When I was about seven, I was still a bit wobbly on my bicycle.  I practiced every day and often on the long, relatively empty street in front of my house.  I frequently tell new acquaintances I grew up in Leave It To Beaver world.   One afternoon, lost in concentration, my best friends dad screamed at me: “Cameron Leigh Smith, GET OUT OF THE ROAD NOW!”  Mr. Casey is a very mild-mannered man; not prone to shouting.  He scared the living daylights out of me.  But as I turned my head, I saw a car shudder to a stop.  Protecting children from harm is a community obligation.  In fact, in many ways, I think we have lost some of the community spirit of raising children in the “you do you” world we live in today.  We move too often, don’t have strong neighborhood bonds, and are too ego-centric to allow input from other parents.  I thought of this as I read Politico’s recent article detailing California lawmakers continued to push to parent our children.  

Communism’s Parent Trap:

It is one thing to have a family, a church, or neighborhood community pitching in together to raise children with similar value systems.  It’s another thing to pass off the role of parent to the government, schools, or the tech industry.  This isn’t a new concept.  In fact, it is one of the main tenets of Communism, so it is distressing when I see supposedly conservative lawmakers work collaboratively with progressives on limiting the role of the parent in the name of “protecting our children.”  Give me a few winding paragraphs to tie all this together… I promise I’ll get there.  I’ll start with what Alexandra Kollontai wrote in 1920 about Communism and the Family: 

“But even if housework disappears, you may argue, there are still the children to look after. But here too, the workers’ state will come to replace the family, society will gradually take upon itself all the tasks that before the revolution fell to the individual parents. Even before the revolution, the instruction of the child had ceased to be the duty of the parents. Once the children had attained school age the parents could breathe more freely, for they were no longer responsible for the intellectual development of their offspring.” 

This is the long road to Communism that we conservatives ignored to our peril.  Just like Communism, government legislation in the name of “protecting the children” sounds great in theory, yet in practice it is a destructive evil, EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.  We are seeing the ramifications now, with mask mandates in classrooms.  

A father in Naperville, Illinois speaks passionately about the impact of mask mandates on his child. (part 1 of 2) pic.twitter.com/5OvDvC8hVD

— Aaron (@AaronFromChi) February 8, 2022

But this is just the latest example of the government interceding on behalf of parents.  Let’s go visit the wayback machine, shall we?

Government’s Attempt to Parent What Children Hear:

Remember Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC)??  This was the first modern day grab at our children outside of the classroom, at least to my recollection.  Newsweek did a ‘look back’ piece on the crazy situation just over a decade after it began:

“The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) formed in 1984 around the collective outrage of four women known for their ties to Washington political life. Founding members Susan Baker (wife of then-Treasury Secretary James Baker), Tipper Gore (wife of senator and future Vice President Al Gore), Pam Howar (wife of Realtor Raymond Howar) and Sally Nevius (wife of Washington City Council Chairman John Nevius) had become disturbed by Prince, Madonna and other music their kids were listening to. And on September 19, 1985, the culture wars came to a head in a “porn rock” Senate hearing featuring testimony from John Denver, Dee Snider and Frank Zappa.”

I don’t know about you guys, but if I saw a yellow “Parental Advisory” sticker on an album…that was a flashing neon light that said “LOOK AT ME!”  Kinda the direct opposite of the intended purpose dontcha think?  And anyhoo, who the hell made Tipper Gore and her band of Merry Mothers the arbiter of what I should hear or watch?  Back in the days of yore, when rock stars were still about free speech and all that jazz… Frank Zappa was spot on:  

The “Elite’s” Attempt to Parent Our Children’s Education:

Then we have the insanity of CRT, progressive sexual “education” and the illogical history of America with the 1619 project.  Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of the highly criticized, yet highly utilized 1619 garage says the quiet part out loud and landed Neil Youngkin a resounding win in Virginia.  Parents apparently prefer to parent themselves.  Who knew??  As our own Nina Bookout reminded us just last December, Nikole has thoughts:

Nikole Hannah-Jones: Parents shouldn't be in charge of their kids' schooling: "I don't really understand this idea that parents should decide what's being taught. I'm not a professional educator. I don't have a degree in social studies." Yet she wants the 1619 Project in schools. pic.twitter.com/UAjFTCvVmg

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) December 26, 2021

Legislating Parental Oversight:

Which finally brings me back to the insane proposal to let tech monsters babysit our children.  From the Politico piece, Califonia’s proposed legislation is already in place in the UK, privacy invader kings:

“The U.K. law, which became enforceable last September, has already pushed changes across tech companies, according to 5Rights, a U.K.-based privacy nonprofit behind that bill. 5Rights is also the main group driving the California measure.

Google, for example, has set SafeSearch as the default for children under 18 browsing the web. TikTok and Instagram have barred adults from directly messaging kids who don’t follow them, and TikTok has also stopped late-night push notifications for children. YouTube meanwhile has shut off video autoplay for kids and has set automatic break and bedtime reminders.”

Who Will Audit the Auditors?

When reading this, I was reminded of a quote I couldn’t quite put my finger on.  Ironically, Google gave me the answer:

“The late Justice Krishna Iyer way back in 1984 while addressing chartered accountants (CAs) asked in his usual pompous style: Who will audit the auditors, who will police the police and who will judge the judges? “

Will “Fact Checkers” decide what is acceptable viewing?  Is Facebook going to decide your child’s bedtime?  Who will decide what is harmful content?  This is a slippery slope of monumental proportions.  We just saw it play out in real time over the last couple of months with Joe Rogan.  Do you really think the creators of EVIL have your children’s interest at heart?  Really?  Really?

Featured Image: From Pxhere.com, no attribution required, cropped and modified