Catering to the Easily Offended is destroying justice and liberty. The Age of Enlightenment has been replaced by the Age of Stupid. Faith, passion, and feelings have become more important than facts, truth, and freedom. Microaggressions, trigger words, mansplaining, libtard, masculinist, and other idiotic manifestations of meaningless psychobabble have perverted communication. Intelligent conversation is on the verge of extinction.
If we don’t stop paying homage to delicate snowflakes, the Galactic Federation of Worlds, if it exists, has very likely put a warning beacon around our planet to discourage any approaching extraterrestrials who might want to establish friendly relations with us that says: “Stop! Turn back. All have gone nuts.”
The word crusade first appeared during the Middle Ages (5th century-14th century). It is derived “from the Latin word ‘crux’ which means ‘cross.’ A crusade is a war fought under the sign of the cross.” A March 2020 article in The Conversation explained that the word crusade has acquired multiple meanings over the centuries. In today’s world, it’s defined as a noble cause against injustice by fanatics and extremists on the authoritarian left and as “the eternal fight between good and evil” by religious fanatics and extremists on the authoritarian right.
For the past 150 years there have been crusades (wars) against poverty, unemployment, racism, sexism, booze, gun ownership, drugs, terrorism, hate speech, drunk driving, and diseases like polio and cancer. But the whackiest and most insane of all crusades has been the anti-sex crusades or moral panics. These include campaigns against pornography, prostitution, comic books, rock & roll, rap music, gays, drag queens, transsexuals, public nudity, dirty words, and sexual predators which usually, but not always, wind up being men.
Many people are so repressed and puritanical that any expression of sexuality gives them the heebie-jeebies. For these people, sex must be invisible. It is so vile that it cannot be seen. The Judeo-Christian teaching that sex is dirty and sinful is the linchpin of all anti-sex crusades, regardless of what form they take. But we need to be willing to look at the harm these anti-sex crusades have caused and not blindly cheer whenever they get unjust laws and policies enacted.
The asexual child crusade
We hear the following moralistic prattle all the time: let kids be kids. Let them have a childhood. They’re too young to know about or see that. Childhood and virginity are referred to as innocence. This implies that kids are guilty of something if they engage in or are exposed to any kind of sexual activity. Only “family friendly” events and “movies for the entire family”, as in NO SEX, are deemed appropriate for impressionable, immature children.
We can’t even have a rational discussion about kids and sex because too many people have been conditioned to go loony-tunes at the mere thought. Mention kids and sex to these people and their eyeballs pop out, smoke comes out of their nostrils, they foam at the mouth, their hair catches fire, and they run around like Chicken Little yelling: “kill, kill, kill.” Anyone who questions their paranoid concept of reality is labeled a pedophile or a Satanist. There is no reasoning with them.
A 2013 article by Jeff Faux of the Economic Policy Institute entitled: “Socialized Medicine: The Horror Movie” put it this way:
“Effective Propaganda not only stops the conversation, it stops thought. Once you are convinced of the presence of unfathomable evil, there is no need to try to fathom it. The mind becomes safely barricaded against reality.”
So, let’s lower the barricades and face the fact that children are sexual beings. They have sexual feelings and desires from infancy to adolescence. According to the NCTSN (National Child Traumatic Stress Network) and the NCSBY (National Center on the Sexual Behavior of Youth) at the University of Oklahoma:
“Very young preschool-aged children (four or younger) are naturally immodest, and may display open—and occasionally startling—curiosity about other people’s bodies and bodily functions, such as touching women’s breasts. Or wanting to watch when grownups go to the bathroom. Wanting to be naked (even if others are not) and showing or touching private parts while in public are also common in young children…In other words, normal child development involves some degree of behavior focused on sexual body parts and curiosity about sexual behavior. Sex play occurs between children of similar ages and abilities…They may play dress up as people of the opposite sex…Most sexual play is an expression of children’s natural curiosity and should not be a cause for concern or alarm.”
