Conversation

Aella
@Aella_Girl
i'm weirded out by the fact ppl just openly lie to their children about santa? and this is just a widespread cultural agreement? and people get mad at you if you tell kids the truth? So fucked up. Im gonna start santa-truther activism, hold signs in front of elementary schools
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Aella
@Aella_Girl
Children are *people*, they're human beings who depend on you to teach them about the world, and being like "naw the rules of principled honesty don't apply because their kid brains don't count as deserving of the respect we afford other adults" is dehumanizing and shitty
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Willis Walker
@thewilliswalker
Replying to
@Aella_Girl
I think that grappling with the truth of ideas like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy are useful practice runs at grappling with the much bigger and darker Santa Claus’ kids will encounter and need to deal with later in life
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Karl Smith
@karlbykarlsmith
Replying to
@Aella_Girl
Kot going on here but at least two issues are 1) It's not out of a lack of respect but shared cultural ritual that having gone through ourselves we appreciate. 2) Do we have a principle that we are always honest irrespective of customs? Strategic dishonesty is what's forbidden.
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Reza
@camelspaced
Replying to
@Aella_Girl
Doesn't really address your moral concerns but the experience of learning enough about the world to figure out that this thing everyone told me can't be true feels like it was a super valuable formative moment for me.
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Nick Baum 🇸🇪
@nickbaum
Replying to
@Aella_Girl
and
@nickcammarata
As an atheist who "believes" in Santa, to me it's about valuing traditions and imagination and a sense of wonder and magic. I also think kids catch on pretty fast, and they play along with it for the same reasons we do - because it's fun.
RK
@burouchi
Replying to
@Aella_Girl
Yeah I just don't see any kid being seriously affected by this. If anything it just teaches them not to accept things blindly at face value.
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