When you're baking bread and you make multiple mistakes, and it's getting worse and worse, sometimes you have to throw it all away and start fresh.
Social change doesn't work like that.
Dr Robert Epstein does a great job of diagnosing the problem. He clearly describes what's happening and explains why it's bad. He fails however to give a practical prescription for fixing the malady.
In his interview with Tom Woods he says straight out that we need to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch. This will obviously never happen.
I believe, however, that we can make real change. We can push back, fight hard, and reverse the trend. The specifics will be debated forever. But the principles need to be acknowledged and upheld.
The main thing we need is an attitude adjustment.
Here are some steps:
We can go back to calling teenagers young adults. (yes, they really are young adults. this is basic scientific fact)
We can stop conflating the terms minor and child. This means we stop pretending that laws decide who is a child and who isn't.
We can stop infanilizing teenagers. We can stop calling them idiots and/or claiming they have bad brains. We can treat them with respect. We can give them a chance.
We can lower the age of majority to 16. Older teens need basic legal rights. All throughout history young adults have risen to meet the challenges presented to them. Legal adulthood at 16 will be no different.
States that have added driving restrictions on minors must remove them. Discrimination based on age is simply wrong. End double standards. The same rules must apply to all.
Let 16 year olds work and drive just like all other adults in all 50 states.
Lower the drinking age to 16.
Lower the enlistment age in the Armed Forces to 16.
Decriminalize the sex lives of older teens and drastically reduce the penalties for statutory "rape" when the "victim" obviously consented. Yes, this means believe victims even when they contradict the dogma sex-phobic Puritans are trying to impose on them. (plenty of countries have good sensible age of consent laws. let's emulate them)
Workers' rights are not about age. All workers of all ages should be treated with respect and have safe, healthy workplaces and decent pay.
Child labor laws will of course always stay in place. We can make sure however that kids who want to be active in the workplace have some opportunities to do so.
Gun safety and/or gun rights are not a function of age. Multiple laws for multiple age groups solves nothing. End double standards. The same rules should apply to all.
Mandatory schooling will not end any time soon. We can take concrete steps to make schools better, more flexible, and much less oppressive.
The entire foster care system must be reformed from the ground up. Plenty of countries do this far better than we do. We can learn from them. (in addition, doubling or tripling the minimum wage would do more than anything else to prevent abuse of young people. given the opportunity to support oneself financially means abusers have far less power over their victims (further benefit: when regular work pays a decent wage this is much less pressure/incentive to do sex work))
Teen-phobic Bigotry Laws like age-based curfews must be repealed. It's appalling that anyone ever thought that was acceptable.
On an individual level:
When people use phrases like "young girl" ask them what they mean by that. It's very likely they are inadvertently using language that infantilizes young women. "Would you call a 22-year-old man a 'young boy'? Aha, so it's demeaning, ageist, science denial, and sexist."
When people say "teenage boy" or "teen girl" correct them. Let them know that teenagers are young men and women, and that only science denial, or ignorance, can justify their inadvertent bigotry.
When people say "women and girls" ask if the people they mean are all post-pubescent. If they are, point out that the word "women" is enough.
Call out bigotry against young people. Don't let bigots get away with saying "Teenagers, they're all shitty." Don't let people brag about how they were morons at age 14 without letting them know their flex makes them look like assholes. In real life and on social media, tell people that hating on young adults (aka teens) is just as bad as hating on homosexuals.
