USA Today affiliate publishes column saying parents should be forced to “give away their children” to achieve true equity, advocating for “universal orphanhood.”
QUICK FACTS:
- An opinion editorial published by VC Star—part of the USA Today Network—and penned by Columnist Joe Mathews, says that California parents need to be forced by the state to give up their children.
- The seemingly entirely serious article states that Californians need to make this sacrifice if they want to live in a society free from bias.
- Matthews called the goal of equity “our greatest value,” saying that even the Golden State’s Gov. Gavin Newsom makes decisions through “an equity lens.”
- The state’s intention is, however, no match for the “power of parents,” according to the article’s author, who said that parents have a unique ability to pass advantage to their children.
- Matthews pointed to parents’ greater ability to “transfer” wealth and education to their children which “compounds privilege.”
THE AUTHOR’S TAKE ON CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT:
- “My solution — making raising your own children illegal — is simple, and while we wait for the legislation to pass, we can act now: the rich and poor should trade kids, and homeowners might swap children with their homeless neighbors,” Matthews said.
- “Today, a policy of universal orphanhood aligns with powerful social trends that point to less interest in family. Californians are slower to marry, and are having fewer children — our birth rate is at an all-time low,” the author went on.
- “Ending parenthood would end the backlash, helping dismantle white supremacy and outdated gender norms. Democrats also would have the opportunity to build a new pillar of the safety net — a child-raising system called ‘Foster Care for All.’”
BACKGROUND:
- The article’s author cited Plato’s “Republic” for reccomending children “be possessed in common, so that no parent will know his own offspring or any child his parents,” saying it was a way to “defeat nepotism” and create citizens who were loyal to society instead of their own families.
- Both the Chinese Communist Party and the Nazi Party have historically had similar methods of inspiring allegiance in the children of the generations where they hoped to gain trust.
