Item — HN Reader

Which is precisely the point. Children are political weapons. Precisely crafted to shut down any opposition to whatever it is you're pushing. Oh you're against this? Pedophile.

You don't argue with these people. You summarily dismiss them. You recognize the game they are playing and you refuse to play it.

Call attention to their methods instead: they are exploiting and weaponizing children to push their big tech friendly surveillance agenda.

1 comments

The flaw in 'calling attention to their methods' is that you rarely have a meaningful opportunity to argue against a bureaucratic system that operates this way.

Whether individuals inside the system are true believers or cynical operators, the response to calling out their methods will be identical:

If they genuinely believe the rhetoric: They will simply double down and say, 'Yes, and protecting the children makes this absolutely necessary.'

If they know it is a manipulation tactic: They will still reply with, 'It is for the children,' because they know it is an impenetrable PR shield that gets them their way.

In either scenario, the bureaucracy is entirely immune to the criticism.

Exposing the game might help persuade third-party observers, but it does absolutely nothing to stop the bureaucratic machine from using that exact same line to steamroll the agenda forward.