Twitter's Hot Discourse Of The Day Is A Debate Over Whether Hating Kids Is Ableist

The greatest minds of Twitter have convened yet again to give the site much to think about.

The concept at the center of the latest discourse mania, as it so often has been in the past, is ableism, after Twitter user and parenting podcast host @prntgdcolonized argued that hating or disliking children was a form of "ableism."

Hating/disliking children is s form of ableism. So many of the reasons adults dislike kids are things they can't control becauseof their bodies and brains. They're new humans learning how to navigate the world and instead of understanding they get disdain.

— Parenting Decolonized (@prntgdcolonized) August 21, 2022

According to @prntgdcolonized, people who dislike children do so because children have not yet developed adult-level social skills, which for some adults, can make children tiresome to be around. As a result, adults will ignore or express rage at children who don't conform to social norms, which in her view, is akin to an "ableist" response.

At a basic level, ableism means discrimination and social prejudice against people with physical and mental disabilities. The subject is why words like spaz have become controversial as of late, and why some have worked to eliminate words like "crazy" and "retarded" from their vocabulary.

While some recent discussions about ableism have proceeded in (relatively) good faith, other, more viral hot takes, such as "'Himbo' Is Ablelist" and "Expecting authors to know how to read is ableist" have left many Twitter users jaws agape at the leaps in logic required to make such a claim. The reaction towards @prntgdcolonized's ableism take largely veered towards the latter.

Some users, however, saw where she was coming from and attempted to elaborate that disliking a group of people for their inability to conform to an ideal is indeed a form of prejudice. However, many were astounded that @prntgdcolonized seemed to imply that being a child is a "disability," though she denied that implication in her thread.

Where did I make a comparison?

— Parenting Decolonized (@prntgdcolonized) August 23, 2022

Calling people ableist while comparing disabled people to children https://t.co/8igCJFy3Yf

— Ollie 🏳️‍🌈🐺 (@BackOfNeto2) August 22, 2022

I don’t have the energy to write a long-winded thread about how frustrating/insulting it is to compare disabled people with children

So I made a reaction meme instead https://t.co/BX0komXRjy pic.twitter.com/rBzzQq37Hj

— Dani Donovan 👩🏻‍🎨 ADHD Comics (@danidonovan) August 22, 2022

Others simply enjoyed the hot counter-takes that emerged from the discussion as it continued snowballing throughout the day.

Kaiju battle pic.twitter.com/IrvSxRBTfn

— Sturgeon's Law (@Sturgeons_Law) August 22, 2022

there’s just no place like this. every day is another gift pic.twitter.com/iTvi8hDrue

— Lucy V (@LucyXIV) August 23, 2022

Takes like this fascinate me because I don't believe this person cares about this or even genuinely thinks it. It feels like they came up with it and went "OOH NOBODY'S DONE THIS ONE YET" and then jumped at the opportunity to be the one to put it out there. https://t.co/jAFVy8v2eI

— Lyle Rath (@LyleRath) August 22, 2022

It seems we're nowhere near a conclusion in the debate over whether hating kids is "ableist," but in any case, the viral debate has provided yet another example of why Twitter is A) Tumblr 2.0 and B) one of the wildest, most fascinating places online, even if that, at the same time, makes it one of the most exhausting.