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If you've been across the Flex brand since twenty eighteen, yeah, twenty eighteen, you would have known. I did a podcast called Bourbon Flex. On that podcast, we talked a lot about philosophy and psychology, but one thing that came up quite a bit because it was topicals anti natalism, This idea of hating children. Not no, it's not hating children.
It's this idea of not wanting to give birth, not liking the idea that you know, we have this right to birth into the world, that the world is hanging on by a thread enough and adding more children into the equation is not helpful in any way. That can be disputed for various reasons, whether or not you believe it or you don't believe it. The subset of that conversation is this general children hating rhetoric, and it's rampant on the internet. It's not just like I don't want kids,
so like I think kids are kind of grubby. People who hate kids, people who speak towards kids or speak about kids in a derogatory way. And it's interesting because you know, we've had many a conversation about red flags in the dating context, and we should talk more about red flags in people, because red flag for me, people who hate kids, not individual kids, hate any individual kid.
You want kids broadly spooks me because if we talk about broadly hating any group of people, we recognize them as bigots, we recognize them as sexist or racist, or homophobic or transphoby. But suddenly when it's about kids who are often holding to adult standards, which is strange, it's fine, I don't like that. Listen to this TikTok though it's from a creator called Kendra Morris.
One of the first indications to me that somebody is not doing their work is that they hate children. And I don't mean that they don't want children, because there are a lot of valid reasons to not want a parent children. But I remember a time I've never hated children, but before I perceive myself as somebody who was once a child who was worthy of like attention and care and nurturing or respect that I did not receive. I also didn't have a lot of compassion for children who I was not related to.
Do you think that people actually don't What did you say before about children.
They don't.
They treat them like adults, they hold them to adult standards. They say things like, I don't like kids because they're manipulative. I don't like kids because they're not aware of their space. I don't like kids because they don't understand how to behave appropriately. It's like, yeah, babe, they're kids. That's kind of the point. They don't know anything. They don't know
a lot, and adults don't know a lot. I don't know if I necessarily agree with the idea that hating children is a sign you're not doing the work, because that phrase is subjective and vague, and what is the work anyway? All the work that I think I'm doing gets undone when I'm put in an uncomfortable situation, you know, Like you think you're building resilience when you haven't been
in an uncomfortable or a new environment before. Of course, you think you're resilient when you're in your bubble every day. You haven't been out of your bubble, you know. But so let's not focus on like, you know, you're not doing the work, you're not self actualizing, not evolving. That's not everyone's prerogative. But I don't know how people justify having progressive politics and hating kids. That's where I'm going interesting.
I think that people are getting their hatred out in a way that is socially acceptable. It's no longer socially acceptable to be an outward bigot about the whole plethora of things you just stated, But with kids, it's kind of like a free pass to be transgressive and to like get some of your hatred out. I feel it's a conversation started to be like an anarchist. It's also a bit like pick me vibes, like oh I hate you know, oh I hate children. I do think it's it's easy to confuse.
That with I don't want children, or I could never I don't want to parent them, I don't want to hang out with them. That is off. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Like.
I personally haven't heard anyone hate children.
I observe it a lot, and I will say this is one of those conversations. And it's also why I don't try I try not to do discourse on the internet because I feel like people people's internet politics and real life politics are very different, and so I see a lot of chatter in the comments. I see a lot of vitriol in the comments. I don't if it would translate into a real life space where you had to justify. And I think that's also it as well.
People have these like really inflammatory views because they don't have to justify it, like because someone's not asking you to like why why why? Well why, It's like I just why does it matter. It's like I was having an extension of a conversation, you know, when I was we were talking about what's worse for you seeing highlight reels or like misery content, And I was talking to a friend afterwards, and I was like, I just feel
like I couldn't get my point across. And I was like, I said, I didn't care about seeing misery content, and I was like, no, it's not that I don't guess that I don't want to care. I'm so sick of being emotionally dysregulated by the Internet and not knowing which feelings are mine and which I inherited from viewing too much misery content, you know, like because I think on the surface, I'm just scrolling away from it, but I
don't think my body is processing it out. And then suddenly I feel really strongly about something I've never experienced, or someone I've never seen before, or a person I've never heard of realistically, and it's like, oh, because I heard something about it, I saw a TikTok about it, and then didn't process a thought afterwards. I just took the emotion yes, without the thought.
Which is how it's designed. I guess.
Yeah.
It's like what I was saying the other day about the messages the medium. I think you see the way people react to things, and then you start to learn, you get scared. You're like, oh, that's how people will react to me. People have such strong opinions about anything. You're like, oh my god, I could talk about loving this chocolate and someone's going to be like, you're.
Did you know cadgreed?
Okay, let worry? Do you know what I mean? Like, I think it like the sensationalization and the like extremism, which is applied not to things that it ought to be but to everyday mundane. It is like brain rot. I feel that very much. So it's not good for your the way you interact in the world, and I think it erodes your innocence and your belief that in people.
Yeah, yeah, miss you. Dealey we'll talk to you soon.
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