Mastodawn

You know that "parents rights" is a dogwhistle, right?

Anytime someone is pushing parents rights, it's part of the fascist agenda. "Parents rights" means "control over children's autonomy." Autonomy is the one thing we must never try to control if we want to raise healthy children.

Remember this, and try to reframe every conversation about parenting into these terms. Parents do not have rights. They have obligations. Children have rights, and parents have the power to deny them, and that's horrifying. Parents who do not honor their children's autonomy are failing in their obligation.

Selena Nov 5, 2023

@willallen
Yeah: "parental right" is a dogwhistle for 'thinks their children are their property'.

Unfortunately my experience with "children's right" is mostly as a dogwhistle for abducting (poor) children into foster care. 🙁

Unabogie has voted Kamala!Nov 5, 2023

@willallen I suppose a person could make the case that they have the right to feed their own kids ideas that they hold, no matter how crazy or harmful. I don't think government should control what we say. Where I have a big problem is anyone who insists that THEY can control what MY kid sees, hears, reads, or expresses themselves. If they support "parental rights" then my rights count just as much as theirs do.

synlogic Nov 5, 2023

@willallen thats literally all propaganda, sir. not logic

Frank Nov 5, 2023

@synlogic @willallen
"Parental rights" has become a catchphrase used to further anti-LGBTQ legislation. It's meant to scare ignorant right wing weirdos into believing that the LGBTQ agenda is coming for their children. Similar tactics have been used for decades.
People pushing this narrative ignore the fact that LGBTQ youth who don't disclose their identity to their parents often have a very good reason.

*Safety*

Outing vulnerable children to homophobic parents puts those children in danger.

Jennifer Kayla | Theogrin 🦊Nov 5, 2023

There is a phrase from my youth which I never knowingly heard my own parents utter, but which was so frequently brought up in media and other representation that it's permanently etched into my brain:

"I brought you into this world, I can take you out of it."

And that's it, isn't it? The expectation that if a child doesn't meet with their parents' goals and intentions, then that child can just be killed. Hyperbole? Perhaps. But for a five-year-old...

Artemis Nov 6, 2023

@willallen
I grew up in the Christian homeschool movement, and this is SO true. I never heard a thing about children having rights. Just the "rights" of parents to determine their children's lives.

Why Not Zoidberg? 🦑Nov 6, 2023

Also this discussion is not about basic things like "No you are not allowed to eat sand" or "No I will not let you sniff glue". That is part of the obligations: To protect your child's actual health.

This is about the imaginary "health" (You can't wear dresses because it will make you "sick", or "if you refuse to go to church I'm going to beat you" until you do").

Syd Polk (he/his)Nov 6, 2023

@willallen @gwynnion Hear, hear. Give your kids the tools to be autonomous, and watch them be awesome. “Parents rights” not only is counter to that, but is also a system of legal discrimination.

Zorin =^o.o^=Dec 4, 2023

@sydpolk @willallen @gwynnion it's basically parents attempting to push their politics through their children. Brainwash them now so they'll vote for what the parents like when they turn 18.

It doesn't tend to work very well in practice, and the kids suffer for it. Terrible all around.

Pteryx the Puzzle Secretary Nov 6, 2023

@willallen Children and teenagers are second-class citizens. There's a large degree to which they're treated not just as not having rights, but as not even being *people* yet. They're seen as raw dough to be molded into various shapes to please adults, and if it doesn't seem to be working the more overt abuse begins.

Fascist wingnuts and greedy suits are vying for control over education, and the young are caught in the middle.

Arena Cops 🇺🇦✌Nov 6, 2023

@willallen I never imagined "parental rights" to be weaponized by confederate insurrectionists as instruments to attack the Constitution, civil & human rights in the United States, hiding behind the label of the late party, which defeated the slaveholding insurrectionists in 1865.

#RuleOfLaw #AccountabilityMatters #JusticeMatters #ProsecuteALLRebels #IndictALLRebels #DisqualifyALLRebels #Insurrection #Rebellion #Jan6 #InsurrectionReloaded

Canadian Crone Nov 6, 2023

@willallen Supreme Court [of Canada] says the right to be a parent or the right to control your child isn’t in the Charter. The courts have said the right of a parent to parent their child can be found in Section 7, but it’s never absolute because at the same time, a child is a human being, not property, and every human being has human rights, has civil rights, and has charter rights. And those rights exist independent of the parents.

Bad Opinion Guy Nov 7, 2023

@willallen I'd agree if opponents to parental rights weren't always trying to push 1984 groupthink.

It's yet another one of those both sides are totally fucked situations.

Fluffy Kitty Cat Dec 4, 2023

@OpenComputeDesign @willallen what are you talking about?

@willallen +9001%

Richard K Niner 🔙 FE Nov 8, 2023

@willallen seems like yet another example of right-wingers referring to power over others as a "right" (see also: "states' rights" & "religious freedom", at least when the latter is used to justify my-religion-says-you-can't-do-that bs)

Neil E. Hodges Nov 8, 2023

@willallen Really sucks that today's suburban lifestyle is also an assault on children's autonomy.

mnemonicoverload Dec 4, 2023

@willallen
Absolutely. "Parents rights" stands in direct opposition to children having any rights.

⚡️ axeshun ⚡️

@willallen thank you. I've been saying this for over 2 years..I have friends who are educators, who take real issue with this analogy.
They seem incapable of comprehending how 'parent's rights' has been weaponized & convoluted and defend the term as it was initially intended to mean, not what it's become.