As a child, I never remember not being sexually curious. I had my first girlfriend when I was three years old. She was also three and lived next door to me. But I was two months older. I can still remember us walking down the street holding hands. Our parents joked about us getting married when we grew up. I still have a picture of us standing under the weeping willow tree in my parent’s backyard. Don’t worry, we aren’t naked. My next girlfriend was when I went to kindergarten. We were both five. But she lived around the block. It was my first long-distance relationship.
From first grade to high school, I had crushes on girls my age and on some of my teachers as well as movie stars. And I was always attracted to women who were a lot older than me. It was all good.
In a 2009 study, the American Academy of Pediatrics pointed out that while children enjoy masturbating and that some will also put “their tongue in another’s mouth while kissing” and like to touch the genitals of adults and other animals, “Such behaviors do not necessarily imply the child has been sexually abused.” But these “Normal sexual behaviors usually diminish or become less apparent with redirection or admonishment from the parent.”
On the other hand, “Children who reside in homes in which there is family nudity, cobathing, or less privacy when dressing, going to the bathroom, or bathing or in which sexual activities are occurring openly are more likely to openly engage in sexual behaviors. Similarly, children from homes with readily accessible pornographic materials or poor supervision of children’s access to such materials may use age-inappropriate sexual language and be more prone to engage others in sexual play.”
A 2012 article in the US Government’s National Library of Medicine explained that the whole idea of protecting children from anything sexual originated in the 18th century. Prior to that, due to the religious belief in “original sin”, children were considered “evil, naturally wicked and corrupt.” A strict upbringing was endorsed “to form children into healthy and moral human beings.” Doctors and the clergy preached that children who masturbated were “morally, physically and mentally diseased and eventually doomed.”
But Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rosseau (1712-1778) took a different approach. He “rejected the old idea of children’s original sin and believed in their general sexual innocence” because they weren’t aware of shame. He argued that making children aware of things that were shameful and immodest would imbue them with a desire to do those things. Hence, “children were best to be segregated from the dangerous influence of modern society, particularly in cities, and be kept under surveillance by parents and educators.” This protect the child from sex ideology eventually shifted to enforcement by the government and the legal system.
It’s also important to understand that, as explained by the Oedipus and Electra complex, the parent-child relationship is sexual in nature. For example, breastfeeding.
A 2015 Yahoo news article reported that a huge number of mothers, from 33-50 percent, get sexually aroused while breastfeeding their children—some even have orgasms. This is due to the release of two chemicals: “prolactin, which stimulates milk production, and oxytocin. The latter is the ‘love’, “feel good’ or ‘cuddle’ hormone that a woman’s brain releases…” Scientists and academics explain that sexual arousal while breastfeeding is “completely natural” and “nothing to be ashamed of.” But due to our uptight sexually repressed culture a lot of women are ashamed and many won’t breastfeed their kids, which as reported by the WHO (World Health Organization) helps a child to be a lot healthier. Breastmilk “contains antibodies which help protect against many common childhood illnesses…Breastfed children perform better on intelligence tests, are less likely to be overweight or obese and less prone to diabetes later in life. Women who breastfeed also have a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancers.”
A 2015 article in Today explains that it’s perfectly healthy to breastfeed toddlers up to four years old and older. “More breast-feeding equals more benefits…the only downside to breast-feeding through toddlerhood is social stigma” in countries like the US. In many other parts of the world no one bats an eyelash. As for those who claim that prolonged breast-feeding makes children dependent wussies, “studies show that breast-feeding in general is associated with greater independence and psychological adjustment in children.”
And as explained in this article, “breastfeeding toddlers usually have fewer temper tantrums and other discipline problems, because the normal frustrations young children face are soothed by a quick breastfeeding session.”
And to those who find naked female breasts offensive and want to prevent children from seeing them activate some brain cells. Since the female breast is first and foremost a milk-producing gland, how can the sight of a pair of tits harm a child? If men can go topless in public, why can’t women? The prevailing notion in countries like America that fat hairy old men can go topless in public, but beautiful women like Scarlett Johansson and Gal Gadot can’t, not only defies common sense, but does away with every esthetic concept of beauty that’s been established over the entire course of human history.
