Problem #1 regarding child abuse is that a lot of people seem to struggle to imagine normal, respectable-looking parents and other authority figures ever doing it despite the statistics so instead they do the stranger danger panic and completely overlook some of the greatest threats.
Problem #2 is that even when people understand, even if in an abstract way, that parents can be abusive they just... don't seem to actually register that as something that can apply to real life. It's just hypothetical to them and doesn't actually guide their ideas of how to prevent child abuse.
Problem #3 is that even after overcoming the above biases a lot of people have a very narrow image of what abusive parenting is where they imagine like... people doing violent things basically out of sadism and without provocation. They don't seem to think it's "real" abuse if the victim did something that "justifies" punitive violence, like disobeying the parents.
In fact, most people think parents have a right to do a whole lot of awful things to their children beyond just hitting them, like violating their privacy, controlling their access to information, and deciding what/when/if they eat, among other things.
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“One of them put his boot on my mouth while stomping on my chest with his other boot,” Majd said.
The military vehicle stopped at an Israeli military checkpoint located at the northern entrance to Azzoun. Majd was taken out of the vehicle, forced to stand still and a soldier repeatedly assaulted him with the stock of his rifle on the chest, head, and waist while directing insults at him.
“I was begging him to stop hitting me but to no avail. He then wrapped his hands around my neck, pressed with all his strength, and said to me in Arabic, ‘I'll kill you by strangulation.’" Majd passed out and regained consciousness around 5 p.m. and found himself in a room, lying on the ground and surrounded by a soldier, a cat, and a military dog. “I felt really scared, mostly because the sounds made by the dog were terrifying. I started screaming out of fear because the cat scratched my face many times,” Majd told DCIP. “The soldier said in Arabic, 'I will let the dog eat you.'
"Israeli forces continued torturing Majd until around 2 a.m, slamming his head against a wall several times, causing him to collapse and ask for water, but his request was rejected and they forced him to remain silent.
Israeli forces transferred him to Emmanuel Police Station for interrogation at 3:30 a.m where his tie and blindfold were removed. The interrogator accused him of throwing stones at Israeli military vehicles and then allegedly subjected the boy to physical violence for two hours, forced him to sign an electronic screen with an electronic pen, and tied his hands and blindfolded again, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
Between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2023, DCIP documented 838 cases where Palestinian children detained by the Israeli military were systematically tortured, handcuffed, blindfolded, strip searched, and denied access to food and water during the interrogation period.
In nearly all cases documented by DCIP, Israeli authorities interrogated Palestinian child detainees without the presence of a lawyer or family member, and children were overwhelmingly denied a consultation with a lawyer prior to interrogation. Israeli forces use coercive tactics, including the use of informants, resulting in children unintentionally making incriminating statements or even false confessions.
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sometimes everything just sucks real real real bad
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there's a special kind of ableism (perhaps mixed with ageism) that comes from people who are older adults, who lived an largely abled life, who get like. personally offended by the idea that you, a young person, could DARE to also have a shitty body. like they view bad knees and fatigue as a badge of honor you get from living a long life & young disabled people don't deserve it? because we haven't suffered enough to... suffer? it's fucking bonkers. like yes ma'am I also make old person noises when getting up. i don't know why you feel like I'm taking something from you by being young and crippled.
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The Rotted Man
When I was a child of only three
The Rotted man came for me
late one night from my open door
he slowly crept across the floor
he took me by the hand and said
I’ll save you from this life of dread
we left the house in the early morn
and took his carriage of blackened thorn
we rode for hours through thick dense fog
to a darkened unlit swamp filled bog
where top-less trees with hanging moss
were shields from the unseen winter frost
the thick wet heat from the dense cool air
crept up your back and through your hair
he took me to his house of bones
on a path laid with cobble stones
upon his door hung a head
of a child with hair of fiery red
his hall was bathed in blood red tile
the walls were stacks of flesh in piles
He told me of his protective view
and begged that I should join him too
He smiled and through his rotted lips
I saw a thousand children’s fingertips
He promised me the world would pay
and told me that I could stay
Then we entered a smaller room
and the rotted man gave me a red balloon
Then I saw my mom through tinted glass
The man with her was talking fast
The tears were pouring from her eyes
The man then held her while she cried
Then the Rotted man did the strangest thing,
He sat down with me and began to sing.
A soft nice tune that filled my head
With puppy dogs and fresh baked bread
It was then I notice that the rotted man
Was simply old and had a tan,
And then my mom burst in the room
The feel of warmth, her sweet perfume
She hugged me tight and swore to me
From here on out, Dad would let us be.
No more bruises no more fights,
No more screaming in the night,
The rotted man had saved our lives,
By taking those who beat their wives,
And children that cry when they’re dropped,
And are beaten senseless until they stop,
I thank the Rotted man a lot,
And never have I forgot,
That the thing I feared, saved my life,
They had found my father with a knife,
There are real horrors on this earth,
Some are subjected to them at birth,
We were saved by a man made of rot,
I was lucky, but many are not.
by thelirivalley
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my parents: why don't you already know stuff! how old are you! you have no skills to survive, you'll never make it out in the real world! Nobody will ever hire you!
me, about things I'm interested: hey how does that work?
my parents: don't ask me! nobody cares! you should already know this!
me, trying to learn a new skill on my own: hey i can do this now, look
my parents: THAT WONT MAKE YOU ANY MONEY, and you're horrible at it, what is that, I'll rip it apart! it's ugly and worthless!
me: it's so easy and encouraging to learn and grow in this household :) I am getting all information and support that I need :) I am going to grow into a capable and functional adult :) nobody is withholding knowledge or skills from me :) I am certainly not being blocked from gaining knowledge and skills so I wouldn't run away from this place :) my parents are so well meaning when they paralyze me in shame and cut information off :) this is a normal and loving family situation :)
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"There should be security cameras inside of classrooms." Eh, sure. We have them in the hallways and cafeteria. Maybe not my first choice for how to spend tax dollars, but whatever. Then if an issue arises, the footage could be pulled on request and reviewed.
