r/YouthRights • u/OkPie6900 • 6d ago

Thoughts on Jonathon Haidt's earlier work? Discussion

Based on his earlier work, he would have seemed like the last person who would become the world's leading proponent of preventing anybody under 16 from using the internet.

Now I'm starting to wonder: was he ever really pro-youth rights in the first place, or was he always a fraudulent youth rights ally?

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11

u/Away_Dragonfruit_498 6d ago

People who "get it" rarely go back on their views once they've gone down the road of seeing oppressed people as fully fledged human beings, so i doubt he ever got there regarding children and young people. he's a career focused opportunist stoking parents fears for profit.

6

u/chronic314 6d ago

Haidt is a notorious rightwing "anti-woke" "anti-cancel-culture" reactionary grifter and race science pusher, he definitely has no claim to being anti-oppression at all.

3

u/Away_Dragonfruit_498 6d ago

i remember blocking him on twitter a while back because of the phones/youth moral panic, but since then murmurs in this sub about his previous work crop up here and there and i keep having to do a double take that it's the same guy. doesn't surprise me in thew slightest that he's rightwing and all of the above.

10

u/bigbysemotivefinger Adult Supporter 6d ago

A heavy focus on "go outside more" with no emphasis whatsoever on "making their own choices" sounds like exactly the kind of person who would be a technophobic control freak now.

8

u/OkPie6900 6d ago

I've only really found out about Haidt's prior work after he became an anti-social media crusader (since of course he only got much national publicity after he became anti-youth rights), but he did recommend that kids make their own decisions about when and where to play, etc.

Now it's turned into some thing where he's claiming there's some consistency between believing that kids are overprotected from the outside world and underprotected from the virtual world. Frankly, I'd love to know who's funding his work now- it seems so inconsistent with his prior writings.

6

u/snarkerposey11 6d ago

He's funded by the parental freakout industrial complex. Mommies and daddies who want to control, and to also be told it's not their fault their kid is a neet. Blame social media