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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 9, 2024

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I think the principle cause of the difference in behavior in the two linked posts is simply that reddit has a strange fixation on the idea that underage drug use and sex is okay. Not merely that punishing kids for those things can go too far, but that these behaviors are always a good thing that isn't any of a parent's business, ever, and it's weird that any parent would make a big deal of it at all. They don't think these are bad things, period. They will claim that any effort to monitor this behavior is an intrusion on the kids' lives, which can only harm their development.

By contrast, they do have reservations towards political youtubers, at least, those of a persuasion they disagree with. And so, any heavy-handed intrusion on kids' lives is not only justifiable, but mandatory. It's a case of "no bad tactics, only bad targets" but applied to parenting. The only difference in the two behaviors is that they think one thing is bad and not the other, everything else was thought of in light of that consideration.

Because most people on Reddit were friendless shut-ins who stayed indoors and played video games all the way through the end of college. They still seeth with envy at their more socially successful peers, and hatred for the helicopter parents that they blame for their poor social skills and emotionally impoverished lives. Since they never partied hard they also have zero frame of reference for all the ways that kind of lifestyle can go sideways or backfire.

This doesn’t strike me as a plausible account at all.

I think the principle cause of the difference in behavior in the two linked posts is simply that reddit has a strange fixation on the idea that underage drug use and sex is okay.

Yeah I agree. I'd say not even Reddit just our culture at large. It's really shocking how seriously people believe this.