Human Drop-Down Menus
click whirrrrr here is a statement from the mayor
Remember that California has just passed a new law, SB 1100, to protect local legislative bodies against “bullying” from people who do hateful things like disagreeing with them, and that the recent failure of another (spectacularly offensive) bill in the state legislature was the product of “harassment,” by which the author of the bill meant that the peasantry forcefully and persistently criticized it. And you should definitely read this two-part essay from Bat Cattitude on the technocratic presumption that disagreement with technocrats can only be dangerous extremism.
With that background in mind, consider a modest victory in the most dismal battlefield of the culture war, and then watch the response to it.
This one happens in Boise, a purple town in a red state. This year’s Boise Pride Festival was all set to feature an event called Drag Kids:
“Now it is time to see the kids,” sexy eleven year-olds shaking that dirty little moneymaker on the stage. So hot. So empowering!
Vicious hate speech began in a hurry; critics of the event, being bigots and haters, objected to the sexualization of children:
Watch the way a public radio news story framed this objection to the sexualization of children, and really slow down to soak up every drop of this wonderfully subtle narrative, the last sentence of which is very nearly the apotheosis of public radio framing:
There’s no sexualization, you idiots, the children dancing in sexy outfits are just incorporating sexuality. Also, the Republican statement about not sexualizing children comes just months after some white supremacy, so. Imagine slapping all of these claims together and not being embarrassed by yourself.
Now, the Big Pivot: Boise Pride pays its bills by soliciting the support of corporate sponsors, so a bunch of corporations suddenly found themselves sponsoring the sexuality-incorporating performances of some hot little eleven year-olds. They quickly began to jump clear of the thing:
Because bigotry still prevails in Amerikkka, see, corporations aren’t brave enough to stand up and support the sexy eleven year-olds in their extremely hot sexiness. Atavists! Prudes!
Now, here come the politicians. The mayor of Boise, Lauren McLean, is Very Disappointed In You All™:
Slogan slogan slogan, slogan slogan, slogan slogan slogan. A spotlight on the critical need for a conversation about standing together!
If you challenged Mayor NPC to publicly identify specific pieces of inflammatory rhetoric that were important and central to the controversy, she couldn’t; she just knows that the “inflammatory rhetoric” box has to be checked, because Mean Republicans objected to something involving an LGBT event, specifics not important. Nor could she explain how sexy children represent the dignity of all people, or respond coherently to a discussion about sexual commodification and the erasure of childhood. She has a list of slogans. She deploys them. The responses aren’t complicated:
Take a moment to look at Lauren McLean’s professional background, which leaps from college to activism to elected office without passing through any kind of job. And her priorities in office? Try not to gasp out loud as the shock overcomes you: “As Mayor, she leads the fight against climate change….”
She’s a social type with arms and legs, reciting from a list of Things To Say. This is not who we are!
Through all the noise, despite the spotlight on the critical need for a conversation about standing together, a grossly inappropriate sexualization of childhood was stopped by the reasonable objections of people who still have a sense of ordinary limits. There will be more of these insane provocations — many more, a flood of them. They will demand vigorous opposition. And the offended responses of the Lauren McLeans will be meaningless. Drive on.
Social Justice is secular religion for mostly white upscale college-educated women. As they are also often childless, it is also a sort of maternal instinct gone haywire. And as intelligence and nuance (never mind actual good governance) are secondary to displays of tribal loyalty and of always being on the Right Side of History™, the most important feature of this religion is that it easily enables its believers to identify clearly good and evil, to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys.
So anything that's coded as LGBT and/or protected Victim class, up to and including the sexualization or mutilation of children has to be: GOOD
And anything that opposes this, up to and including even allowing parents a peek at their child's curriculum or keeping naked men out of women's locker rooms has to be: EVIL.
Stupidity + certitude + moral preening is a dangerous combination.
Child Predators and their enablers, like the Boise Mayor, deserve Justice. It may or may not come while they’re on Earth, but most importantly God will repay in full.