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Why Pedophiles Matter
Aug. 3rd, 2007 11:28 amAs Livejournal begins the second iteration of Strikethrough '07 in the latest and greatest arena for the culture wars I think that there's an important issue that isn't being considered despite its relationship to many things we're seeing in America.
The concept of a social bellwether or coal mine canary isn't new - in Western History there have always been groups of people whose mistreatment foretell ever increasing abuses for members of a society. These are the groups who it is easy to begin mistreating because there will be no public outcry for their lives or liberty, building up precedent and mutual consent until it seems obvious that everyone should be stripped of one or the other.
From the Pax Romana to the end of the Second World War one of these groups in European societies were Jews. They lived in segregated communities even when they didn't have to, they refused to assent to the Christianity which was the framework of law and social institutions in Europe for centuries, and they were distinctive in language and dress. The Jews were, in many ways, like perpetual immigrants, and thus were easy targets in Europe. Yet as the Jews became more willing to adapt to the society around them, and eventually as many left Europe for the promise of a new homeland in Israel, the status of Jews as the first ones to go has been passed on to others, and we're seeing the undercutting of those rights and attacks on those communities, and as with so many attacks before, they aren't part of the public consciousness.
For America in the 21st century our canaries are other highly identifiable groups seen as less than authentically American. Modern ire is turned on Muslims, Mexican Immigrants, and Queers
rather than Jews, Blacks, Irish Catholics, and, um, still Queers, but I do not believe that it started with any of those groups. For this modern version of an ancient dance, I think there's a clear group of people to whom we can trace the first steps, and that's Pedophiles.
Someone who sexually assaults a child is a criminal, and there is a special place in Hell they keep nice and hot for the misery and torture of such wretched souls. Even I, who am in this very entry standing up for the rights of pedophiles believe that. The greatest wrath that we as a community can muster is toward those who do or seek to do harm to children.
So it's easy for some tough on crime Governor or State Legislator to propose that once we're done putting in mandatory minima and other rules that pervert the system of justice, we should pass a brand new law. This law would require that people who have been convicted of a sex crime against children should be required to report to the government where they live, what kind of job they do, and how they spend their time, despite having paid their debt to society without this being part of the sentence imposed by a Judge. Furthermore, this information will be public, and people will be encouraged to consult a database to check up on their neighbors.
It's almost perfect. Simple, elegant - Hitler would be proud of a law like that. It increases unwarranted suspicion, it chips away at civil liberties, and it's directed at a group of people which everyone believes ought to suffer. It's unconstitutional, and it's cruel, but nobody cares because these are child-raping bastards who deserve what they get.
Once that's firmly set in the minds of the people, the law gets expanded to all sex crimes, because if there's anything that comes close to a child molester on the evil scale, it's a rapist. Now, the fact this law also covers the 18-year-old High School senior who sleeps with the 15-year-old sophomore when they both consented or someone convicted on flimsy evidence by an overeager jury is totally irrelevant.
You can see how these laws can get expanded out. People conflate Homosexuality and Pederasty, and all of the sudden you can't trust gay people. And more than that, you wonder why we don't make them register, to keep people safe. Sexual deviancy is something to fear because deviants might hurt your kids. That's why Gay Marriage should be illegal - it would legitimize the deviants that the Law and Order types (and no, I don't just mean Fred Thompson) are trying to vilify.
The lack of legal protections for criminals makes it easy to illegally target urban youth with status offenses and enhancements and adult court to try to curb gang violence, or to target illegal immigrants. The nature of the crime you have to commit lessens with each new "tough on crime" law. Now there are proposals to require legal immigrants to carry state-issued ID and to present it to government officials upon request. It's not hard to see what that one goes - mandatory school IDs, and eventually mandatory National ID Cards for all citizens of what was supposed to be a Free Republic.
Why else do we need ID cards? To stop terrorists. And who are the terrorists? Muslims. The media is willingly propagating the notion that Islam is a necessarily violent and anti-American religion and fostering the distrust Americans have for the hijab. A suspected terrorist is at least as bad as a suspected illegal immigrant, so now we should be suspicious of Islam by zoning out Mosques and shunning Muslims.
There would have been a time when I would sound like a raving nut for outlining that slippery slope. But we're seeing it in our own societies. I don't know whether it really started with Sex Offender Registration laws or with some other policy designed to make people afraid. I don't even know if the people who set us on this path did so intentionally. But I do know it's to the point that Marvel Comics is writing about wars over registration of a minority group that nobody trusts, and that everyone is nervous. We're fighting wars and hate our government even as we stand poised to elect the same crap politicians we got to pick from last time, and the time before that, and the time before that.
