Ex-ageists?

[MiNi]

Any of you ever used to have ageism-related mindsets before reading about youth rights? I did, but I saw it with skepticism at first rather than brushing it off. I took a look at various youth rights websites when I was about 13-14 disagreeing with many of the things I read. I eventually started to believe in YR when I read a lot more into it and gave it a chance.

What about you? Don't be afraid to admit it.

[Superman]

Any of you ever used to have ageism-related mindsets before reading about youth rights? I did, but I saw it with skepticism at first rather than brushing it off. I took a look at various youth rights websites when I was about 13-14 disagreeing with many of the things I read. I eventually started to believe in YR when I read a lot more into it and gave it a chance.

What about you? Don't be afraid to admit it.

So we brainwashed you. That's nice to know.

[MiNi]

Isn't that the point of all the civil rights movements?

[Euripus]

So we brainwashed you. That's nice to know.

It's true, it was a collaborative effort.

[Monarch91]

Any of you ever used to have ageism-related mindsets before reading about youth rights? I did, but I saw it with skepticism at first rather than brushing it off. I took a look at various youth rights websites when I was about 13-14 disagreeing with many of the things I read. I eventually started to believe in YR when I read a lot more into it and gave it a chance.

What about you? Don't be afraid to admit it.

I didn't know ageism existed, so I didn't really have an opinion until I was fusoiehed off by homework and teachers punishing students just for talking back. Then I thought the audio-player ban at my school had no real purpose. After all, several students brought guitars to school, without problems, but they can't have their 3PM (study hall) MP3's?

[why18]

Never. I can't even remember not supporting YR.

[robexib]

3PM MP3's lolz. I also didn't know ageism existed... but teachers get evil, so idecided to google my rights. I found this site through that search. I've been an active member since

[BattlePenisofGalen]

I always felt something was wrong but I couldn't put my finger on it, so I just went along with it until I found this website while doing research on mall curfews. Best Google search of my life.

[Got Liberty?]

I used to subscribe to that schoolchild I'm-older-so-I'm-better stuff. Still do, but to a far lesser extent, and I do at least try to stop myself.

I found NYRA through a search on the voting age. That was about a year and a half after my first interest in that. Six months later, I subscribed to the mailing list, I joined to forums, and I made my first donation a week or so after that.

This is fun.

[$tamp3r]

I found the NYRA site while researching different positions on the drinking age for a final project paper in AP English last year. That issue opened my eyes to youth rights and led me to NYRA (which was a great resource, by the way).

I didn't really check out the forums until about six months later and have only had enough time to get on them in the last few months.


I always felt that youth get walked on way more than any other group, but it was NYRA that got me motivated enough to start a chapter() and actually DO something() about the shit we take.

[Chiptastic]

Since you asked...............................

Long ago, about 10 years, i was an ageist true and true. The police even let me take turns spraying "rubber" bullets into a voting age march. Damn that was fun.

At 8 i participated in a "anti-Keggar" where me and my buddies would go and launch heavy kegs full of stink bomb gas through college dorm windows known for allowing underaged drinking.

At 10, i rode horseback during the infamous Agenatcht and rode through the streets smashing the windows of establishments that served beer too minors and setting fire to teens who got in my way

But at 12 something devestating happened. I was out past the curfew i had campaigned for, and the Fingers saw me. I explained i was looking for my puppy, MLDAWG21, but they wouldn't listen. They beat me bloody and took my money and left me for dead in a back alleyway. If it wasn't for a good samaritan we all call Scott Davidson, i'd have been dead.

It was a Noreaster, and this Scott Davidson saved me, allowing me to hibernate in his beard. when i woke up i was in the Rockcave, in Rockville Maryland. A strange man dressed in nothing special, who called himself only "Alex Koroknay-Palicz, Executive Director of the National Youth Rights Association" tended to my wounds. He refused to tell me his real name, insisting that he told it to me. I retorted that it was impossible that anyone could have such a ridiculous name.

Long story short, i was given steriods and experimental Youth Growth Hormone. The Mad Doctor Katrina Moncure experimented on my brain and gave me the intelligence of....well a smart person i guess... I dunno... but anyways, from there i was released into the wild, a success of the Super-Nyranian X project.

[Got Liberty?]

Mmmm, Crispy.

[SciVille]

Since you asked...............................

Long ago, about 10 years, i was an ageist true and true. The police even let me take turns spraying "rubber" bullets into a voting age march. Damn that was fun.

At 8 i participated in a "anti-Keggar" where me and my buddies would go and launch heavy kegs full of stink bomb gas through college dorm windows known for allowing underaged drinking.

