the_dunk_tank

I was gonna rant about the idea that we don't force kids to be accountable FOR LIFE for their actions and "choices" as literal children and how it's so insanely laughably wrong...

But, I'll rant about the other thing which delves deeper into an area liberals will absolutely never touch. Which is: why is it that some kids/adults have trouble conforming to this society?

"They're just bad apples and have to be disciplined back into shape. Like a bent piece of wood much better straightened to be used for woodworking."

Is the nutshell liberal take... across many cultures, to be honest. Not just American/western ones. It's always been seen as desirable for kids who obviously become adults to conform to society's boundaries and "be productive."

It would be kinda silly for me to sit here and basically say "abolish bedtime!" because clearly children need boundaries and all humans should be conditioned to live in a respectful way within a society. The problem isn't all that stuff so much, the problem is (goddamnit... I'm gonna say aren't I?) capitalism! Capitalism and industrialism forced people out of communal formations where they worked land and packed them tightly into urban areas and then demanded, upon threat of beatings and death, to perform repetitive activities over and over and over for 10, 12, 14, maybe more, hours a day to produce higher profits for capitalists. And schools were and are a natural starting place for that indoctrination into that mindset. This isn't breaking too much ground so far, I don't think. I mean Marx wrote about the middle part 150-ish years ago. I don't recall if he mentioned schools, but it's not much of a leap.

I think the "groundbreaking" part, quotes because it's not, is... none of this fucking shit has to be like this. Humans don't have to work 1/3 and more of their lives for another person's profits. That doesn't mean we have to or should go back to those rural farming ways either, but this idea of sitting a child in a seat for 8 hours a day with minimal breaks is... it's barbaric in my view. I remember as a kid losing my fucking mind. I've never been diagnosed with ADHD, and I'm not gonna speculate further on that front personally for myself, but I will say if I'm "neurotypical" in that capacity, I can't imagine the absolute torment kids who did have it must have suffered. Especially those whose parents thought like this person. And the question is always "why?" Why do we suffer so much. And it is absolutely suffering. I'm in my mid 30s now and I can still fully recall being like 15 years old coming up with fantastic shit in my head and trying to drift off into a nap during class because I was so goddamn bored out of my goddamn mind. And it was just that, repeated, for a solid 4 years, but I remember it going back even further. It feels dramatic, but I mean Christ, we're basically imprisoning children, ourselves, and obviously none of us think alike. Obviously all of us cope with that in various ways. It's just insane to think it's all done as a conditioning method for being able to withstand the torture later in life and also as a built-in daycare system. None of it has anything to do with actual teaching! It's fucking sadistic and just sad really.

I think I had some point there but now I'm just depressed remembering that time in my life and how worthless and boring it was. It doesn't have to be like this! (Another day of me losing my fucking mind)