Thanks to the pioneering work of people like psychiatrist Albert Moll (1862-1939), anthropologist and the Father of Field Research Bronislaw Malinokski (1884-1942), neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), and psychiatrist and sexologist Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957), the harm of repressing children’s natural sexual impulses and the real reason for doing so were made known.
To quote a 2010 article in Psychology Today:
“Nothing inspires murderous mayhem in human beings more reliably than sexual repression…if expression of sexuality is thwarted, the human psyche tends to grow twisted into grotesque, enraged perversions of desire. Unfortunately, the distorted rage resulting from sexual repression rarely takes the form of rebellion against the people and institutions behind the repression. Instead, the rage is generally directed at helpless victims who are sacrificed to the sick gods of guilt, shame, and ignorant pride.”
In his book The Mass Psychology of Fascism, Wilhelm Reich explained that when children are forced to repress their sexual feelings, they unconsciously become afraid of them and develop what he called “pleasure anxiety.” This fear of pleasure, which causes enormous rage and displaced expressions of anger, also inhibits critical thinking faculties and creates a fear of authority, which is maintained by chronic muscular tensions in the body that Reich called “armoring.” Thus, “the goal of sexual repression is that of producing an individual who is adjusted to the authoritarian order and who will submit to it in spite of all misery and degradation…The result is fear of freedom, and a conservative, reactionary mentality” as well as “an interest in actively supporting the authoritarian order.”
Reich also explained that the primary breeding ground for authoritarian anti-sexual attitudes isn’t religion or schools, but the patriarchal family unit. Reactionary authoritarians, especially on the right, understand this, which is why they attack sexual expression and different lifestyles so vehemently. Sexual liberation threatens the social order and family unit that they are neurotically attached to. Reich emphasized that the authoritarian family has nothing to do with love and nurturing between parent and child. Instead, it gets in the way of that and crushes the child’s individuality and spirit. Is it any wonder that we live in a world full of submissive sheep who put masks on their faces, line up to get experimental drugs, and obey their lords and masters without question? Obviously, this doesn’t apply to everyone who had a sexually repressive upbringing. There is a small percentage of strong individualists who will stand up and resist tyranny regardless of how they were raised.
The extending childhood crusade
Why do we want to stop underage teenagers from having sex? What’s the point? Nature determines that they are capable of having sex and bearing children. Who are we to say that nature is wrong? Back in 1926, my grandmother got married at fifteen. My girlfriend, in 2006, was born in 1949. She dated her teacher when she was in high school. They didn’t sneak around, her parents gave permission. The former brother-in-law of my first wife from her first marriage was a high school teacher who married one of his students. They had three children. And let’s not forget Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, two of the most famous lovers of all time. Juliet was only thirteen years old when she eloped with Romeo.
The medical definition of a child is “the human young from infancy to puberty.” The Merrian Webster Dictionary defines child the same way, but adds: “a person not yet of the age of majority”, or of legal age, which in most countries and US states is 18. But there are other rights that can still be withheld, such as drinking, which in the US is 21. So, legally and politically, which are artificial social constructs, a teenager is still a child and calls to protect children include them even though they aren’t children. Goofy, isn’t it?
But wait, it gets goofier. If minors are not supposed to be ready for sex, how come many US states allow them to marry, in most cases with parental permission, even if they’re as young as 10 as reported in this article? Why can kids handle sex and their older partners aren’t pedophiles if they tie the knot?
Contrary to popular belief, being attracted to teenage minors isn’t pedophilia. The Global Prevention Project defines pedophile as “an individual attracted to a pre-pubescent child.” A hebephile is “an individual attracted to a pubescent child (11-14)”, an ephebophile is “an individual attracted to a post-pubescent child (i.e., a teen, 15-19).” Are they serious? 18-19 year olds are children? And I won’t even bother with the other psychobabble definitions self-appointed geniuses come up with to describe sexual attraction to kids and teens. If you’re curious, look it up in an online dictionary. Just keep a bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol on hand in case you get a headache.
