Is Teaching Racism Child Abuse? Libertarian Perspective.

Just now, I took part in a discussion on a libertarian blog about racism, child abuse, and the proper role of government in such matters. This is my post:

"Perhaps I’ll be accused of downplaying subtleties and not seeing the whole picture, but the answers to these questions seem as obvious as if they had hit me across the face. I don’t think that it really has anything to do with child abuse. The question here is, is it the obligation of the government or society to be the thought police?

But before we go there, think about this child abuse issue for a moment. I don’t believe for one second that teaching a child to be a racist is abuse any more than teaching them to be Catholic is abuse. Both views, to me, are morally repugnant in a lot of ways. I wish there were just as many of each. And I could probably make a strong argument that telling a child he might be tortured for all eternity or that s%* and m*wx$^@x$*&y are sinful is more abusive than teaching him to say “go back to Mexico” as his first words. Child abuse is a serious issue, and it deserves serious attention. And in my opinion, using child abuse as a trojan horse to punish thought crimes isn’t the attention it deserves.

I’m aware that physical abuse isn’t the only kind of abuse that exists out there. But I see an obvious difference between destroying your child emotionally and teaching them your values, and no, teaching racism isn’t psychologically abusive. And for people who argue that it is, well, I’d argue that you haven’t begun your descent down the slippery slope, I think you just jumped head first off a 1,000 ft. drop. I’m guessing I could take any rationale for “racism is abuse” and turn it around on ten different things you’d want to teach your own children. So you have to ask yourself… are you comfortable being at the bottom of that cliff where ideologies go to die, and the government is the only entity responsible enough to raise a child? Or should we let a handful of racists slip through with Catholics, and single moms, and same s%$ parents, and Muslims, and atheists, and everyone else that wants to raise a child with their own values?

It’s easy for me to answer. I don’t want to use guns to fight racism. And people need to remember that’s exactly what the government is. It has the monopoly on the initiation of force. And if I won’t point a gun at a neo-nazi or a Catholic and take his kids away, I’m not going to ask someone else to do it for me. If I do, what argument will I have when the guns are pointed at me? I’d much rather let hatred die voluntarily."

There you have it. The two things I associate myself the most with are probably libertarianism and atheism. I realize there is a trend with New Atheists to make a connection between fundamentalist religion and child abuse. And while I'm probably just as motivated to make that connection as any other fine atheist, I think I'm a libertarian first and a soul-sucking amoral heretic second.