them end up being these weirdo suburban conservatives who turn into petty authoritarians who want the whole world to revolve around them and their kids.
So what do I have against parents and politics? Well, nothing really, if you're a reasonable person about it, but there exists a kind of person who when they have kids, their kids become their entire world, they're obsessed with their kids, they post 50 pics of their kids a day on social media, they cant shut up about their kids, and their political opinions become terrifying. Parenthood can change a MFer. I've seen it take perfectly normal and reasonable people and turn their brains into pudding. They become hormonal, defensive, and protective of their kids, and even worse, they expect the whole world to cater to them.
This leads to terrible consequences politically. Every fricking moral panic I've ever seen is driven by these people. Now it's age verification for the internet, with there being a moral panic around social media and porn. When I was growing up, it was harry potter, pokemon, and video games. Before that it was the satanic panic and R rated movies. Before that it was that darned rock music, and blah blah blah. And everything is suddenly OMG WE GOTTA PROTECT THE KIDS, DONT YOU WANNA PROTECT THE KIDS, YOU'RE A HORRIBLE PERSON IF YOU DON'T WANNA PREDICT THE KIDS, OMG WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
Here's the thing. The world doesn't revolve around you and your kid. People shouldn't have to suffer your weird authoritarian bullcrap because of your kid. It's your job to protect your kid, and sure, I aint saying there ain't room for government regulations and restrictions at times, when you start inconveniencing everyone else, that crap can cause problems. And I don't want to have my freedoms and privacy taken away because you got an authoritarian streak because you gotta protect your kid.
All of this stuff is very conservative coded, btw. Like, the weird Trump administration authoritarian stuff in which we're living in constant fear of some boogeyman where we gotta give up our freedoms NOW for more security, that's who falls for it. A lot of them are authoritarian minded parents who are like OMG i wanna protect muh kid! Same with the Bush administration. Hell, even a lot of centrist democrats are like this too, Hillary Clinton helped spearhead the moral panic against video games back in the 2000s. And as we discussed in 2016, a lot of her welfarist policies were only aimed at kids, and no one else. It's like, omg we gotta take care of the kids, but if you're an ABAWD, well, screw you, you get conservative economics instead.
And sadly, me pointing this stuff out ruffled a lot of feathers. I got some "mombie" type who started going on about how im immature because I like video games and need to grow up and stuff, and it was hilarious, I read her reddit profile and she had some comment about how she was emotional thinking about her kid as an 85 year old in the distant future with dementia and how they'd regress into childhood and expect their mom to show up and she would be dead by then and uh...yeah, this is the kind of brainrot I'm talking about. This is your brain. This is your brain on kids. Kids, not even once.
Speaking of which, i feel like the whole reason we've had to suffer the war on drugs is in part this "OMG GOTTA PROTECT THE KIDS" mentality. Not saying we shouldnt protect kids from drugs, but the war on drugs was insanely heavy handed, was ineffective, and ruined lives. But hey, try convincing one of those hormonal parents of that, you cant reason with them and their weird "momma bear" brains. And that's the problem. These people aren't reasonable. They just live in a state of constant fear of threats to their kids and expect the world to revolve around them and expect us to pass all of this heavy handed authoritarian policy that makes the world worse, because of them. And that's why I'm kinda defending these comments. Because a lot of the time when people wear their parenthood on their sleeves politically, it always comes with weird authoritarian tendencies backed up by overly emotional thinking and not enough reason.
And yeah. Again, this isn't intended to be a dig against all parents. Many parents are also reasonable people. i'm specifically talking about the most emotional ones who seem driven by hormones and who wear their parenthood on their sleeves, push for authoritarian policies, think the world revolves around them, and oh, thinks thet're oh so much smarter than everyone else. Because we get that too.
Here's the reality. I know with politics we encourage everyone to have an opinion, and people are free to their opinions, we have democracy, we have the first amendment. but a lot of people experience dunning kruger syndrome with politics where they dont understand things. And yet, they think they're so enlightened because they squirted out a kid and act like it was this transcendent experience that made them oh so much more enlightened than everyone else. And "you just dont understand" if you arent there. So they dunk on CF people like me, act like we're stupid, act like we're immature, bash us for playing video games, when I'd rather play video games than whatever tf they're doing with their lives (and they'd laugh at me for saying that), and in reality, again, I do understand. You're having a very hormonal experience as part of being a parent. Your brain rewires itself to make you protective of your kid, and you think the world revolves around you, and you apparently fantasize about all of these weird scenarios where your kid is in danger, and omg, we gotta protect the kids.
Basically it's...ironically, like being on drugs. You're basically on drugs. Natural drugs known as hormones, not controlled substances, but still, it's a similar effect. And that's how you look to someone like me when youre like this. I'm not impressed, I don't take your opinions seriously, and I resent you trying to impose your stupid BS onto me.
Anyway, that's the one way in which I think that crass person running for congress has a point. Once again, nothing inherently wrong with being a parent, but if you get all hormonal on me, or use your parenthood as a qualifier to justify your political opinions, Im just rolling my eyes and going "here we go again." Seriously, you're not qualified, you're not smart, and if anything this kind of person holds society back politically as they often end up going all conservative brained and supporting regressive policy that takes us in the wrong direction. Sorry, not sorry.
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