Activists for normalizing pedophilia are on the move. Public acceptance of adult sex with children is the next domino poised to fall in identity politics. It’s being sustained, among other things, by the rapid sexualization of children in the media and in K-12 education.
We cannot dismiss the campaign to legalize pedophilia as fringy stuff that will get nowhere. It’s real and it’s here and it’s gaining strength. It’s a very logical outgrowth of the nihilism inherent in the sexual revolution.
If you doubt this, just consider, for example, how unthinkable to many Americans was the recent celebration of infanticide (in the guise of abortion rights) by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Likewise, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam—supposedly a pediatrician—spoke cavalierly about whether to dispose of a living infant who survives abortion.
They and governors of many other states are betting that your shock will simply wear off and we’ll all eventually get with the infanticide program. People do tend to settle into such shifts, believing it won’t affect them. But the selective dehumanization of children has been going on for a long time now. Why should we think it’ll be any different when the time comes for legalizing pedophilia?
As with any propaganda campaign that pushes outrageous changes on an unwary public, it’s all about timing. Academics might refer to timing as the Overton Window or the Availability Cascade. But we should all be able to understand the process of conditioning the public to accept the unacceptable.
First, the groundwork is laid through carefully planned propaganda. There are various types of messaging for various audiences: the medical establishment, the education establishment, legislators, judges, the general public, and so forth. Then the agitation begins with poster people who are “just like you.” And before you know it, it’s all over.
Unveiling pedophilia as “just fine” will likely be an ambush if we aren’t prepared. It promises to be as swift as the “transgender tipping point” campaign that shrewdly coincided with the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision in 2015. It will be accompanied by a defiant campaign to paint any resistance as a relic of outdated morality that oppresses the rights of an identity group and the civil rights of any children caught in it.
So, when that inevitable time comes, will we just sit back and cower in confusion? Or will ample voices be able to break through the pressures of political correctness beforehand and shout “Enough!” Be prepared to make that happen, because the pitcher is full and they are mixing the Kool-Aid.
The Sexualization of Children Is Well Underway
We’ve already being desensitized to the sexualization of children and implanting gender confusion in them. Parents from Long Beach, California to Queens, New York are taking their toddlers to drag queen story times at local libraries. Some, like the mother of nine-year-old Lactatia, now actually groom their boys to be drag queens and encourage them to get other children to do the same.
Media outlets spread the idea. For example, “Good Morning America” recently celebrated an 11-year-old drag queen who danced suggestively on the show and does the same at adult night clubs. The studio audience looked groomed to be a picture of Middle America. They cheered his gyrations on cue, and approvingly.
A majority of American parents are already tacitly okay with sex “education” that pushes early sexual activity on their kids, along with developmentally inappropriate teachings about various sexual practices. They’re also getting on board with having the transgender hoax imposed on their kids, with a bunch of cool moms modeling that behavior. Most parents who are disturbed by all this are overwhelmed and keep their concerns to themselves, which only perpetuates the trend.
Our public schools, with the backing of the highly politicized American Academy of Pediatrics, are also now in the business of nudging any young child to get injections of puberty blockers if he or she claims to be transgender. Some states are now threatening to take away custody from any parent who is not on board with that. K-12 classrooms are becoming labs in which kids are being programmed to serve such agendas.
Your children have been defined by the left’s sexual nihilists as totally sexual beings. So what next? The logical answer: from sexual beings to sex objects. We may well see even more legalized exploitation of children unimaginable to many Americans today. Let’s face it: Pedophilia has been waiting in the wings, and is itching to come out. So let’s not be blindsided when it hits full force.
Designating Pedophilia a Sexual Orientation
There are two main avenues to legalizing adult sexual relations with pre-pubescent children: 1) to designate it as a sexual orientation; and 2) to lower—or abolish—the age of consent for sexual activity. Both efforts are on track by pedophilia advocates, especially in academia and in the mass media. Take a look at this TED Talk released last year, in which the speaker chides us: “Let’s be mature about pedophilia.”
The speaker, Madeleine Van Der Bruggen, makes the case that pedophilia is simply a sexual orientation that can be neither chosen nor changed. She appeals us to “stop with the hate!” (sound familiar?). She argues that everybody probably knows someone with a pedophilic interest. And, really, they’re just like you. Most don’t talk about it because it’s illegal. Imagine, she asks, if you’re told you could never act on your passion? She implores us to imagine “how lonely” that must be.
Yet another TED talk from another young female pushed the same argument. But that talk was taken down by TED, at the request of the speaker. You can still access it here.
The academic literature is also getting much bolder by publishing increasing numbers of articles in support of both avenues: designation as sexual orientation and re-considering age of consent. Perhaps most shocking to people of conscience is the December 2018 article by convicted British child molester Tom O’Carroll that was published in the peer-reviewed journal Sexuality and Culture. More on that later.
In arguments to push social acceptance of adult sex with prepubescent children you will find nearly an exact parallel to all of the arguments for all manner of “progressive” causes, including, of course, LGBT preferences.
