The new Political Correctness

Nowhere in the United States is it illegal for a parent to spank his or her offspring.   It is illegal in all jurisdictions to hit a child hard enough for it to be considered abusive.   But reasonable force as a reasonable measure of discipline, while not officially condoned, is accepted as part of the American way of rearing children.

Now here's some curious statistics.   Nearly half of Americans polled on the topic state that they are opposed to spanking of kids.   If those Americans happen to be spankos, those polls give a nearly 75% vote against kids getting spanked.

Yet if you poll kids, and adults, with the question "Did you get spanked by either of your parents/Did you spank any of your kids/ in the last twelve months?" the "Yes" answer is north of 90%.

That is, over 40% of us tell one poll we are anti-spanking, and admit to another we are do spank as a form of child discipline.   Why do we go to such lengths to lie to pollsters?

In my opinion, it is the new "politically correct" attitude we are expected to display when this topic comes up.   The anti-spanking brigade, using the tactics employed by all single issue fanatics, have convinced just about all of us that society does not approve of spanking, and if you do approve, then society will hate you.

Don Cobble, former pastor of a church, found out how this works in practice.   He gave his son a belting, and two years later his conviction for child abuse was thrown out by the Massachusetts Supreme Court as being baseless.   But by then he had lost his job and most of his friends.   And is on record as saying some approached him secretively to say that they also walloped their kids, so, while sympathizing, felt it best if they kept apart for a while.

We are letting the anti-spanking fanatics dictate this debate on their terms.   We need to find some way of bringing truth back to bear on the matter.   Almost all single issue campaigns fail in the face of hard facts:  just look at how badly the "No Vaccinations for Kids" protesters are reeling as reality about this matter comes to light.