Youth Liberation is important. Kids are agents just like the rest of us, and deserve the same dignity and autonomy as the rest of us.
Recently, I listened to an anarchist on YouTube answer a question regarding delegation of authority. He believes that authority should be voluntarily delegated to people based on authority.
E.g. in a collective, doctors are pre-delegated to have authority in medical emergencies: they collective doesn't need to vote on what care the person needs.
However, this YouTuber implied that this doesn't apply to kids, who don't get to choose their family.
My immediate question was: why not? Even limiting ourselves to delegation, it's possible to let kids choose the people they wish to be responsible for their care. This is possible as soon as a kid can make intelligible preferences.
I understand that young kids have limited capacity for agency, but this isn't permanent, and they quickly gain the capacity to make more and more complex decisions.
I posit that kids have the capacity to choose their guardian long before 10, and the ability to disclaim guardianship outright into their teen years.
The fact that we consider this far fetched attests to how much we devalue kids' agency in society, even in radical spaces.
Found via Bike Portland- an article about why kids should be allowed to ride #ebikes.
I mostly agree with the author's perspective, but not as a parent, but as someone who believes in #YouthLiberation: kids are people. Ebikes appeal to, and are useful to kids for the same reasons they do to adults. Ebikes are fun and make biking longer distances and up hills more doable. Denying this to young people is controlling and unfair. The fact that many ebikes are poorly suited for kids (too heavy, too tall, difficult to control with smaller hands) is not the kids fault. And if the "problem" is that ebikes will encourage more kids to ride on roads and be more likely to get hit by cars, the solution is *never* to restrict kids from riding bikes! #ItsTheCarsStupid #FuckCars
My own aside, not related to linked article:
Hand wringing about kids on ebikes also usually ignores the fact that dirt bikes for kids have existed for decades. They seem to think that kids controlling powered 2-wheeled vehicles is a new phenomenon (maybe because they are not country folk who are aware of junior dirt bike racing?)
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/fitness/opinion-yes-your-kid-should-have-an-e-bike
#ebikes #youthliberation #itsthecarsstupid #fuckcars
The three steps to trans rights:
1. Gender is a social construct
2. Everyone deserves bodily autonomy
3. Kids are included in "everyone"
Opponents of trans rights enforce essentialism, treat bodies as property, and abhor giving kids agency.
If something as simple as gender is going to affect the way you're treated for the rest of your life, refusing you a choice is utterly authoritarian.
Kids are rarely taken seriously, even when they are granted the label of "adult".
Their experiences of their own childhood are discounted because they're allegedly too young to understand the abuse they faced.
"You'll understand when you become a parent." Yes, I might. Society pressures parents to think of their kids as property, and it's possible I'll succumb to that.
Abusers might understand other abusers better, but that doesn't justify the abuse!
π π π
If anyone is unable to get a copy of a book that has been banned by their local/school library, I personally volunteer to help find you an electronic copy.
π π π
No one should be restricted from reading something because it acknowledges a person's experience or existenceβ whether because of race, gender, sexuality, or whatever. My ask is that you keep any copies I give you to help distribute to others.
@ me directly if you need help finding anything.
In the mean time, consider archiving and reading these books, and books like them: https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10
...and donating to The Merritt Fund to help librarians whose jobs and funding are threatened: https://www.ala.org/aboutala/affiliates/relatedgroups/merrittfund/merritthumanitarian
:better_pride: π³οΈββ§οΈ βπΏβπΎβπ½
#AmericanLibraryAssociation #ALA #BannedBooks #LGBTQ #LGBT #GenderQueer #Gender #Transgender #YouthLiberation #YouthRights #Reading #Books #Library #Libraries #Race #SchoolBoard #SchoolBoards #SchoolLibraries #SchoolLibrary
#americanlibraryassociation #ala #bannedbooks #lgbtq #lgbt #genderqueer #gender #transgender #youthliberation #youthrights #reading #books #library #libraries #race #SchoolBoard #schoolboards #SchoolLibraries #schoollibrary
After leaving highschool, I found that I ENJOYED doing things I felt like chores or punishment when in school. I started reading more and reading books I actually enjoyed, I began writing and actively enjoying the freedom I had to make mistakes and not be neat and not have a teacher mark down points and ruin my day because I wrote outside the margins, had an inconsistent style slicing paragraphs and drawing arrow notes and doodles everywhere.
The interesting bit though, is that this makes me resent and DETEST school even more. They made things I enjoyed into mindless uniform corporate patterns and punished me for not fitting in. I remember specifically, one event where those who got good grades in my class where rewarded with pizza (that's how you know this was in america), and the rest of us that had trouble understanding the new curriculum, were forced to clean the cafeteria for everyone. One of my friends stated, "just because we didn't pass, it doesn't mean that they have to treat us like criminals". That comment still haunts me when I hear of younger family members getting treated less than their peers in class just because they have trouble paying attention and have different interests.
The public education system did a number on me. It stripped my creativity, awoke me to the reality of life under capitalist rule, punished me for my ingenuity, and made me feel angry and alone surrounded by so many people my age.
