How to deal with it?
Teach your children well.
Teach them that respect, personal responsibility, compassion and empathy for all life is more important than being another white-collar capitalist.
Education is paramount.
Teach them that “education” and “university” are not necessarily synonymous.
College is not the be-all-end-all, but being stupid is a deal-breaker.
Reinforce the positive behaviors in kids with positive reinforcement.
Stop adhering to archaic, counter-productive notions of “constant punishment = reduction of undesirable behavior.” News flash: it doesn’t. Just like attending to the behaviors of adult trolls (be they professional or amateur) reinforces the trolling behavior, constant negative reinforcement of attention-seeking behavior in kids does the same; reinforces it.
I’m not saying eliminate boundaries and rules. The opposite.
Be clear what the boundaries and rules are, and be consistent in holding kids accountable to them. That means holding yourself accountable and not giving in to tantrums and remaining consistent and treating a kid as though you expect them to be good; not the other way around.
Don’t be these modern parents who behave as though asserting boundaries, saying, “no,” and saying, “I will not drop everything immediately to satisfy your whim right now” is tantamount to spirit-crushing child abuse.
It’s not.
If a kid learns that engaging in undesirable behaviors elicits rewards, they will keep engaging in undesirable behavior.
If a kid is positively reinforced when they engage in desirable behaviors, they will keep engaging in desirable behaviors.
Treating a child with respect and with the presumption that they will be good doesn’t mean never praising them when they do good stuff.
Praise them.
Respect that every kid is good at something, and reinforce those proclivities instead of forcing some other irrelevant lifestyle on them.
Vote for people that actually want to improve public education, not literally destroy it by literally telling teachers they can’t teach (unconscionable) and punishing teachers who merely want to teach kids facts and truth.
If a candidate advocates handcuffing educators and punishing them for educating kids, and uses rhetoric that demonizes educators, don’t vote for them.
Vote for people who have a legitimate record of action to improve the lives of working people, have minimal instances in their political career where they sided with corporate interests instead, and express sincere intentions to reform education, health care, the impunity with which corporations can go on destroying the planet, working conditions for blue-collar jobs, and generally express actual compassion and empathy for life on Earth.
