Kids Don’t Think Congress Has Their Best Interests In Mind With Their Grandstanding ‘Protect The Children’ Hearing::We’ve covered a few stories this week related to the Senate hearing on “kids safety” and there’s going to be a lot more in the coming weeks as those same Senators grandstand and yell about “protect the children!” and generally make fools of themselves. I think Casey Newton’s summary of the spectacle is about right:…
If they cared about kids they’d do something about school shootings, stop blocking food stamps, go after religious figures that sexually abuse children, pass universal healthcare, and a myriad of other things. Congress, and particularly Republicans, don’t care about children AT ALL. Children are a political talking point, a useful point of leverage, for them, but that’s it.
Going after tech companies is useful in two ways:
It distracts from going after the actually things that harm children (gun manufacturers, poverty, child molester priests) and lets politicians look tough.
They can beat up tech companies that mostly are from blue states without jeopardizing traditional donor base.