We really should do away with youth activism as best we can.

This isn't to say that we shouldn't listen to children who have been harmed. I don't think that it's activism to talk to detransitioners, who are mostly young -- that's just exposing the truth that kids are being butchered by a bunch of manics and activists.

Most of the time -- nearly 100% -- when a child is on stage lecturing us about some sort of issue, the kid is just being used as a prop for the adult's agenda. People know that it's a bad look to criticize a kid. If an adult got up on stage at TED and said what Greta Thunberg said, I would have torn him or her a new one; but, because she was a kid, just like most people, I handled her with kid gloves.

The thing is, even though she's an adult now, and technically fair game, I still feel badly for her. The adults in the room didn't do their jobs. They took a child who isn't wise (because children can't be wise) and put her on the stage to shame the world. Now that she's an adult, her brand has already been set. It's probably downright dangerous for her to admit that she was wrong about anything now because she'll be branded as a turncoat.

Kids can be smart; but, they're not wise. It takes time to live life, and see the world for what it really is rather than simply imagining what it should be.

No honest, intelligent person thinks the same at thirty as he or she did at fifteen. People grow and evolve. It's already hard to admit that you were wrong, to reject a worldview that you've passionately espoused, and especially to apologize if and when you realize that your ideas, when implemented, have hurt people. To saddle a person with the burden of what he or she said as a kid is a grossly immoral and irresponsible thing for any adult to do.

It's time we finally remember that kids aren't teaching us. If kids are teaching us, we're doing a piss poor job of being adults. The adults should be the ones shouldering the burden and taking the whips and scorns of the world.

Adults still say stupid things all the time; but, we're all fair game when we say it, and we've had time to put work into our stupidity.