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Comment by Zak | Hacker News Reader

When I was 5 years old and starting kindergarten, I met another boy the same age who I quickly decided would end up in jail as an adult. He certainly wasn't the only one who misbehaved frequently or did cruel things to other children, but I could tell he was different somehow. He never seemed to need to feel justified in his cruelty.

In 1998, at age 19, he took part in a murder. He was sentenced to 20 years with 5 suspended. I think he's out on parole now.

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i have had similar thoughts about kids i knew growing up, and a few have had a tough time in life. kids (peers) may be better at identifying warning signs than adults.

If this is true (and it might be), it would be only because most adults are completely oblivious when it comes to children. Adults in our society are notoriously good at seeing only what they want to see (I'm not talking about the HN type of person, I'm talking about your general population adult), and often this means overlooking certain characteristics in children. Or only seeing aspects of ADHD, or bipolar. Or not seeing that a parent is a really awful parent, etc.

Kids generally do not have as many biases as adults, and as a result they have less expectations. They don't see their peer as some angel, because they don't expect him to be an angel. They don't expect anything at all, so their perceptions aren't clouded.

But in general adults are much better at picking up on things like social cues and odd behavior.

Kids are also more likely to accept their environment as normal because they have never seen different, and so don't think to complain about abuse, neglect, religion (if you think that is vrainwashing), etc

Generally by brainwashing, I refer to things like media stereotypes. While religion can have a very brainwashing effect, it really depends on the institution.

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