Under today’s age of consent laws in the US, you’re guilty of statutory rape even if the person lied about their age and you can’t tell how old they really are. I’ve seen gals at ages 12, 13, and 14 who were as busty and curvy as women who are 18 and older. Some were almost as tall as me and I’m 6′. Luckily, I don’t need to have sex with teenagers. At my age, I might not survive such a sexual encounter. But with all the oppressive laws, it’s a good thing that I prefer older women, so I have no trouble avoiding sex with teenage minors. But I’m not going to apologize for being attracted to them. I’m not going to walk up to a young girl and ask how old she is to see if it’s okay to be attracted to her. One can’t control love or sexual attraction—only whether or not it is acted upon.
But the big question is: are minor teenagers always traumatized and exploited if they have sex with adults? A 2021 article in Phoenix New Times, “11 Rock Stars Who allegedly Slept With Underage Girls” definitively answers that question:
“Some of the girls—who are now grown women—linked to the men on this list have steadfastly maintained that their relationships with rock stars were consensual and overall positive experiences in their lives.”
For example, rock star David Bowie (1947-2016). Lori Maddox lost her virginity to him in 1972 when she was 14 and he was 25. Maddox and her 15-year-old friend Sable Starr then had a threesome with Bowie. Maddox said that she “doesn’t have any regrets about her experience with Bowie” and continued to see him on and off for the next 10 years.
Of course, the article points out that other women did not have positive experiences. But is that really surprising? Bad sex and, unfortunately, even rape happen in some adult-on-adult situations. Should we ban heterosexual sex between adults because of it?
We often hear about the dangers of teenage minors having sex. Unwanted pregnancy and venereal disease are wielded like clubs. Abstinence-only education programs are pushed in the US, but have been an abysmal failure as documented in this 2017 report by Columbia University. “Over half of U.S. teens have had sexual intercourse by age 18”, according to a 2018 report by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). But what about the benefits of teenagers having sex?
A 2016 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health dared to tackle that taboo question and found that “Higher sexual health was significantly associated with less frequent nicotine and substance use, lower self-reported depression…higher self-esteem…lower frequency of delinquent behavior and crime… Positive sexually related experiences in romantic relationships during adolescence may complement physical, mental/emotional, and social health.”
Nevertheless, yet another bogeyman is being promoted to stop kids and teenagers from having sex: an underdeveloped brain. The University of Rochester Medical Center reports that teenagers are immature because the human brain isn’t fully developed until the age of 25. This can lead to impulsive and emotional decisions rather than logical ones, according to this article in Mental Health Daily. But a 2017 article in Smithsonian Magazine disagrees and explains that “Brain deficits don’t make teens do risky things; lack of experience and a drive to explore the world are the real factors.”
And I can tell you from lots of dating and other life experiences, that there are plenty of people from 20 to 70 who aren’t mature enough to have sex. As far as I’m concerned, adults are just big kids. Some are more like big babies. Age doesn’t guarantee maturity or wisdom. And to quote astrophysicist Brian Keating: “Science doesn’t belong to any ideology…science has to be about pursuing knowledge—not about advancing a social agenda, no matter how noble it might be.”
The get the pedophiles crusade
Murdering, raping, abusing, and exploiting children are horrible crimes so heinous that words are inadequate to describe them. Obviously, there are plenty of victims of sexual abuse, rape, sexual molestation in childhood, and human trafficking. But all of our kids are not in danger of being sex trafficked, abducted, or murdered by strangers. A small percentage are, but the overwhelming majority are not as reported in this 2019 study and in this 2010 study in ReaseachGate.
In most cases, children are molested and abused by a parent, a relative, or other people that they know as reported in this University of New Hampshire study. In other words, anyone can be a child molester. For example, 18 years ago, I had a girlfriend who was molested and later raped by her father from the time she was six until the time she was seventeen. He was an elder in his Christian church and a respected member of his New Jersey community. He was also long dead before her and I met, so don’t go looking for him. In spite of this, and the fact that she hated him, she decided not to have him arrested and ran a support group for women who had been molested and raped as children.
But there are also victims who have been falsely accused of rape and child molestation. People who’s lives have been ruined. People who have spent years in prison are still in prison, or who are on sex offender registries.
