Agitprop Tots
Please leave your brainwashed kids at home
ACTOR Ron Perlman earned nearly 8,000 retweets when he posted a picture of a small crying child in a cage with the words “Trump, Sessions, McConnell, Ryan, this is on YOU!”
When multiple people responded with a link to Snopes informing him that the photo was a fake, and actually of a child at a protest, Perlman tweeted back: “Maybe it’s you! Maybe you’re fake.”
The photo told a story he wanted to tell, and the fact that it wasn’t real was irrelevant. As of Thursday, the photo remained up on Perlman’s page. It’s what used to be called “fake but accurate” but today goes by President Trump’s preferred term, “fake news.” It’s just too good to check.
The question of whether the photo was real overshadowed a different problem: Why was a small child at a protest anyway — let alone locked in a cage?
Why would parents take their kid to this protest and stick him in a cage while he cried?
It’s become downright trendy to take kids to protests. The Women’s March was kid-heavy, the March For Our Lives rally had an entire component aimed at children. Even elementary schools that didn’t participate in the March For Our Lives walkout specifically had some sort of related activity for the kids, a peace assembly or a class project.
We’re forcing our kids into politics, whether they like it or not.
In The Washington Post in March, Amy Joyce explored whether “younger” children should be taken to protest. The consensus among the psychologists interviewed is that it depends on the kid.
One said: “Taking your 6-yearold for one family may be great, but for another, it may be better to get them a play date.” Another said: “If you can, involve them in the march but prepare them ahead of time, it can be a very impactful event for them.”
None said the obvious: that 6year-olds are too young to be thrown into your political theater.
Parents who take their kids to these marches make the argument that the issues are important to kids, and that’s why they’re protesting.
That’s ludicrous. Kids desperately want to please their parents, so if your child is opining on gun control or immigration, it’s because they want your approval, not because they’ve thought through the issues and miraculously reached your same conclusion.
In April, Drew Magary wrote on the GQ Web site about taking his kids to a protest, noting, “They [my kids] came about their hatred of the president organically, without my assistance.” No, they really didn’t. As evidence I provide my own three children. I neither love nor hate Donald Trump and remarkably my children are also “meh” about him.
That’s the thing about kids, they’re easily persuaded, especially if agreeing with you means they can go back to their Daniel Tiger marathon.
Taking small children to protest is also a cheap tactic. If your argument can’t be made without such emotional manipulation, perhaps it isn’t as strong as you imagine it to be. Your toddler crying in a cage may briefly bring attention to the immigration issue, but people will dismiss the gravity of the situation when they find out the photo is staged. A photo like that can have exactly opposite the intended result.
As a parent, your job is to make your kids feel safe in a sometimes scary world. Explain concepts to them, share your values. But remember that childhood is short and kids have their whole lives ahead of them.
They don’t have to lay awake at night thinking about all the bad things happening in the world. They have many years ahead of them to do that.
The kids are (mostly) alright no matter who is president. They pick up cues from their parents on what should worry them, so if your kid’s having anxiety about Donald Trump, it’s likely because you’re passing it on to them.
Don’t do that. Kids deserve to have a childhood unburdened by politics. At least wait until they’re teenagers to pass all your neuroses along. For now, let them have their small universe where everything is OK because their parents tell them so.