There has also been a rash of publishing in popular magazines. The idea of the “virtuous pedophile” was unveiled in Todd Nickerson’s Salon article “I’m a Pedophile, but not a Monster.” Salon actually removed the article, although it’s still archived on the internet. Nickerson says he would never act on his urge and never has. He also has a website called “Virtuous Pedophile,” ostensibly for helping celibate pedophiles resist their urges.
You can find an extensive bibliography of such articles in popular media if you don’t mind visiting the “virtuous pedophile” website. Typical titles include a 2016 New York Magazine article, “What’s it like to be a celibate pedophile?” or a 2016 Vice article entitled “Realizing You’re a Pedophile Can Make you Want to Kill Yourself.” Then there’s the “born that way” defense, as discussed in this BBC news item entitled “Are Paedophiles’ Brains Wired Differently?”
Born This Way Shouldn’t Seal the Deal
I don’t question the need for people to get the help they need to avoid engaging in destructive behaviors. We should all have mercy for those who struggle, especially people who feel utterly rejected and demonized by society, particularly if they want to regulate any wild urges that would hurt others, especially kids.
The sad irony is that when people feel so marginalized and dehumanized, especially if they are unnecessarily barraged with humiliations, when they finally get what they want they tend to take revenge. They cannot distinguish between kind people of goodwill who have legitimate critiques of their demands and the bullies who embittered them in the past.
So be prepared: simply having an opposite opinion will get you marked as an enemy, even if you always treated every human being with compassion and dignity. If you cave to political correctness, you are allowing your goodwill to be weaponized against all you stand for.
So here we are. The argument in all of the above is that pedophilia is a sexual orientation that is not chosen. So if we accept it as such, wouldn’t any therapist who didn’t affirm the orientation be accused of “conversion therapy?” Would pedophiles even be permitted to get help?
Finally, whether or not you want to believe the warnings of former child actor Corey Feldman, there can be no doubt that Hollywood has a good share of pedophiles. “An Open Secret” is a 2015 documentary about it by Amy Berg. We should not be surprised in the future when Hollywood gives pedophilia a final Caitlyn Jenner-styled juggernaut to push it all over the top. Again, it’s all about the timing.
APA Will Ultimately Decide How to Classify Pedophilia
Just as the American Psychiatric Association (APA) re-classified gender identity disorder to gender identity dysphoria, it also tinkered with classifying pedophilia in its fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V.) As the psycho-bible of mental disorders, the DSM has always been the go-to source for making the sexual revolution the law of the land. Its reclassifications of homosexuality and transgenderism are really just the beginning.
There is no reason other than timing to think it won’t do the same for pedophilia. Currently, the DSM makes a distinction between pedophilia as a paraphilia (a desire not acted upon) versus “pedophilic disorder” (actual child molestation.) But the lines in society sure feel like they’re blurring.
In 2013 the APA “erroneously” referred to pedophilia as a sexual orientation on page 698 of the first printing of the DSM-V. After a public outcry, the APA said it would correct the error in subsequent printings, changing the term “sexual orientation” to “sexual interest.” Their public relations folks also added for good measure that the APA still considers acts of pedophilic disorder to be criminal.
Okay. But ask yourself this: With all of the meticulous attention the APA applies to every controversial aspect of the DSM, and the bated breath the news media holds for any new edition, how exactly does a reference to pedophilia as a “sexual orientation” end up in there by accident?
Sadly, the error smells more like a trial balloon. Both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association have long been politicized to promote every outgrowth of the sexual revolution. Groupthink is deeply embedded in both organizations.
Bottom line here: if you track the promotion of pedophilia in academia and the media, all that remains is for the medical establishment to officially proclaim that pedophilia is a sexual orientation. Then anti-discrimination laws kick in to protect it in its entirety, and children are at the mercy of some judge’s interpretation of “penumbras” to determine what constitutes harm.
The Farce of a Child’s ‘Right to Choose’
The other turning point in legalizing pedophilia would come with repeated claims in public discourse that prepubescent kids can enjoy and consent to sexual relationships with adults. Furthermore, denying children this avenue of expression with adults, the argument goes, violates their civil rights.
Perhaps the biggest bombshell recently is that December 2018 article mentioned above, written by convicted child molester Tom O’Carroll in the peer reviewed journal Sexuality and Culture. The title of the article is “Childhood ‘Innocence’ is not Ideal: Virtue Ethics and Child-Adult Sex.” At the outset, he puts the word “innocence” in scare quotes. If you don’t want too much of a soak in that sewer, you can look over a good review of O’Carroll’s demented reasoning in Justin Lee’s article written in Arc, “The Pedophile Apologist,” or see Rod Dreher’s commentary.
In his article, O’Carroll masquerades as a philosopher. He takes on Kant and Aristotle. Like a Chihuahua barking furiously at the ocean, O’Carroll also attempts to bash the impeccable scholarship of Sir Roger Scruton.
O’Carroll’s goal is to make the case that pedophilia is simply a sexual orientation that should have all the protections of anti-discrimination laws for other sexualities. He tries to appeal to the same litany of arguments that subjects children to early sexualization and to the transgender curriculum: that kids can decide for themselves how to express themselves and shouldn’t be denied a choice in how they identify—no matter how young they are.
