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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022

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And where did I say that trans activists, or anyone else, should be immune to social criticism? What they should be immune from is being given a pejorative label that does not apply to them.

So just to be clear, do you think that term would apply to Ghislaine Maxwell?

And to clarify, the criticism is "you are acting like people who groom and manipulate and rape children, and some of you literally do the rape, and you're willfully obscuring the ability of outsiders to distinguish which of you will cross that line." Does that bother you less? If there a pithy term for that?

It is not exactly a particularly honest claim, since the number of them who "literally do the rape" is small, and I doubt that any of them advocate for policy X in order to "willfully obscure the ability of outsiders to distinguish which of you will cross that line." Moreover, it is awfully similar to the claim made years ago about gay men -- that they were child molesters, etc, etc. However, since it does not include a claim that they are acting with the intent to facilitate sex with children, it is indeed an improvement.

As for Ghislaine Maxwell, she did indeed act with the intent to have the minors be molested, so, to paraphrase my father, if she is not a groomer then she will more than suffice until an actual groomer comes along.

since the number of them who "literally do the rape" is small

As I've said, it's comparable in rate to other organizations who have been dragged through the mud over it. Every teacher is a mandatory reporter; I believe (hope!) that they're all trained to recognize those behaviors are red flags for grooming/child abuse. They have no excuse for not being fully cognizant.

"Them" refers trans activists, etc, doesn’t it? Not teachers?

I was thinking of teachers and other school employees. "Trans activists" are a whole other, extremely unusual mess, but the pertinent point is that I have no idea what their rates of offense are.