Lenore Skenazy, aka "America’s Worst Mom" and creator of the name and movement
Free Range Kids is my favorite dispatcher of
Onion type (but true!) news stories from Securistan. Yesterday she shared an article about the perceived threat of a sledding hill. “Paxton, a small town in Illinois, where the land is flat as flat can be, is about to lose its only sledding hill to the Abominable Insurance Man.”
Sledding hills are of course only one of many natural “dangers” we systematically eliminate from the overprotected lives of our
Homelander kids. To quote Skenazy's sardonic remark: “Yes, and let’s hope kids forget that there was ever a time when they could play outside, walk to school, or meet up at the park, while we’re at it. Let’s hope they forget there was ever anything to childhood except Kumon and cat memes. What a glorious future.“
I just read an article that called our youngest generation the "re-generation" (sorry, can't find the url), alluding to their familiarity with the reduce, reuse, recycle slogan and their attentiveness to environmental causes. I haven't found any hard statistics that actually support the idea that the Homelanders will be more environmentally conscious, but OK, I'll go with the idea that environmentalism is since environmentalism is gradually entering into our psyches over time a sense of urgency and importance might be greater among the young. One thing I learned from judging at the Texas Future Problem Solvers competition this weekend is that the fervent climate change deniers and "drill, baby, drill" knuckleheads are not making inroads into the mindset of the young. From my own experience it does indeed seem as if 'Reduce, Reuse and Recycle' resonate on a much deeper level and are more actionable and instinctive with our the youngest cohorts.
"Hey guys. I just wanted to ask - just a random question. Uhmm. Am I - like - ugly or pretty?"
- You don't have to dig deep into online archives to find a whole pageantry of kids as young as 10 years old unloading their most personal angst for complete strangers to comment on. And the more insecure they appear, the more likely they seem to attract trolls whose dubious netiquette allows them to filter through comments of this type: "DONT WANT TO SOUND MEAN BUT URE A F***ING DOG." (censoring added). In other words, the ones who most desperately need reassurance from their faceless peers are the ones who are the most likely get bulldozed by the 'Haters'. And rarely do any respondents care to unmask the more existential questions that simmer immediately underneath the Snow White narrative: “Am I likeable? Am I loveable?” 
