The real reason for youth bans
Re: Joe Mathews’ Aug. 30 column,“Ban adults, not kids, from social media”:
Joe Mathews is always entertaining and usually insightful and often hard to disagree with, but with his Aug. 30 column, he officially wrote the best column ever.
Pulitzer, now.
I’ve been saying this for years but never heard anyone like Joe take the idea seriously. And make no mistake, he does take it seriously: not that adults would ever give up social media (or anything else, for that matter), but when he says the real reason youth bans are being pushed so hard now is because empowered youth threatens power, his tongue is not in his cheek. He means it, and he’s right.
Young people are excluded from virtually every civil process and remain the only truly voiceless minority,
the only group it’s still OK to openly discriminate against and dismiss. But, when their energetic, optimistic, and not-yet-brainwashed minds subvert previously unchallenged institutions via social media organizing, their true potential shows, and that scares the people at the top. It’s simple math.
Like Joe says, either give kids full first-class citizenship, including voting and congressional representation among many other rights, or leave their social media access alone. I’d prefer the latter, because youth activism on social media at least has the possibility of completely dismantling the corrupt, corporate-owned power structures someday, whereas youth voting and governmental representation will likely just result in the same farce of manipulated “participation” in the never-changing status quo that we ancientry are so deluded into believing can “make a difference.” Spoiler: it can’t. Not fundamentally.
Also because can you imagine an all-oldies TikTok? (Ew. Shudder.)
Thanks for telling the truth, Joe. Too bad everyone will still think you’re joking, and like you said, most young people won’t read the column.
Dymitr Harashevsky, Ventura
Why you should vote for Prop. 40
Just want to make it clear what Proposition 40 is about. It’s a one-time 5% tax on billionaires to fund health care in California. So, if you like the people paying millions for advertising, are a billionaire and don’t want to pay it, vote no. But if you want to take a little from the very rich to help the less fortunate, vote yes.
Ed Blumenstock, Camarillo
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Reason for youth's social media bans, vote for Prop. 40 | Letters
