Utah Governor Spencer Cox talked on Meet the Press yesterday about the challenges of implementing his state’s new restrictions on kids’ use of social media. He also encapsulated his Republican Party’s view on education:
“Kids are really smart. That’s one of the problems,” he told host Chuck Todd [Kelly Garrity, “Utah’s Social Media Restrictions Won’t Be ‘Foolproof’, Governor Says,” Politico, 2023.03.26].
The Republican Party would have fewer problems winning elections if kids weren’t so darned smart, and if they didn’t grow up to be smart voters. That’s why Republicans are working so hard to wreck public education and turn kids away from critical thinking and toward mindless jingoism.
Kids are really smart. Let’s keep them that way, for the sake of democracy.
Kids are too smart; women are too emotional; Gen Ys and Millennials are too liberal – by God the only people who should vote are white men (and “their women”) over a certain age, nudge, nudge. That really is the word going out in the conservativerse.
When my daughter lived in China, she had multiple ways to evade the Chinese firewall. I suspect, if some US folks, young or not so young, want to access any banned app, they will simply figure out a way. Gradually, of course, the ChiComs came up with ways to make it harder to evade the firewall.
Look, I think the current ChiComs are pretty awful. Xi is the Chinese Donald Trump, except he’s way, way smarter. You don’t want Xi messing with your kid’s brain, just as you don’t want Trump anywhere near power in the US, where he can throttle your kids’ futures. Most of what’s on TicTok is brainless stuff, kind of like 1960s TV. Turn it off and you don’t miss much.
Teachers get reprimanded in TX and FL when their students use critical thinking, and get this, “know their rights”. Bad teachers. Keep it up. States like ours cannot have young people running around exercising their rights and thinking. Then they might “start thinking they can change things” like Governor KN complained about before she outlawed civics input.
Utah just recently passed a bill making it easier to ban books from liberrys if they depict sexual situations deemed offensive. One woman petitioned to have the bible removed and proceeded to list hundreds of verses of filth. Magats either have to accept the bible is banned or make a sole exception for their crackdown on filth.
Smart kids would know enough to lave the bible lay in the trash.
8yr old kid goes to website: “Are you 13yrs old or older?” The kid says Yes and gets in.
8yr old kid goes to website that asks them for their email to create an account. The kid enters a bogus yahoo email, like JohnyD789832343@yahoo.com and gets an account.
And finally, the 8yr old kid knows how to use the internet better than Utah’s governor.
e platypus, yes, like Lot getting both of his daughters preggo and then blaming the booze. Lot’s of bad/kinky stuff in there.
You know in the Letters of Pliny the Younger, he complains about the lazy younger generation. That was 2000 years ago. I’m sure Mel Brooks would confirm that too. It’s just hard to get out of bed some days and see what another Republican governor is doing in an attempt to control the youngsters.