He lets loose a panoply of arguments strongly suggesting we should lower or abolish the age of consent: that children shouldn’t be denied any form of sexual expression; that allowing them the full range of sexual expression actually promotes their flourishing and development; and that stigmatizing pedophilia is in the same class as stigmatizing people on the basis of their race, sex, religion, or, naturally, their sexual orientation, which he argues pedophilia is. To object to any of the above is, in a word, “hate.” (Sound familiar?)
So get used to it: the goal is to frame pedophilia as a human right, redirecting your attention away from the adult and reframing it as a child’s right to sexual expression. If the child claims to consent, who are you to get in his or her way? Hence, every child becomes fair game for child molesters, especially if the child can be persuaded and influenced to say he or she consented.
Worse is that there are recent studies by Bruce Rind published in the academic journal The Archives of Sexual Behavior, claiming there is no long-term harm to adult sex with children. (As O’Carroll also claims, the positive effects on children is a growing field of inquiry.) You can read about it in a 2017 Public Discourse article by Mark Regnerus. Otherwise, the silence is deafening.
The issue of consent has been made murky, especially when trying to clarify cases of he-said-she-said in accusations of sexual harassment or assault. But if you accept the claim that children can consent to sex with adults, then it seems we must now take their word for it, and never question if that “consent” was coerced.
In addition, our society seems increasingly ignorant about the causes and effects of undue influence caused by a disparity in power between two actors in a relationship. Any substantive discussion of this element in human dynamics is fading fast. Yet it ought to be common knowledge. Undue influence is a cult-like dynamic to which children are particularly vulnerable.
The ‘Equality Act’ Would Protect Pedophilia
Just about all of today’s so-called “anti-discrimination” laws include sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) classifications. Once pedophilia is classified as a sexual orientation, then it’s protected under that umbrella, which covers all areas of life: employment, education, medicine, housing, business, military, even the parish life of churches, family life, and much more.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced that a big priority for this Congress is to get the “Equality Act” passed. So the big question is this: If pedophilia is ever classified as a sexual orientation, wouldn’t the Equality Act afford it federal protection? Seems logical. What am I missing here?
If that happens, then any objection to a known pedophile teaching at any level in any school or daycare center would have to be considered illegal discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
There can be no doubt pedophilia will eventually be officially classified as a “sexual orientation” if more people don’t grow some spine. You don’t have to be a master of logic to understand that once that happens, then expressions of disapproval will be deemed illegal discrimination.
So, are you going to be one of the folks in the morning show audience applauding the sexualization of your child? Will you just get used to it? Or will you take a stand? Time is running out.
You Bigoted Pedophobe!
No person of conscience can allow this sinister pedophilia project to gain any more momentum. If we do, it will produce an unexpected avalanche of comings-out with an aggressive campaign complete with poster children (and their parents!) to support it. This is no more a conspiracy theory than to say the same thing about the transgender project in 2014. It’s pure logic, and it’s totally in keeping with our society’s trajectory.
So if you’re not all in with pedophilia, prepare for the smear campaign. Today “pedophobia” is defined simply as a fear of children in the same sense that acrophobia means a fear of heights. But it could easily take on a new meaning as our culture sinks ever lower.
Consider this: If pedophilia is ever normalized, what are the chances that the word “pedophobia” and the term “pedophobe” will be used as slurs against people who disapprove? Against churches that disapprove? Could they be used in the same way the terms “homophobia” and “transphobia” are used as slurs today?
Of course. In this scenario, if you express reservations about sexual activity between pre-pubescent children and adults, you will be publicly shamed and silenced as a “pedophobe” for doing so. A bigot. A hater.
For those just waking up, we’re not in Kansas anymore. We’re on a speeding train through the Twilight Zone. And the hyper-suggestibility of most folks in this age of internet-induced mass delusion will get us there even faster.
We’ve become a nation of complete squishes because all that matters to most people is how they think they’re perceived in social circles. The fear of the smear is in high gear today, generating a pandemic of moral cowardice. It’s infecting state legislators who ought to know better. It’s infecting judges who ought to know better—and teachers, journalists, even parents. Sadly, there are many who really don’t know better and simply try to maintain the social status they think they’re afforded by political correctness.
It’s up to those who do know better—those who have an active conscience—to speak up, and to stare down the smear artists in propaganda journalism, pop culture, and academia who’ve been stoking that cowardice. Too few people publicly take unpopular stances anymore, and when they do they pay a highly inflated price for it only because no one else joins them.
There are too many cowards who apologize for being right, too many who self-censor out of fear of social rejection. That’s exactly the dynamic that will fast-track trends like the normalization of pedophilia.
We have no choice but to stop accommodating political correctness, no matter the price. Its movement in the shadows has all the hallmarks of an impending ambush. People of goodwill must do all they can to stop the momentum of this pedophilia project in its tracks. Otherwise, it will destroy children and childhood together.
