[user24]

> why can't we just teach children to...

This is something I used to ask until very recently; why can't I just teach my kids not to care about brands, not to be racist, not to be sexist, etc etc.

This would work, if my kids only learned from me. As long as there are sexists, racists, brand-bunnies, violent kids, etc around, my kids will learn from them too.

[saraid216]

The key is to teach children to question tribalism, and to do it calmly and rationally. If you do that, and they trust your capacity to judge fairly, they'll come back to you for extra perspectives whenever they aren't sure about anything.

Parenting is deceptively simple. Everything comes down to building enough mutual trust that an adult relationship is possible fifteen, twenty years down the line. Everything else is either there to make that possible, or built off that fundamental.