Our leaders are standing in the Congress shouting about security and profit while subjugating the people with fear and want. And in the Capital the enshrined images of our forgotten forefathers - Priests and Presidents, Orators and Generals - weep, not recognizing the country they sought to create.
The concept of a social bellwether or coal mine canary isn't new - in Western History there have always been groups of people whose mistreatment foretell ever increasing abuses for members of a society. These are the groups who it is easy to begin mistreating because there will be no public outcry for their lives or liberty, building up precedent and mutual consent until it seems obvious that everyone should be stripped of one or the other.
From the Pax Romana to the end of the Second World War one of these groups in European societies were Jews. They lived in segregated communities even when they didn't have to, they refused to assent to the Christianity which was the framework of law and social institutions in Europe for centuries, and they were distinctive in language and dress. The Jews were, in many ways, like perpetual immigrants, and thus were easy targets in Europe. Yet as the Jews became more willing to adapt to the society around them, and eventually as many left Europe for the promise of a new homeland in Israel, the status of Jews as the first ones to go has been passed on to others, and we're seeing the undercutting of those rights and attacks on those communities, and as with so many attacks before, they aren't part of the public consciousness.
For America in the 21st century our canaries are other highly identifiable groups seen as less than authentically American. Modern ire is turned on Muslims, Mexican Immigrants, and Queers
rather than Jews, Blacks, Irish Catholics, and, um, still Queers, but I do not believe that it started with any of those groups. For this modern version of an ancient dance, I think there's a clear group of people to whom we can trace the first steps, and that's Pedophiles.
Someone who sexually assaults a child is a criminal, and there is a special place in Hell they keep nice and hot for the misery and torture of such wretched souls. Even I, who am in this very entry standing up for the rights of pedophiles believe that. The greatest wrath that we as a community can muster is toward those who do or seek to do harm to children.
So it's easy for some tough on crime Governor or State Legislator to propose that once we're done putting in mandatory minima and other rules that pervert the system of justice, we should pass a brand new law. This law would require that people who have been convicted of a sex crime against children should be required to report to the government where they live, what kind of job they do, and how they spend their time, despite having paid their debt to society without this being part of the sentence imposed by a Judge. Furthermore, this information will be public, and people will be encouraged to consult a database to check up on their neighbors.
It's almost perfect. Simple, elegant - Hitler would be proud of a law like that. It increases unwarranted suspicion, it chips away at civil liberties, and it's directed at a group of people which everyone believes ought to suffer. It's unconstitutional, and it's cruel, but nobody cares because these are child-raping bastards who deserve what they get.
Once that's firmly set in the minds of the people, the law gets expanded to all sex crimes, because if there's anything that comes close to a child molester on the evil scale, it's a rapist. Now, the fact this law also covers the 18-year-old High School senior who sleeps with the 15-year-old sophomore when they both consented or someone convicted on flimsy evidence by an overeager jury is totally irrelevant.
You can see how these laws can get expanded out. People conflate Homosexuality and Pederasty, and all of the sudden you can't trust gay people. And more than that, you wonder why we don't make them register, to keep people safe. Sexual deviancy is something to fear because deviants might hurt your kids. That's why Gay Marriage should be illegal - it would legitimize the deviants that the Law and Order types (and no, I don't just mean Fred Thompson) are trying to vilify.
The lack of legal protections for criminals makes it easy to illegally target urban youth with status offenses and enhancements and adult court to try to curb gang violence, or to target illegal immigrants. The nature of the crime you have to commit lessens with each new "tough on crime" law. Now there are proposals to require legal immigrants to carry state-issued ID and to present it to government officials upon request. It's not hard to see what that one goes - mandatory school IDs, and eventually mandatory National ID Cards for all citizens of what was supposed to be a Free Republic.
Why else do we need ID cards? To stop terrorists. And who are the terrorists? Muslims. The media is willingly propagating the notion that Islam is a necessarily violent and anti-American religion and fostering the distrust Americans have for the hijab. A suspected terrorist is at least as bad as a suspected illegal immigrant, so now we should be suspicious of Islam by zoning out Mosques and shunning Muslims.
There would have been a time when I would sound like a raving nut for outlining that slippery slope. But we're seeing it in our own societies. I don't know whether it really started with Sex Offender Registration laws or with some other policy designed to make people afraid. I don't even know if the people who set us on this path did so intentionally. But I do know it's to the point that Marvel Comics is writing about wars over registration of a minority group that nobody trusts, and that everyone is nervous. We're fighting wars and hate our government even as we stand poised to elect the same crap politicians we got to pick from last time, and the time before that, and the time before that.
Our leaders are standing in the Congress shouting about security and profit while subjugating the people with fear and want. And in the Capital the enshrined images of our forgotten forefathers - Priests and Presidents, Orators and Generals - weep, not recognizing the country they sought to create.
