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The first thing that comes to mind is the conservative movements growing obsessions with pedophilia, real and imagined. It has become the visceral hook that see

The first thing that comes to mind is the conservative movements growing obsessions with pedophilia, real and imagined. It has become the visceral hook that seems to emotionally motivate a lot of the far-right, not unlike abortion.

AnimalMuppet 3y ago
Let's stick with "real" for a moment. There is absolutely nothing about real pedophilia that makes it a far-right-only concern. In fact, with the left's concern about sexual abuse of women, they ought to also care about sexual abuse of minors.
- standardUser 3y ago
  You are asserting that people who are not far-right do not care about the abuse of minors, which is a nonsensical belief with no connection to reality and completely undermines whatever point you're trying to make. But it is a good example of the over-the-top rhetoric being used around this exact issue.
  - AnimalMuppet 3y ago
    I am not claiming what you say I am. You said: "It [pedophilia] has become the visceral hook that seems to emotionally motivate a lot of the far-right, not unlike abortion." I am claiming that pedophilia motivates many people, not just the far right. It is beyond me how you could misread that claim into something that would lead you to reply as you did. [Edit: My use of "ought to" may be the problem. The left, based on their positions, should be emotionally, viscerally motivated to oppose pedophilia. If they aren't, then that is an inconsistency in their position. But I think that they (or at least many of them) are motivated. So, to sum up, I'm not sure why you singled out the far-right in your initial statement.]
    - standardUser 3y ago
      "...they ought to also care about sexual abuse of minors." That implies they do not care about the sexual abuse of minors, but they ought to. "There is absolutely nothing about real pedophilia that makes it a far-right-only concern" And implying that anyone, anywhere would think that it is a "far-right only concern" is absurd framing. It's make-believe nonsense.
    - Dylan16807 3y ago
      Yes it's your use of ought to, and no there isn't an inconsistency. Being "emotionally, viscerally" motivated, to the extent that it's very obvious, tends to make people do stupid and counterproductive things. You shouldn't be demanding that. > I'm not sure why you singled out the far-right in your initial statement. Because of their horrible politicized accusations that take attention away from the actual problems.
    - notahacker 3y ago
      It's much easier to misinterpret your statement that the left ought to care about paedophilia as a claim they don't (even if that was not your intent) than it would have been for you to interpret the OP about "obsessions... real and imagined" as a claim that paedophilia in general is a far right only concern... Particularly in the context of the appeal of an ad dubiously associating a California tech co with paedophilia to people who believe stuff like Pizzagate and Q because they're inclined to suspect everybody they don't like is in league with the paedos
- RIMR 3y ago
  I have never met anyone on the left that isn't disgusted by the sexual abuse of minors. Just the perfectly rational acknowledgement that the sexual abuse of women is a more widespread problem. Child sex abuse is more common that it ever should be, but it is not the epidemic of child abuse that the right characterizes it to be. Accusations of pedophilia are extremely commonplace on the right, even when there is absolutely no evidence, largely because it is the most horrifying thing you can accuse another person of doing, and because the moral panic you can instill in your supporters if you convince them is a highly effective political weapon. If anything, the people who scream about pedophila the loudest are the ones showing their apathy towards actual real-world child sex abuse, because they are doing so in bad faith, not to protect actual children, but to score political points through slander. If anything that helps obfuscate and enable child abusers, since the focus is now on conspiracy theories and targeted defamation.
  - dfxm12 3y ago
    [flagged]
jstarfish 3y ago
Look, as a liberal-turned-conservative parent, many of us have simply had enough with the gaslighting. For decades the lesson was "don't talk to strangers online," yet every kids' app has a social component that encourages their doing exactly that. The channels by which this could possibly be supervised are rendered deliberately opaque. No supervision is possible by MITM. Then you get the influencer crowd. The kids flock to innocent unboxing videos on YouTube, because ooh shiny. Because there are no broadcast decency standards on the internet, they're free to follow it up with "hey kids now let's check out my animal dildo collection." Then there's Discord, on which even the fucking FBI is putting out advisories about pedophiles grooming kids from Roblox. The feds are 3-5 years late to every party, so in time that problem is going to prove way worse than anybody realized. It's not an "obsession with pedophilia;" the idea that there needs to be a culture of "child sexuality" at all is distasteful enough to elicit strong reactions. We don't encourage kids to smoke or get facial tattoos, but we're forced to support their decision to be castrated based on ideas put in their head by Tumblr and the virtual environments they take part in, grooming them in the very games they play. Fire up Splatoon 3 and see how many names and profile images have something to do with yaoi, yuri, gayness or countdowns to HRT. There are none to be found that have anything to do with heteronormative sex, and most games banned sprays depicting such years ago. To each their own, but saturating kids with this stuff explicitly teaches them that transgressive sexuality is how you fit in. It's not for everyone, so they end up miserable, castrated, sexually assaulted, and dragging everyone else down with them and killing themselves, their families or their classmates. Thanks, Big Tech. It's a visceral hook (and an appealing one) because it appeals to collective frustration. Everything parents try to do gets undermined by Big Tech. They do nothing to help us, and deride us for poor parenting where we fail to keep up with their tactics. I'm just one guy burdened with a day job, trying to fend off teams of experts who each spend 40+ hours a week inventing efficient ways to sap as much of my kids' attention as possible while replacing their values with ones more friendly to pedophiles and advertisers. The whole thing can burn to the ground for all I care. It's an entirely emotional reaction on my part, and I'm not alone in feeling this way.
- catlover76 3y ago
  There are a number of objections to specific points in your comment, as well as your overall perspective, but I think the biggest one is that your kids don't need to be using YouTube, Discord, or other apps.
onetimeusename 3y ago
Nothing in this article suggested any of the groups or individuals involved were far-right
- standardUser 3y ago
  The comment I responded to was specifically speculating about who was responsible for billboards they saw that relate to the topic of the article. Incidentally, the responses to my comment are indicative of exactly the kind of rhetoric I have seen many times coming from the right on this topic.

