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I'm not gonna pretend he deserves anyone's pity or that you should change your opinion here, but acting like 18 is some magic age where someone is suddenly completely responsible and free of childish impulses/problems is ridiculous. Society may need to set an age for accountability in a legal sense, but socially, humans just don't work that way.
At 18, he’s legally free to walk away from his shit-for-brains father and make his own choices.
He chooses nepotism. He may not be totally mature, but they are his choice.
He’d be free to walk, taking a leap into the unknown at the cost of losing almost everything he has. Expecting that sort of heroic act of him is not entirely reasonable.
OTOH, judging by the photos, he does give off Brock Turner/Kyle Rittenhouse vibes. If, having grown up where he did, he turned out to be an aggressive predator, it would not be a huge surprise.
I’m almost certain he’d be able to land on his feet.
Almost any publisher would pay rights for “growing up trump”, for example.
I wouldn’t have expected him to totally walk away… but his choices are now his to make in a way they weren’t before.
Also, why do we act like 18 is the magic minimum age when someone should know better? I remember being 15, 16, 17 and having a solid understanding of morals and how to participate in society. I wasn't special.
It's not "You're 18 now, so you should know better." It's "For fucks sake, you're 18. You should have figured this shit out years ago."
Dude exactly. At the time I understood I didn't know shit but I understood nonetheless and that helped me make decisions about how to act and what to do in society and how I was perceived by those around me. We were young and ignorant not stupid.
Because it needs to be somewhere. It’s basically arbitrary
The point I'm making is we set 18 as the age when you're responsible for your own actions, but it's not because just in that moment you become responsible.
We set the age at 18 because it's a really generous guess. Most people understand how to interact with others years before their 18th birthday. If someone is still fucking up at 18 then consequences are appropriate.
Legally.... yes. it is where you become responsible.
Mentally, emotionally, and any other way? you're right. there is no single age. But the law can't really make fluid distinctions like that without becoming an unweildly mess. So we get one age, everyone younger than that (*) is not a legal adult and everyone older is. that's how it is, and yes, its pretty much an arbitrary decision that was made ages ago.
(* there is a process where children can become emancipated and have no guardians, taking legal responsibility for themselves. but it's extremely rare for courts to grant it. usually they just dump the kid into the system if there's cause.)
We weren't talking about legal responsibility in this thread, were we?
The above conversation seemed to be about the social consequences Barron should face for choosing to be part of this mess, right?
It took me well into my 30s to walk away from religion. Especially in an isolated environment, it's likely he doesn't really understand his choices, and though he has had a much more comfortable way of life than us, it's still hard to transition to a much less forgiving way of life. I had to leave behind friends and family I still wish I had a good relationship with, but the cultlike environment (JW) is specifically designed to discourage leaving. Learning about other viewpoints are heavily discouraged, as is associating with people not in the same belief structure.
While mine was religion, with how polarizing his father is and the protection needed, I don't doubt he had even less access to other people and viewpoints than I did. I at least got to meet people online, at work,and through shows (funny enough, Futurama was a huge part of breaking me away) to get some other viewpoints, but some of my friends were homeschooled and wouldn't watch or be allowed to watch almost anything secular.
It's why so many are afraid to allow kids to go to college (pretty discouraged by JW also), because they might change. I say at 18 the chance of someone in his position being able to get alternative experiences is slim to none.
He’s not a minor anymore and he can make decisions to be in politics or not. That’s my point. He was totally unknown until now. I was HOPING he would disown his family. But, apparently they’re all insane.
Definitely agree, but for what it’s worth, I certainly didn’t stop being a dumbass teenager the moment I turned 18.
Well, true, but until now we haven’t heard much about him. I guess what I’m saying is, I didn’t want to judge anybody before they did something wrong. It wouldn’t really be very nice to assume he would be the same way. After all, his childhood would have been very different than Trump‘s previous children. Maybe his friends convinced him to be rational.
Guess not
It's akin to waiting until someone turns of legal age to fuck them. It's creepy and downright wrong. He was born into this and it's grim.
He was also born into immense wealth and access to any education he wanted, but still chose this.
He's still a kid.
When is the cutoff? I'm going to stand with history until proven otherwise.
When he has choices.
Ah so back to right now, got it.
He didn't choose and hasn't had the opportunity to choose his education, nor his family.
You're telling me, that as of right now, he does not have the capability to make choices?
Not much opportunity to do so, no, since he's still a schoolchild.
He could drop out if that's what it takes to not fuck all of humanity. It's a choice I'd make.
And do what? He doesn't have much impact.
I'll take no impact over negative impact, or better yet, positive impact.
YOU are the one who thought that. I’m guessing that accusation is a confession.
What is my accusation? You seem to have mixed up the meanings in your head. Your reaction is telling, though.
What’s it tell you?
Yeah, but he made a choice there. And for that choice he deserves to be criticised.
IDK, the power that people have over him is probably way too much. 18 year olds are still highly influenceable and he's likely under a lot of pressure from his family and their political cohort to join in.
Try saying no to those people, he'd likely lose everything.
Especially when you have constant pressure to be that way from everyone around you. Truth be told, I've always just felt bad for the kid. Sure we're to the point where you've gotta expect him to at least start thinking for himself, but that type of deprogramming takes a long ass time.
Well, feel bad until he starts slamming minorities.