For example, in 1985, 22 year old Margaret Kelly Michaels, a teacher’s aide at a New Jersey Day Care Nursery was falsely accused of sexually abusing and molesting twenty children. On April 15, 1988, a jury convicted her of 115 counts of sexual abuse against 19 children between three and five years old. Three months later, the judge sentenced her to 47 years in prison.
The charges against Michaels were outlandish. Children testified that she licked peanut butter off their genitals, played piano in the nude, had naked kids pile on top of her while she was nude, and penetrated their rectums and vaginas with a rectal thermometer, kitchen utensils, and Lego blocks. Some of the kids testified that she urinated in a bucket and drank it, and that she made them eat human poop. Naturally, it would have been impossible for her to have done any of this stuff without someone in the school noticing. But reality was ignored in favor of “Believe the children.”
Fortunately, the higher courts saw that Michaels was the victim of a witch hunt and overturned her conviction on the grounds that the children were manipulated into telling the authorities and so-called experts what they wanted to hear. But not before Michaels spent five years behind bars.
How were the children manipulated? Originally, they told authorities that they liked Michaels and she did nothing wrong. But this was labeled “the denial phase.” Investigators used anatomically correct dolls, suggestive questions, told them that other kids revealed her misdeeds, that she was in jail, and continued to pressure them until they started saying and believing what the investigators wanted them to say and believe. Their parents were given symptom charts and were asked to report anything that might be indicative of past sexual abuse like nightmares and wetting the bed. Naturally, some of these common occurrences were reported.
Bottom line: children make lousy witnesses. Numerous studies have shown that children are highly suggestible and that they “can speak sincerely and emotionally about events that never occurred and appear much like children providing accurate reports…in particular false memory resulting from suggestion” as explained here and here. A 2020 article in Very Well Mind cited a study in which “suggestions were made that children had been lost in a shopping mall. Many of the children later came to believe that this was a real memory.” A 1997 study stated that “children’s false statements were quite convincing to professionals, who were unable to distinguish between true and false accounts.”
A 2010 Psychology Today article reported on, in my opinion a scam, called “Recovered Memory Syndrome…Many people, including adults, were actually told that if they didn’t remember being molested as a child, it was proof positive that they had been. Lawyers and law enforcement then joined the bandwagon and a full-fledged Witch-Hunt began.” The most prominent case was the McMartin Preschool Trials in the 1980s, which created a cottage industry of quacks who could find pedophiles everywhere. “Families were split asunder and reputations were ruined.” The article explained that memories “are very unreliable. And when it comes to repressed memories, you’ll do best to forget the whole thing.”
Sometimes children will lie without any adult coercion. For example, in 1994, my ex-girlfriend’s 11-year old daughter claimed that a man tried to molest her on her way to school. The police were called and they went looking for him. But the story didn’t sound right to her mother, so she called me over to talk with her daughter. I listened to her story and, gently and lovingly, pointed out all the holes in it. She finally broke down and in tears admitted that she had made up the story to get her mother to spend more time with her. I told her not to punish her daughter, but to hold her and comfort her, which we both did.
Since children, like adults, can lie and aren’t reliable witnesses, let’s try using some simple common sense. If a charge of sexual abuse or molestation is made, law enforcement should take it seriously and treat any alleged victim with empathy and compassion. But the cops should never just take a kid’s word for it and throw some poor slob in the hoosegow. So, if a kid claims that his therapist is sexually molesting him, wire the kid and see if the therapist admits to it. If a woman claims that her husband is sexually abusing their children, put a hidden video camera in the house for a few months and see if anything happens. It’s called actually working for a living.
Most of all, we need to get rid of the errors and false beliefs in this area. Here are some facts from the scientific literature: only a small percentage of adults who sexually molest children are pedophiles as reported in this 2014 study in the Journal of European Psychiatry. Many other studies report the same findings, like this 2011 scientific paper published by the Australian Government. Most child molesters and rapists are opportunists who will go after children sexually for a variety of other reasons as explained in this 2017 paper, which also points out “that not all pedophilic individuals act on their sexual urges”, as does this 2014 article in the New York Times.
