system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
I think that people who hit their children as "punishment" are sadistic and uneducated.CMV

I mean...there could be number of ways to teach your child to behave and discipline him/her,but physically abusing your child won't help in any way if anything exacerbate the issue.There's been a plethora of studies that posited that children who were spanked/whipped/ect. grow up with lower IQs and behavioral issues,as well as conditions such as anxiety and depression.Any person with a modicum of common sense would tell themselves that hitting your child won't be the best idea.I would like to get some input on this,I want to hear the other side of the fence.
gpt
The major problem is that most of these studies do not distinguish between an occasional spanking and regular serious abuse.   
If you put all kinds of laying a hand on your child into one category, then the obviously damaging things are used to argue against lesser forms that may or may not share the same damaging qualities.  

The reason for using physical punishment is to create a clear negative connection with a behaviour. When kids reach a certain age that grants a certain amount of mental reason, logic can be used. With small children, you can't explain why something is bad, so there needs to be another way to learn.  
When it comes to relatively small things, letting the child experience the negative consequences often works - let a kid touch something that's a little too hot, and they will feel a moment of pain and realize it is a bad idea (for example). But with bigger things, we can't afford to let a kid feel the actual results. We can't let a kid run into the street and be hit by a car to learn that cars are dangerous. We can't let a kid pull a bowl of soup off the stove. With things like this, parents try to create some sort of unpleasant thing that happens when they try, so that they link the dangerous action with the unpleasantness and don't do it again.    
There are many ways to do this, but when other options don't work, spanking can be a way to associate a dangerous thing with a bit of physical pain - which kids generally want to avoid.  If done properly (for the kid's best interest), it is a tiny bit of pain - just enough for the kid to associate and not do whatever they were doing again. Anything that actually damages the child in any lasting manner, or happens frequently is clearly overkill.   But in an occasionally-used mild form, it can work a lot better than trying to reason with a kid who doesn't yet do reason.