AnimalMuppet 3y ago

Let's stick with "real" for a moment. There is absolutely nothing about real pedophilia that makes it a far-right-only concern. In fact, with the left's concern about sexual abuse of women, they ought to also care about sexual abuse of minors.

standardUser 3y ago
You are asserting that people who are not far-right do not care about the abuse of minors, which is a nonsensical belief with no connection to reality and completely undermines whatever point you're trying to make. But it is a good example of the over-the-top rhetoric being used around this exact issue.
- AnimalMuppet 3y ago
  I am not claiming what you say I am. You said: "It [pedophilia] has become the visceral hook that seems to emotionally motivate a lot of the far-right, not unlike abortion." I am claiming that pedophilia motivates many people, not just the far right. It is beyond me how you could misread that claim into something that would lead you to reply as you did. [Edit: My use of "ought to" may be the problem. The left, based on their positions, should be emotionally, viscerally motivated to oppose pedophilia. If they aren't, then that is an inconsistency in their position. But I think that they (or at least many of them) are motivated. So, to sum up, I'm not sure why you singled out the far-right in your initial statement.]
  - standardUser 3y ago
    "...they ought to also care about sexual abuse of minors." That implies they do not care about the sexual abuse of minors, but they ought to. "There is absolutely nothing about real pedophilia that makes it a far-right-only concern" And implying that anyone, anywhere would think that it is a "far-right only concern" is absurd framing. It's make-believe nonsense.
  - Dylan16807 3y ago
    Yes it's your use of ought to, and no there isn't an inconsistency. Being "emotionally, viscerally" motivated, to the extent that it's very obvious, tends to make people do stupid and counterproductive things. You shouldn't be demanding that. > I'm not sure why you singled out the far-right in your initial statement. Because of their horrible politicized accusations that take attention away from the actual problems.
  - notahacker 3y ago
    It's much easier to misinterpret your statement that the left ought to care about paedophilia as a claim they don't (even if that was not your intent) than it would have been for you to interpret the OP about "obsessions... real and imagined" as a claim that paedophilia in general is a far right only concern... Particularly in the context of the appeal of an ad dubiously associating a California tech co with paedophilia to people who believe stuff like Pizzagate and Q because they're inclined to suspect everybody they don't like is in league with the paedos
RIMR 3y ago
I have never met anyone on the left that isn't disgusted by the sexual abuse of minors. Just the perfectly rational acknowledgement that the sexual abuse of women is a more widespread problem. Child sex abuse is more common that it ever should be, but it is not the epidemic of child abuse that the right characterizes it to be. Accusations of pedophilia are extremely commonplace on the right, even when there is absolutely no evidence, largely because it is the most horrifying thing you can accuse another person of doing, and because the moral panic you can instill in your supporters if you convince them is a highly effective political weapon. If anything, the people who scream about pedophila the loudest are the ones showing their apathy towards actual real-world child sex abuse, because they are doing so in bad faith, not to protect actual children, but to score political points through slander. If anything that helps obfuscate and enable child abusers, since the focus is now on conspiracy theories and targeted defamation.
- dfxm12 3y ago
  [flagged]

