Historical context leads us to treat racial / sexual / etc discrimination more seriously than discrimination based on age, height, extroversion, etc. As far as I know, there hasn’t been a lot of genocide against short people of the same race, or enslavement of them, or forcing them to use separate bathrooms, etc.
I agree with your comment in general, but I’m not quite sure about this point. I think age-based discrimination has been / is quite severe (though perhaps it is also often justified, since age does make a lot of difference to people’s abilities):
Children are often forced to go sit in a small room all day, subject to the arbitrary whims of a single adult with little oversight, and often have to endure criminal violence from other children with little recourse, in a way that would be unacceptable for older people.
Young men have been repeatedly conscripted to fight in wars with high mortality rates.
Old people might face compulsory redundancy.
Young people have to pay taxes to fund benefits for older people, even if those retirees did not have to pay those taxes when they were young, and these retirement benefits may not be available by the time the young retire.
Many facilities do ban children, and people often complain about children being allowed on planes etc.
In many places babies can be killed by their parents without legal consequence.
Older people are often targeted by younger criminals because they are vulnerable.
In some places older people may be pressured to commit suicide to free up resources.
Many laws are passed that systematically disadvantage younger people (e.g. NIMBY rules on homebuilding).
I think school is vastly less bad than, say, slavery, with some possible exceptions like if there’s extreme bullying at the school.
You’re right that the violence children endure from each other (and sometimes from their own parents) would be unacceptable if done to adults. If one adult hits another, that’s criminal assault/battery. If a kid hits another kid, that’s just Tuesday.
Children are also subject to the arbitrary whims of their parents, and are made to do unpaid labor against their will, though usually parents don’t treat their own children extremely badly. (Of course, some parents do horrifically abuse or neglect their children.)
In any case, as you said, to some extent the lack of freedom for children is inevitable. (Actually, there is a way to avoid it entirely: don’t have children, which is the antinatalist solution. If sentient beings didn’t exist, none of the problems we’re discussing here would be problems anymore.)
I agree with your comment in general, but I’m not quite sure about this point. I think age-based discrimination has been / is quite severe (though perhaps it is also often justified, since age does make a lot of difference to people’s abilities):
Children are often forced to go sit in a small room all day, subject to the arbitrary whims of a single adult with little oversight, and often have to endure criminal violence from other children with little recourse, in a way that would be unacceptable for older people.
Young men have been repeatedly conscripted to fight in wars with high mortality rates.
Old people might face compulsory redundancy.
Young people have to pay taxes to fund benefits for older people, even if those retirees did not have to pay those taxes when they were young, and these retirement benefits may not be available by the time the young retire.
Many facilities do ban children, and people often complain about children being allowed on planes etc.
In many places babies can be killed by their parents without legal consequence.
Older people are often targeted by younger criminals because they are vulnerable.
In some places older people may be pressured to commit suicide to free up resources.
Many laws are passed that systematically disadvantage younger people (e.g. NIMBY rules on homebuilding).
Good list. :)
I think school is vastly less bad than, say, slavery, with some possible exceptions like if there’s extreme bullying at the school.
You’re right that the violence children endure from each other (and sometimes from their own parents) would be unacceptable if done to adults. If one adult hits another, that’s criminal assault/battery. If a kid hits another kid, that’s just Tuesday.
Children are also subject to the arbitrary whims of their parents, and are made to do unpaid labor against their will, though usually parents don’t treat their own children extremely badly. (Of course, some parents do horrifically abuse or neglect their children.)
In any case, as you said, to some extent the lack of freedom for children is inevitable. (Actually, there is a way to avoid it entirely: don’t have children, which is the antinatalist solution. If sentient beings didn’t exist, none of the problems we’re discussing here would be problems anymore.)