Its been a few years now, but I'm still processing my feelings about school and looking for solutions for if I do decide to once day have children of my own, I don't want them to grow up in a prison like I did.
Me: We should be consistent in how we care for kids and anyone else with similar physical and intellectual capacities.
Relative: Children are a different class of people.
Me: :blobcatfacepalm:
Looking for recommendations on #queerLiberation, #youthLiberation, and intro to #anarchism #zines
Trying to secure a table at an upcoming pride event and I need to print stuff for it.
#queerliberation #youthliberation #anarchism #zines
βοΈ #Introduction
π² β Hello! Welcome to my Kolektiva presence. I go by Wolfeh here, and I'm an #OSS / #Technology hobbyist and #AntiFascist #Activist who spends a little too much time looking inwards and thinking about things.
πΊ β I am interested in (and tend to post about) #Music, #Cycling, #Technology, #OpenSourceSoftware, #Cooking, #Recipes, #Hiking, #UrbanPlanning, #AntiFascism, #Veganism and #AnimalRights, #YouthLiberation, #UrbanPlanning, and #Philosophy, among other things.
π§ β I started in the Fediverse in 2022 after not being on social media of any kind for years. I migrated to Kolektiva in April 2023. I look forward to exploring the community here and meeting lots of new people.
:better_pride: π³οΈββ§οΈ βπΏβπΎβπ½
#Introduction #oss #technology #antifascist #activist #Music #cycling #opensourcesoftware #cooking #recipes #hiking #urbanplanning #antifascism #veganism #animalrights #youthliberation #philosophy
βοΈ #Introduction
π² Hello! Welcome to my Kolektiva presence. I go by Wolfeh here, and I'm an #OSS / #Technology hobbyist and #AntiFascist #Activist who spends a little too much time looking inwards and thinking about things.
πΊ β I am interested in (and tend to post about) #Music, #Cycling, #Technology, #OpenSourceSoftware, #Cooking, #Recipes, #Hiking, #UrbanPlanning, #AntiFascism, #Veganism and #AnimalRights, #YouthLiberation, #UrbanPlanning, and #Philosophy, among other things.
π§ β I started in the Fediverse in 2022 after not being on social media of any kind for years. I migrated to Kolektiva in April 2023. I look forward to exploring the community here and meeting lots of new people.
:better_pride: π³οΈββ§οΈ βπΏβπΎβπ½
#Introduction #oss #technology #antifascist #activist #Music #cycling #opensourcesoftware #cooking #recipes #hiking #urbanplanning #antifascism #veganism #animalrights #youthliberation #philosophy
Adoption is trauma.
"There are disproportionate numbers of adoptees in psychiatric hospitals and addiction programs, given that they are only about two per cent of the population. A study found that adoptees attempt suicide at four times the rate of other people."
I haven't read the whole piece. It looks pretty long. But so far it seems thoughtful.
If you believe that people should have agency over their own bodies then that means ALL bodies. If a minor WANTS to have sex, with ANYONE they consent to, that is THEIR choice. You don't get to make that choice for them. All bodies should have the same rights. This INCLUDES sexual rights. You don't get to make exceptions when it doesn't align with your worldview on "purity" or your religious doctrine. If a minor wants to take puberty blockers to affirm the gender they want to be, that is THEIR right. Age is arbitrary, and parents should never be allowed to force a child to do/not do anything with their body again st their will.
#youthliberation #ageismharms #ageisjustanumber
"If they really cared about a parents unalienable right to have control over their child... they would leave all of this... in the hands of parents. Instead, it's clear by their actions that they are concerned about controlling parents and children so that they can be indoctrinated with the 'right ideas', ideas often based in a #WhiteSupremacist, #Christian ideology that runs counter to the ethos of the #USConstitution."
#whitesupremacist #christian #usconstitution #parentsrights #youthliberation
I love girls, I love enbies, trans femmes & mascs, I love women and men, genderless, nameless, species-less cuties, and all those between and beyond. I love everyone so much, regardless of age.
Age is like the last thing I find important about my comrades.
#Map #youthlib #youthliberation #trans #queer #pride
I think it's past time we have serious conversations about #youthLiberation We should all be working it into our advocacy. Use it as a lense to talk about current events.
Times are hard and confusing to be a kid. Everyone wants to say what's best for them or use them as an excuse for regressive policy but no one want to listen to them or accept the radical concept that they're actual people with thoughts and opinions. It's scary with shit like "parents rights" and all the attacks on #education #labor #Healthcare so much aimed at children and controlling what they can and can't do, know, think, have access to.
It's clear to me that some people are more comfortable treating children as property to be managed than as people who have all the same rights and freedoms as the rest of us.
#youthliberation #education #labor #healthcare
#Serafinski #Anarchafeminism #Anarchism #Nihilism #QueerAnarchism #YouthLiberation #Distroism :anfem_heart:
#serafinski #anarchafeminism #anarchism #nihilism #queeranarchism #youthliberation #distroism