"There should be security cameras with a live stream inside classrooms that parents can view whenever they want to keep their kids safe." Are you insane. Are you absolutely out of your mind. Even assuming that this theoretical live stream would be limited to just the parents of children who have a class in that specific room (not the whole school)....you want dozens of strangers (in elementary) or hundreds of strangers (secondary) to be able to have a live stream of *your child* at school? You can't see a single possible safety or privacy issue that could arise from that situation?
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nothing like citing bible verses while justifying child abuse
ain't no hate like christian love
curiously the majority of states that allow for corporal punishment in school (read: literal child abuse) are run by Republicans
& this remains the most accurate meme i ever made
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A lot of pro-kink/sex positivity/and even LGBT activists pushing for normalizing sex to children and teenagers either don't realize or don't care that exposing kids to sex is a form of child sexual abuse.
I cared for a girl from the ages of 12–14 after she was removed from her mother due to extensive terror and abuse. Her mom was in several open relationships and had zero sexual boundaries with her children. She walked around nude, walked right into the bathroom while they were showering or using the toilet, talking to them about her sex life, answering the phone to talk to her kids while she was actively having sex, etc.
When her kids would act embarrassed or want privacy, she would get outraged and lecture them about how sex was normal, it was fine, sex shaming was bad and inappropriate, etc.
The fact that she was exposing her child to sex showed up in the guardian ad litem report by a woman who worked 17 years as a CPS caseworker and was a practicing therapist prior to becoming a guardian ad litem, and she identified this lack of boundaries for what it was—sexual abuse.
So while I understand that oversheltering kids from sex causes social problems, I do not for one second trust anyone who centers exposing minors to sex as a concentrated social justice effort. Sex education done by trained professionals is fine. Me hearing a they/them with a mic throw on the Jesus camp voice at a Pride event cheering how it's now up to a bunch of adult strangers to "teach" kids about sex since conservatives won't and enthusiastically joke about and describe their kinks to a bunch of minors in the audience is not fine.
I will not forget that little girl saying to me in an emphatic voice "sex was everywhere".
You are part of the problem.
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Here's my controversial opinion; if you're trying to write Bruce as a non-abusive, good parent, you should also write him respecting his kids' privacy, boundaries, and not stalking&surveying them.
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I've realized that a LOT of very reasonable, not fascist people around me are kinda into the "parental rights" gibberish fundies are peddling these days……….on the surface.
By far the most compelling way I've challenged this thinking? Simply saying, "I'm just really concerned for all the kids who have abusive parents like mine..." and I share like 1 careful anecdote about what my childhood was like. I get a lot of "WOW 🤯 yeah, I really hadn't thought about that…" back. I've (not exaggerating) had 7 convos of the past month or so like this and most have thanked me for saying it.
People have all kinds of cognitive biases that affect their perception. To people who think of parents as "inherently good" due to their first hand experiences and/or biases, you quite literally have to point this stuff out to them.
Children's rights are constantly overlooked, dismissed, and ignored. A lot of people want to "have babies" but don't think of it as producing autonomous humans who deserve to be seen that way and not property of their parents. I’ll keep looking for more and more ways to underscore that fact.
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Palestinian children in the Israel military detention system face physical and emotional abuse, with four out of five (86%) of them being beaten, and 69% strip-searched, according to new research by Save the Children. Nearly half (42%) are injured at the point of arrest, including gunshot wounds and broken bones. Some report violence of a sexual nature and some are transferred to court or between detention centres in small cages, the child rights organisation said.
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Ok since it didn't stop annoying me after i first saw it. You know that post going round thats like "i don't know why people still hit children when we know that making them wear a silly hat makes them ashamed"? It pisses me off because why are we still insisting on punishing kids? You learned hitting kids hurts them (no duh) and your first instinct is to turn to humiliation and shame instead? On god? You people won't even punish dogs and cats. If someone punished their wife you'd lose your shit
Also way to go recreating the dunce cap, which I thought we all agreed was child abuse, but I guess it was actually abandoned as a classroom staple cause it went out of fashion or something. Not because making children learn to dread wearing a humiliating hat was harming their self esteem and their relationship with figures of authority or anything. 2024 dunce cap revival for naughty children let's go
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frankly not a fan of how therapyspeak and the internet pathologize any relationship (of any type) that is less than perfect. how any solution that is not “immediately break off contact without offering an explanation” (which in some cases may be valid and actually the safest decision! not saying it can’t be) is in itself treated as pathological behavior.
like you have people thinking having to put any effort or having any conflict or experiencing any hardship means it’s toxic. and if it’s toxic it means it’s abusive where one person is the Abused and one is the Abuser (and obviously the person who is asking the question is always the victim), always completely knowingly and intentionally, and all types of abuse are equally bad and equally render the responsible individual completely irredeemable.
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