When pedophiles do act on their sexual urges, “They often seek out significant non-sexual contact with children”, as reported in this 2001 article in Newsweek, which along with this MCHA report explains that a pedophile “rarely forces or coerces a child into sexual contact.” Some are content with just looking, watching children undress, and taking pictures. Others will “collect the nude-picture kind of child pornography rather than more vicious images of child rape, and many are happy with catalogs showing kids modeling underwear.” Pedophiles are also more religious than average.
Many studies in the scientific literature explain that a lot isn’t known because pedophiles are afraid to seek help. This is not only due to the severe social stigma, but because in many parts of the world, psychotherapists and even priests listening in a confessional must report that person to the police, as explained here and here. This ultimately puts more children at risk for sexual abuse as reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Another reason pedophiles don’t seek help is that they could wind up on sex offender registries, which are the modern equivalent of the kind of torture and public humiliation employed by the puritans. They don’t make communities or children any safer, as explained in this 2017 Johns Hopkins University report, and should be abolished, as reported in The Hill. Incidentally, the overwhelming majority of people on sex offender registries aren’t child molesters, rapists, and sex murderers as reported in this 2017 UCLA paper. Public urination, soliciting a prostitute, consensual sex between minors, even hugging someone can get you on the degenerate list as explained here.
And unfortunate and painful though it may be, there is no way to change the fact that there will always be a tiny percentage of children who will be sexually abused and murdered. This is something we have no control over. There are no silver bullets, crucifixes, cloves of garlic, punitive laws, or prayers to Jesus that are going to protect children from every evil that can possibly befall them. How I wish that it weren’t so.
The get the drag queens and transsexuals crusade
Let’s be honest, we judge who is male and who is female based on what we see. But appearances can be deceiving. I lived in the New York City area for most of my life, where I met many transsexuals and cross-dressers. I can tell you for a fact, in plenty of cases you will think that they’re biological females, which terrifies homophobic people. But for most religious conservatives, their problem with LGBTQ people boils down to their overall discomfort with sex.
People like this label drag queens who read stories to children groomers. They overly define child molestation, sexual harassment, and rape, which leads to the arrest and social ostracism of innocent people. They claim that transsexual athletes, who have been around since the 1970s, are ruining women’s sports. They lament the bodies of children and teenagers being mutilated by sexual reassignment surgery, but are silent about cutting off women’s breasts to prevent cancer. They are mortified at the thought of transsexuals in bathrooms and locker rooms. They also try to hide their bigotry behind science by labeling transsexuals mentally ill. A 2015 article in Psychology Today admitted that a “mental disorder” is usually an artificial “social construct.”
Ben Shapiro tried the bogus science argument on Neil deGrasse Tyson, a real scientist, in this video. Needless to say, it didn’t go too well for him.
What Dr. Tyson tried to get across to squeaky Ben is that anytime the government wants to oppress the rights of others in the guise of some noble cause like protecting children or preventing disease, it’s coming from a bad place. Don’t fall for it folks. The best way to protect children is by making sure that they live in a society that cherishes individual liberty.
This 2021 article on fundamentalism explains that “At its core, fundamentalism is characterized by a ‘radical simplification of complex questions and the inability to learn either from experience or from opposing views.” In other words, for narrow-minded bigots there is only one side of an issue: their side. In their minds, believing in God gives them the right to play God.
Listen up Bible-thumping right-wingers. If you want the freedom to raise your children as you see fit, then permit LGBTQ parents and parents who are LGBTQ friendly to raise their children as they see fit. If government can prohibit parents from taking their kids to Gay Pride events and drag shows, then it can force vaccinate your kids and put masks on their faces. You can’t have it both ways, people. Taking away the rights of some threatens the rights of all. Calls to protect children are an excuse to take your rights away. Don’t fall for it. Don’t contribute to your own oppression.
