AITA for ever refusing to hit children?

Last night my girlfriend (21F) and I(22M) were having a conversation about corporal punishment as a way to discipline children. Surprisingly we we on opposite ends of this discussion.

I thought not hitting children was something we can universally agree is wrong, imagine my surprise learning that this can be a controversial topic.

So I am of the belief that children can be taught proper behaviour without hitting them and making them feel unsafe to ever make a mistake. This is how I was raised.

She however was raised differently. She was hit when she made mistakes. She now thinks that her being hit as a child in the name of discipline is what made her not fall in with the bad crowd, do drugs and teenage pregnancy. She credits her strict childhood for helping her learn right from wrong and overall be a good daughter.

Now here's where I may have been the asshole.. I told her that the fact that she thinks hitting children is normal and something that should be practiced everywhere is proof that her childhood was traumatic and she just doesn't realise it yet. I told her that her parents were not ready to have children if they resorted to hitting children in the name of discipline. This is especially bad because her dad died last year so criticising his parenting techniques as bad, someone she dearly misses.

I don't think I am wrong to say that children should be raised with patience and compassion. They are literally new people, everything is new to them and they need to know that making mistakes is not something that should be feared.

She refuses to answer my calls and texts because according to her, I want her to think she was abused as a child when she wasn't.

Am I the asshole?