August 7, 2026

Yale professor Samuel Moyn is igniting a firestorm after telling the New York Times’ Ross Douthat that children are “hostages of their parents” and floating the idea that young adults should get proxy votes for children — even arguing that those without children may better understand kids’ interests than parents themselves. The claim, laid out in a discussion of America’s “gerontocracy,” has already drawn sharp backlash, with Douthat blasting it as “daft” and “absurd” — a provocative swipe at family authority that lands squarely in the culture-war crosshairs.

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