Cassandra is only carbon nowSome ally'all don't appreciate how devastating the "BONG HITS FOR JESUS" case was, and it shows.
(Some ally'all *do* understand, tho, and that shows too.)
This might sound like a shitpost, but I promise you it's not. In 2007, the Supreme Court held 5–4 that children do not have First Amendment rights, in that a school is legally allowed to censor their speech *even when said children are not at school*.
It's obviously not the case that children only lost their Constitutional rights in the US starting in 2007, but the Supreme Court deciding precedent that kids are effectively subhuman when it comes to legal rights was a huge turning point.
There's something truly toxic and fucked up about the idea that children aren't independent people whom we owe a responsibility to, but are effectively a kind of property that can be controlled and coerced.
That view, enshrined in the incredibly fucked up framing of "parents' rights," is the same view that runs through KOSA, the UK's new censorship regime, YouTube's new "AI" filter, and so many other things.
Even if kids didn't first lose their rights in the US with the BONG HITS case, that sure as fuck should have been a wake-up call.
I barely even have words for what a fucked up idea it is that parents have *rights* and not *responsibilities* where their children are concerned. It shouldn't have to be a radical statement to declare that *children are people*, but it is indeed quite radical, even amongst supposed "progressives."
Let me say it again, then: children are people.
Lunaphied@xgranade BONG HITS was such an obvious slam dunk first amendment case. When I studied it I was shocked that it was decided any differently. That shouldn't have even gone to court
@Lunaphied I lived in Alaska at the time, and initially just wrote it off as weird local news — school districts up there are pretty fucked, and are always doing weird shit that never really goes anywhere.
I'm with you, it never should have gone to court. It never should have seen any appeals, let alone to the Supreme freaking Court. The whole thing was absurd all the way through.
@xgranade that case should've been a huge moment of illegitimacy for the Supreme Court. Long before we got to the point we're at now. But anything to stop kids from am I right.
@Lunaphied Absolutely, yeah. Not like there weren't enough legitimacy crises already, either. Sandra Day O'Conner saying she wanted to retire under a Republican president, then the majority just... picking said president... that should have been a huge crisis.