We held off on this for a bit because we couldn’t tell if he (yes, we checked for pronouns in his bio) was being serious or not. But seeing as Noah Berlatsky, who’s had bylines in NBC Think, among others, has been spending a good part of his day defending his initial tweet and bringing in heavy hitters like Marx and Engels to prove his point that parents are tyrants, we’re pretty sure he’s being serious.
We’re not going to post the entire rant here, but do know that Berlatsky is the parent of a teenage daughter and had a lovely childhood, just so you know where he’s coming from.
parents are tyrants. "parent" is an oppressive class, like rich people or white people.
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 14, 2020
there are things you can do to try to minimize the abuse that's endemic to the parent/child relationship, but it's always there.
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 14, 2020
He’s a dad, so strap in for some parenting advice straight from Twitter. First of all, chores are OK as long as they’re not compelled by punishment.
asking people in your home to contribute to upkeep is fine. but sentencing them to solitary confinement if they don't cater to your whims or preferences is less okay, as if hitting them.
the fact that capitalism is awful is not an excuse for abusive familial relationships. https://t.co/iXJXngw7fB
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 14, 2020
OK, so tell us more about the connection between the awfulness of capitalism and the tyranny of parents:
do people just not know how kids are treated? parents routinely prevent children from speaking to friends, leaving the house, identifying as queer. parents regularly hit kids and emotionally abuse them. the mechanics of the family and of capitalism are not separable. https://t.co/2QPj30lelr
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 14, 2020
nothing like Marxists insisting patriarchy is fine because they want to be able to feel good about how they treat their kids.
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 14, 2020
patriarchy is instantiated most directly through the family; lots of feminists have talked about how the family is exploitive. I'd point you to Firestone, if you need the case made at greater length.
parents aren't a benevolent dictatorship. there is no benevolent dictatorship https://t.co/c5r0B689tH
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 14, 2020
it really sucks to see supposedly radical people pushing back on this. like, Marx and Engels were pretty mistrustful of the nuclear family, and feminist Marxists extended their insights.
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 14, 2020
people with rose emojis on their profiles shouldn't just be encountering the idea that parents are oppressive at eht end of 2020.
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 14, 2020
Parenting is also a lot like a fair amount of policing:
there are various ways to be abusive, not all of which involve expropriating resources. people also get satisfaction just from exercising power and being sadistic. a fair amount of policing is like that. https://t.co/ltiK1D95Ua
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 14, 2020
parents are charged with indoctrinating children into an abusive and unjust society. how do they do that? in part by teaching them to stay in their place and accept injustice without question.
again, these are not particularly new insights. does anyone read shulamith firestone? https://t.co/HQHXUPD5JJ
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 14, 2020
if someone had the right to beat you unconscious, imprison you for using a cell phone, prevent you from going to college, prevent you from seeing friends…you'd see that as tyrannical, even if they didn't do any of those things. and rightly so. https://t.co/vA0hbyp53q
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 14, 2020
Who has the right to beat a child, any child, unconscious?
there are no beneficent dictators.
and again, surprised so many on the left are like, "we fight for the nuclear family as it is!" when the right has made it very clear how central patriarchy is to their assholery. https://t.co/sOSTK4WVNS
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 14, 2020
nobody on here believes child abuse exists, apparently. life is all like the Cosby show. https://t.co/VBoEICgbj5
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 14, 2020
Parents enforce gender norms, which is related to patriarchy and capitalism:
parents enforcing gender norms is in fact a thing that is related to patriarchy and capitalism. https://t.co/NFt4qTxe2k
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 14, 2020
not surprisingly, getting a lot of transphobia, ableism, general bigotry. people who like hierachy like hierarchy. https://t.co/AxetkulP2R
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 14, 2020
OK, just two more, we promise:
destroying this society doesn't seem like such a bad idea, does it? https://t.co/j8d6vdYaox
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 14, 2020
well, I guess it's time to mute that.
people reeaaaallly don't want to hear that sit coms aren't actually an accurate representation of family dynamics.
— Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) December 14, 2020
But this was an accurate representation of family dynamics. And all of those corporations and sports franchises who bent over backward to support Black Lives Matter never seemed interested in the part of the manifesto where the Marxist founders wanted to destroy the nuclear family.
Related:
Actor/comedian Kumail Nanjiani says traditional masculinity is a disease; Do we want a cure? https://t.co/nmQthsv2au
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) December 11, 2020
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