:kombucha-disgust: Last time I checked most pedos end up being hyper-religious conservatives or libertarians. Am I wrong?
Seems like chuds are projecting yet again. Imagine being the side of underage anime avatars and having the balls to accuse the left of "grooming"
I think a lot of analysis people put forward on this is completely fucking wrong. It's not really projection, it's strategic and carefully thought through by far right strategists and thinktanks who are the real vanguard of the far right movement.
The tactic is about tapping into deep seated insecurities that people have and weaponising those insecurities into tools of the movement.
Most of this has been about targeting people who are 40+ in age. Everyone above a certain age threshold can see very clearly that younger people have a drastically different worldview compared to them. This needs answering within society otherwise these people will be forced to come to terms with the fact that Gen X and Boomers had drastically different material conditions that resulted in their massively different views compared to Millenials and Gen Z.
Bring in the grooming myth. Young people are gayer and "woke", why? Because the left has GROOMED the youth via academia and WOKE IDEOLOGY.
You explain away the differences of views in society and you weaponise it into a PROTECT THE YOUNG tool. This turns your reactionary movement of proto-fascists into crusaders that believe what they're doing is good and right and for a good reason.
Yeah. "Groomer" is not an accusation really, it's a fatwah.
To dovetail into your excellent comment, this is entirely anecdotal but I think the (white, Christian) age 40+ crowd is also also seeing what they consider their core religious beliefs and values not getting picked up by younger generations. It's been the case in the US that younger generations aren't as Christian as their parents for a long time, but this is really accelerating at a breakneck pace now.
Evangelical Christian parents are hyper focused on keeping their kids indoctrinated for as long as they possibly can. There are a number of reasons for this - social reproduction, status in their community for having "good Christian" kids, a fear that their kids will end up in hell, and so on (:zizek: ). But the solution for them is to keep their kids on social lockdown at least through age 18. That's one reason why schools are so much of their focus. For these parents who can't afford private school (and they're working on that with vouchers), schools are the one place they can't shelter their kids. So the idea of classrooms being a welcoming environment for LGBT kids is what draws the most of their ire. That's also why they will fight tooth and nail for the US to continue all our evil policies regarding how anyone under 18 is basically the personal property of their parents. Start talking about how kids should have rights that even parents can't abridge, and hoo boy you will see the Evangelicals get whipped up in a fury of anger even more intense than their hatred of wearing masks for the purposes of public safety
Just look at the current reactionary furor over Boston Children's Hospital. They cannot conceive of a young person having some agency and wanting to make a choice for themselves about their own body. Nope! To them the parents are the final arbiters for their kids. We all understand why it's important to make sure, for example, trans kids can confide in a teacher at school. It's usually someone saying "my home situation is horrible I can't be myself there like I can in school". But these parents see it as some teacher is directly violating their "rights" as a parent. Same situation, two very different interpretations of it.
As always, death to America.
Hmm the religious side is completely lost on me. I don't have the cultural background or experience to make judgements.
The thing I'm stuck on is with understanding that these are strategic choices made by a leadership element of the far right and how to counter it.