At 10, i rode horseback during the infamous Agenatcht and rode through the streets smashing the windows of establishments that served beer too minors and setting fire to teens who got in my way

But at 12 something devestating happened. I was out past the curfew i had campaigned for, and the Fingers saw me. I explained i was looking for my puppy, MLDAWG21, but they wouldn't listen. They beat me bloody and took my money and left me for dead in a back alleyway. If it wasn't for a good samaritan we all call Scott Davidson, i'd have been dead.

It was a Noreaster, and this Scott Davidson saved me, allowing me to hibernate in his beard. when i woke up i was in the Rockcave, in Rockville Maryland. A strange man dressed in nothing special, who called himself only "Alex Koroknay-Palicz, Executive Director of the National Youth Rights Association" tended to my wounds. He refused to tell me his real name, insisting that he told it to me. I retorted that it was impossible that anyone could have such a ridiculous name.

Long story short, i was given steriods and experimental Youth Growth Hormone. The Mad Doctor Katrina Moncure experimented on my brain and gave me the intelligence of....well a smart person i guess... I dunno... but anyways, from there i was released into the wild, a success of the Super-Nyranian X project.

Hahahaha! I can't stop fucking giggling.

I approve! If I didn't give you rep too recently already. Damn it!

[clockworkgirl21]

I was ageist once I guess, but I was very little, and didn't really understand. Once I saw my mom's 14 year old cousin smoking, and I think I was about 7. "Hey, you can't smoke that!" "Why not?" "You aren't 18!" She just laughed, but I would have deserved it if she had hit me in my face.

[KPalicz]

Hahahaha! I can't stop fucking giggling.

I approve! If I didn't give you rep too recently already. Damn it!

Don't worry, I took care of it.


I was always at some level aware of the age hierarchy we live in. At various times I found it amusing, a minor nuisance not worth worrying about or something to rebel against, but I can't ever remember actually supporting it.

My memory is shamefully bad, so I only retain snippets of my life before last Tuesday, but of those snippets, some are interesting. Like when I first started 1st grade, my grand entry into public school I made a private promise to myself that if I was ever punished for something I didn't think I deserved I would fight it to the end. I don't think I ever told anyone, but it was always in the back of my mind. I didn't activate this pact until like sophomore year in high school after a conflict with my Spanish teacher (fun story, if you're lucky I'll tell it (retell it?) sometime). It wasn't that I never got in trouble to that point, I just always figured I got what I had coming, hehe. But the point of course is that even in first grade (aka 6 years old) I recognized that the authorities and the school could be wrong and that it was my obligation to fight them when they were.

But other times I was rather amused with the whole way we were ranked and classified in society. In elementary school I'd sometimes call middle school or high school students "kids", even though they were twice my age, because despite the fact they seemed to be damn near adults from my vantage point I knew that they were regarded as no better off than I was in the eyes of the world. So I'd be a smart ass and call them kids to piss them off and amuse myself by turning the typical hierarchy on its head by talking down to someone twice my age. And of course knowingly and unknowingly pointing out the absurdity of how our world worked.

So I always recognized these various elements and it always existed in the background of my life as I looked at my interactions with my parents or with teachers. It wasn't until high school that thinking that this would be a worthwhile thing to analyze and fight back against. Till then I just had an uneasy co-existence with ageism.

[KPalicz]

btw, MiNi I think this is a fantastic thread, and I've created a blog post on it.

http://blog.youthrights.org/2006/12/...d-view-part-1/

[Galen]

Hmm.. I guess maybe I was like closer to being ageist than not being ageist, but I was never really like "omg children r 2 st00pid." It could just be because I've always liked kids and enjoyed their company and you just tend to be nice and respect people you like in general. Most people, I feel, don't really like kids at all, despite their "for the children" bullshit. Most adults claim to "love children" but I think that the reality is that most adults hate children.

[why18]

Hehe, 6-year-old Alex sounds cool. I would have been friends with him, had I not been -3.

In elementary school I'd sometimes call middle school or high school students "kids", even though they were twice my age, because despite the fact they seemed to be damn near adults from my vantage point I knew that they were regarded as no better off than I was in the eyes of the world.

Wow, I don't think I was that insightful.

10th grade Spanish story.

[SciVille]

10th grade Spanish story

Second!

Most adults claim to "love children" but I think that the reality is that most adults hate children.

Agreed and agreed.

[de82]

No, I've never been in favor of youth having less rights than adults, though I've often thought youth AND adults might be better off if they had no rights at all under benevolent fascist dictator. But after living with that view for about a year and a half I just had to throw it out of my mind -even if it is true. I guess that makes me a deluded utopianist but I would rather be one of those than live in cynicism and apathy for the rest of my life.