jstarfish 3y ago

Look, as a liberal-turned-conservative parent, many of us have simply had enough with the gaslighting. For decades the lesson was "don't talk to strangers online," yet every kids' app has a social component that encourages their doing exactly that. The channels by which this could possibly be supervised are rendered deliberately opaque. No supervision is possible by MITM. Then you get the influencer crowd. The kids flock to innocent unboxing videos on YouTube, because ooh shiny. Because there are no broadcast decency standards on the internet, they're free to follow it up with "hey kids now let's check out my animal dildo collection." Then there's Discord, on which even the fucking FBI is putting out advisories about pedophiles grooming kids from Roblox. The feds are 3-5 years late to every party, so in time that problem is going to prove way worse than anybody realized. It's not an "obsession with pedophilia;" the idea that there needs to be a culture of "child sexuality" at all is distasteful enough to elicit strong reactions. We don't encourage kids to smoke or get facial tattoos, but we're forced to support their decision to be castrated based on ideas put in their head by Tumblr and the virtual environments they take part in, grooming them in the very games they play. Fire up Splatoon 3 and see how many names and profile images have something to do with yaoi, yuri, gayness or countdowns to HRT. There are none to be found that have anything to do with heteronormative sex, and most games banned sprays depicting such years ago. To each their own, but saturating kids with this stuff explicitly teaches them that transgressive sexuality is how you fit in. It's not for everyone, so they end up miserable, castrated, sexually assaulted, and dragging everyone else down with them and killing themselves, their families or their classmates. Thanks, Big Tech. It's a visceral hook (and an appealing one) because it appeals to collective frustration. Everything parents try to do gets undermined by Big Tech. They do nothing to help us, and deride us for poor parenting where we fail to keep up with their tactics. I'm just one guy burdened with a day job, trying to fend off teams of experts who each spend 40+ hours a week inventing efficient ways to sap as much of my kids' attention as possible while replacing their values with ones more friendly to pedophiles and advertisers. The whole thing can burn to the ground for all I care. It's an entirely emotional reaction on my part, and I'm not alone in feeling this way.

catlover76 3y ago
There are a number of objections to specific points in your comment, as well as your overall perspective, but I think the biggest one is that your kids don't need to be using YouTube, Discord, or other apps.

onetimeusename 3y ago

Nothing in this article suggested any of the groups or individuals involved were far-right

standardUser 3y ago
The comment I responded to was specifically speculating about who was responsible for billboards they saw that relate to the topic of the article. Incidentally, the responses to my comment are indicative of exactly the kind of rhetoric I have seen many times coming from the right on this topic.