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Comment by OliverGilan | Hacker News Reader

As someone who grew up in the 2000s I still don’t get it. I grew up in a time when this was totally fine and normal. I cannot imagine being so restricted as a child.

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America changed after Iraq war and 9/11 - the US administration found it useful to keep their population in fear to achieve their goals in foreign soils without criticism. Fresh immigrants to the US are trained by the media and system to fear the police and never confront them (the police can shoot you) and not deviate from American culture and rules (the system can snatch your kids away from you, the system can deny access to your resources using forfeiture laws). Policing and searching in school (now allowed because of the school shooting) psychologically teaches kids (especially those of immigrants) to fear and listen to the police / authority.

Osama may be dead, but the erosion of rights that US has seen because of 9/11 did strike a big blow to US democracy and he partly achieved his goals.

We've had moral panics around Dungeons and Dragons, Satanic cults, the war on drugs, etc going back longer.

I could totally see the trend being accelerated by a lot of things. Sure, 9/11, is one possible trigger, but it could also be news sources getting better at optimizing for sensational takes and - more recently - the common person using the internet/social media to amplify troublesome anecdotes to the point where they seem like pervasive trends.

> […] and - more recently - the common person using the internet/social media to amplify troublesome anecdotes to the point where they seem like pervasive trends

Which, of course, describes this entire thread of discussion kicked off on one person’s anecdote…

Ha! I think this a good call out actually - thanks for posting.

Also the lead poisoning from the 50's to the 90's is now showing itself in the boomer/late boomer generation...

I’m not sure i understand the take here. Are you claiming that the iraq war and 9/11 struck enough fear into parents to prevent them from allowing their children to bike to school?

I would argue that the reaction to 9/11 empowered the state to terrorize parents for just about anything. The risk of a confrontation with police has escalated in the past two decades, such that any report is taken seriously and without any real consequences for making false reports. Couple that with an increase from meddling by busybodies that can report free ranging kids using their now ubiquitous cellphones, and parents quickly realize that it is safer to keep them at home.

No. I am saying it's part of the pattern that points to how American citizen's have given in to anxiety and fear (created by politicians), that they are willing to compromise on their hard won democratic rights. In this case, the pervasive fear for the safety of American kids allows American politicians to manipulate American parents to compromise on their rights for the "safety of our children". (Demand for Apple to scan all iMessages for Child Sexual Abuse Material is an extreme and good example of this).

The training of fresh immigrants is true. As a Master's student we were trained to be afraid of the cops and that they can shoot you if you make any unwanted movements.

America lives in constant fear of everything and it only seems to be getting worse.

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