Unfortunately, too many people can be their own worst enemy. People in the LGBTQ community are no exception. Two examples of this are Blaire White, a totally passable transsexual woman who is utterly gorgeous, and a drag queen named Kitty Demure. Both are right-wingers on many issues, so when it comes to being your own worst enemy, these two tinkerbells take the cupcake. Here is White on her You Tube channel and Demure in this tirade condemning kids going to drag shows and Story Hours. Notice how Blaire White uses the word “inappropriate.” Snowflakes on both sides of the political spectrum love to throw it around like a frisbee. And may I ask who made either of them experts on bringing up baby?
What they are doing is using the “think of the children” fallacy, which is a variant of the “appeal to emotion” fallacy. It plays on people’s fear and instinct to protect children, which is designed to shut down all rational discussion and critical thinking. White and Demure are exploiting people’s fear. They are using shame and guilt to bully people into accepting their nonsensical and irrational point of view. Neither of them is offering a shred of proof for anything they say. For example, White is freaked out over a neon sign at one of the drag shows kids attended that said: “It’s not gonna lick itself.”
If any of you think that kids seeing that sign is so horrible, consider all of the violence governments in my country inflict on children. For example, cops arrest and brutalize kids every day, as shown in this video of a cop at a South Carolina school throwing a teenage girl on the floor and dragging her because she wouldn’t leave the room. Another example of how sick and twisted my country is: you can be as young as 17 to join the military and see blood and death and carnage and every atrocity imaginable—you even get to commit those atrocities. But in some US states, like Texas, you have to be 21 to enter or work in a strip club and see naked women. How utterly stupid is that?
And let’s not forget about sex offender registries. A 2016 article in The Hill reported that “For decades, our country has been putting children as young as 8 years old on sex offender registries. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are registered for things they did as kids.” Reason Magazine reported that the most common age people landed on the registry was 14. “Today, your child is more likely to end up on the registry than to be molested by someone on it.”
Among the horrible crimes kids and teens get charged with are child pornography for texting nude pictures of themselves, having sex with other teenage minors, a 12 year old boy for “inappropriately” touching his sister while playing doctor, two 14 year old boys for pulling down their pants and sitting on the faces of two 12 year old boys as a prank. For these things, they must register for life, can’t live or work in most places, must be constantly monitored by the state, are in danger of being murdered by sadistic vigilantes, and for these reasons are more prone to commit suicide, as reported in this 2017 Johns Hopkins University study.
Let’s also not forget about the clueless dimwits who want to arrest parents and take away their children for bringing them to Gay Pride events and drag shows. As explained in this 2018 study, ripping kids away from their parents is horribly traumatic and can cause severe emotional damage.
Let’s face it people, kids at a drag show looking at a neon sign that says “It’s Not Gonna Lick Itself” or even a sign that says “It’s gonna lick itself” pales by comparison to what the government can do to them. Let’s get some perspective here.
And understand that Gay Pride isn’t only about dancing on floats in outlandish costumes, public nudity, flying a rainbow flag, or remembering the persecution and suffering that the LGBTQ community has endured over the years. It’s also about recognizing and remembering that everyone has a right to be happy, love who they want to love, and the outstanding contribution that everyone can make in a society free of fear and prejudice.
Some final thoughts
It’s okay to have fears and prejudices as long as you recognize them for what they are and don’t allow yourself to be ruled by them. It’s okay to have strong beliefs. But a belief isn’t a fact. The only fact about a belief is the fact that you have a belief. It’s okay to be offended by something. But just because you’re offended doesn’t mean you’re right.
So, whenever you hear some authority figure spouting what they claim are moral or scientific truths, ask yourself the following: What if he’s just an asshole? What if he’s just an asshole with power? And the world is full of assholes with power, be they male, female or whatever else in between. It doesn’t matter how many diplomas are hanging on their wall, how many times they claim to have seen Jesus, or whatever other kind of pipeline they claim to have into the divine. It doesn’t change the fact that they are still assholes.
Stripped of our clothes, our titles, and our technology, we see what we really are: a bunch of naked dumb-ass apes. So, to all you easily offended moral crusaders, I give this commandment: go forth into the world, eat bananas, climb trees, monkey around, and for pity’s sake, leave everyone else alone.
Copyright by Michael J. Talmo 2022