Hacker News Reader

Comment by aslfdfhsd498 | Hacker News Reader

What scares me is that this is a generation of kids that have been broken and domesticated. For whom tyranny is normal and natural. What happens when they are grown up and put in charge?

View on HN

A generation of kids growing up in what, the earliest known days of antiquity? It's the same shit just from a different hole as far as I'm concerned.

That being said, I am grateful that I escaped school before the administration properly got a hold of computers. I went to a good school, so I doubt it would be hugely Orwellian, but the point stands - kids need separation.

There are multiple possible outcomes - one is that you will teach people to properly compartmentalize what they say in the family/among friends from what they say in public/in school.

Actually, coming from Czech Republic, this was the norm when the communist party was still in power - it was clear that you had to say different things (or rather, not to say certain things) in public from what you could talk about with family and close trusted friends.

Children have been taught this from young age, resulting in adults being to do this compartmentalization almost automatically. No wonder, it was a survival skill basically - you never know who could be an informant or just opportunist to use any anti-party things you say against you for personal gain.

Its actually quite interesting to see people who don't come from this background and actually say what they really think in the public! ;-)

My kid and I both hate the invigilation trends in education, but he is far from broken/domesticated. Instead, it is inducing him to rebel against it. He is actively looking for ways to defeat this garbage tech.

Your son, and how many others? A precious minority, I'm sure. Probably a disappearing one, as well.

Definitely anecdata. My kids are clueless to the wizardy I work, so are their friends.

Are they uninterested? Wouldn't you like to share with them?

In all likelihood it won't be received well. Almost no one cares about privacy, and if there's any resistance to using an alternate service it will not be used.

Drama much? I'm dead against surveillance, but that doesn't mean freedom inures in being maximally wild and uncontrollable. This is also not a new phenomenon, as far back as the Victorian era adults would complain that 'children should be seen and not heard.'

Hyperbole is rarely conducive to productive discussion.

Is this hyperbole or a serious statement? Kids broken and domesticated? tyranny normal and natural?

What tyranny? What domesticated kids? You are living in a weird world where everything would be a slippery slope, if you truly believe this. You might need some help here.

I suspect that lockdowns look a lot like prison to an irrational, developing child who's subject to surveillance and not allowed to see their friends for a year.

Even outside of lockdowns, helicopter parenting seemed like a big problem.

Haven't schools been described as prisons for like decades?

That's true also, won't deny that.

Of course.. By that means, everything is a prison because there are restrictions. A joke about type of building is not the same as kids broken and domesticated or tyranny.

At the least, these supporting comments make me think that HN groupthink has slipped so far into a fantasy world full of hyperbole that no meaningful conversation can be had. Either your kids are in a cult or you are in a cult. I can only feel sorry for you folks.

FWIW, I have 2 kids and they have a very healthy life with school, sports and time to play with their friends.

My kid's high school is located in a part of town that is largely warehouses and hotels for business travelers. We joke that it's all just another warehouse with a different inventory.

I don't think any parent I know actually prevented their kids from meeting their friends other than at the very very beginning of the pandemic (and before vaccinations). Internet hysterics aside, I think most parents appreciate their kids have mental health needs.

(Unless you think schoolmates are friends, in which case I have news for you...)

Is this your assumption or you are doing this to your kids? My kids had remote schools, but they also went and met with their friends (albeit a smaller group than usual). Most of the parents took enough precaution and given the age group, we were all comfortable with kids being with each other.

Helicopter parenting is not related to the top level comment at all.

Wait until you here the phrase "nanny state" regarding the UK.

Your comment is an excellent example of the "medicalization of dissent".

In your mind, this person you're disagreeing with isn't simply mistaken. They "need help".

This type of rhetoric is against HN guidelines. It's also exacerbating the issue and the feelings this individual might have about "tyranny".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com