the elephant in the room when it comes to the “we must protect our children” objections by conservative politicians is that they are not referring to living, breathing children, but a platonic concept of “a child” that children are coerced into emulating through abuse kneaded by both the state and their parents. The lack of rights children possess is to render them unable to object to what adults claim to do for their own good, which oftentimes are merely just means to maintain them as property than help them as people. The idea that teaching 6th graders very basic, very clinical sex ed is child abuse stems from the fear that their parents lose some control over their child’s autonomy by having the child know things (which, statically, also makes them more likely to tell someone when they are being abused by an adult. Interesting) that the parent has not sanctioned as a part of their person. Conservatives accuse everyone else of child abuse not because they care that a child is being hurt, but because hurting children is only their god given right.
one big aspect of the christian homeschooling movement has been a focus on ‘parental rights,’ which, more often than not, are used to hide hideous abuse/reduce parental accountability. to the point a bunch of survivors had to band together to try and stop it.
for first-person accounts of this phenomenon, i recommend the podcast ‘kitchen table cult.’
one of the most horrific child abuse cases of this decade was concealed by religious homeschooling and it’s an ongoing pattern in child abuse cases (warning for details of child torture in article)
