groomer BS

see pedo

see transgender

see Coming for your kids = hype fear

see moral panic

merri ok

pizzagate --> qanon?

see stew peters

23% gop, 14 indep 6 dems?! run by pedo?

---

seemed to be fading for a while? trump tried on desantis hs pix? replaced by drag/trans?

---

REBOOT 10 26 RWW

Trump-loving Christian nationalist William Wolfe claims that James Talarico "spectacularly" fails the "Babysitter Test": "There is no loving parent who wants this creep within 500 feet of their kids. Deep down, even liberal parents know that." For what it is worth, we wouldn't want Wolfe within 500 feet of our kids either.

---

RWW 3 26

Lauren Witzke proclaims that "homosexuality is a demonic spirit of perversion": "These demons never just wanted a civil piece of paper from their local Clerk of the Peace. They wanted unrestricted access to defenseless victims that they can rape."

---

RWW

10/06/2025

Kyle Mantyla

Josh Kovensky @ Talking Points Memo: The Trump Admin’s Mostly Unnoticed Move to Crack Down on the Opposition

Last month, the White House issued two executive orders that direct federal law enforcement to start cracking down on the political opposition. One of the two memos prompted some confusion and mockery for its attempt to designate “antifa” a terrorist organization. But the second has gone largely unnoticed in the mainstream press.

Ann Marie Shambaugh @ The Roys Report: Son of Covenant Eyes Co-Founder Arrested after Planning Sexual Encounter with 14-Year-Old

Back in 2000, a Michigan entrepreneur named Ron DeHaas co-founded Covenant Eyes, an anti-porn internet accountability software program that has since grown to more than 2 million users. The idea, he said at the time, was to protect his teenage stepsons from sexual temptation online. Its effectiveness has been lauded by many, including Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson. But this past Aug. 13, one of those stepsons was arrested at a meeting spot in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he thought he would find a 14-year-old girl interested in having sex with him.

Andrew Perez, Asawin Suebsaeng @ Rolling Stone: ‘They Need to Suffer’: Inside Trump’s War on Dissent

After Charlie Kirk’s murder, Trump expanded his war on free speech, the left, and ordinary Americans. It’s going to get worse.

Jonathan Chait @ The Atlantic: Stephen Miller Is Going for Broke

The White House aide equates opposition to Trump’s agenda with terrorism—and pushes for the use of state power to suppress it.

John Fea @ ARC: The Christian Nationalist Rewriting American History

Douglas Wilson’s rising influence shows how the past is at the center of today’s culture wars.

Edith Olmstead @ The New Republic: Supreme Court Tells Laura Loomer to Shut Up Already

The Supreme Court refused to hear the far-right commentator’s censorship case.

---

AHA NOT ME YT A BK ON MISO ALT RT 7 25 // PINK PILL, MAN AS KID PROTECTOR neo nazi sell drugs// traffic women

---

===

RWW

02/14/2025

Kyle Mantyla

Charisma Madarang @ Rolling Stone: Trump Appointee Quits Instead of Dropping Eric Adams Charges, Alleges Quid Pro Quo

After New York City Mayor Eric Adams was indicted on federal criminal charges in September, the man soon embraced Donald Trump in an overt attempt to get the president to overturn his case. As Manhattan federal prosecutors readied to bring the bombshell indictment charging the mayor with destroying evidence and instructing people to lie to the FBI, Trump’s Justice Department issued an order to drop the case, a letter obtained by The New York Times reveals.

Edith Olmsted @ The New Republic: Trump’s Border Czar Openly Threatens Eric Adams Over Dropped Charges

The Department of Justice allegedly dropped the charges against Adams in exchange for his cooperation in Donald Trump’s immigration plans.

Amanda Marcotte @ Salon: "What the Lord established": Elon Musk is camouflaging a Christian nationalist takeover

Project 2025 was clear: First, purge federal workers. Then replace them with theocrats and fanatics.

Alec MacGillis @ ProPublica: Memory-Holing Jan. 6: What Happens When You Try to Make History Vanish?

The Trump administration’s decision to delete a DOJ database of cases against Capitol riot defendants places those who seek to preserve the historical record in direct opposition to their own government.

Alex Griffing @ Mediaite: Pete Hegseth Reportedly Invited Conspiracy Theorist Who Vowed to ‘Overthrow’ Democracy On First Overseas Trip

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth invited conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec to travel with him on his first overseas trip this week to visit European allies, scooped the Washington Post on Thursday.

Dean Narciso @ The Columbus Dispatch: Ex-members decry New Albany's Faith Life Church's fundraising focus amid sex abuse case

Faith Life Church began as a small basement Bible study 30 years ago led by founders Gary and Drenda Keesee. It opened its New Albany megachurch in 2008, according to the Faith Life website. It is now part of a criminal investigation into accusations of sexual abuse.

---

mma Laura Ingraham calls Massachusetts “a hotbed of child predators”

02/13/25 homan

February 13, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle

LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): We have been hearing from our own Bill Melugin over the last, really, week or so, especially about these child predator illegals who have been picked up in liberal sanctuary state Massachusetts. We've seen it in other states, but for some reason Massachusetts, all of you watching out there, that little state of Massachusetts has become a hotbed of child predators. And, yet again, they're just continuing to stick by their sanctuary status. What do you say to the people of America tonight about those people who are holding onto sanctuary status?

---

child sex trafficking // qanon, gives cover from baby jail?

vigilante militia?

mma

January 14, 2025, edition of Rose Unplugged, streamed on Rumble

TOM HOMAN (INCOMING TRUMP “BORDER CZAR”): So, look, we got a lot of people to find, and we got to find them. And we're going to do it. And — but I'm telling you right now, it's going to be hard. So that's why we're — especially with children, we're going to bring in some private sector organizations that work trafficking on their own.

We're also going to count on the American people. We have to deputize every American citizen, especially parents, right? Parents have an innate ability to recognize when something's not right with a child. So we want people who look and pay attention. If you see something, say something, and make a phone call from a provided 1-800 number. And, look, if even if one out of every hundred phone calls turn up that a child is being abused, that's one child we can save. So we're going to count on the American people to step up for this thing too. So that's something — you know, bring in the private sector is going to be great because I think every American citizen is sick over this issue. I think they're all going to volunteer to step in and do what they can do to help us.

---

RWW

02/10/2025

Kyle Mantyla

Eric Metaxas embraces the PizzaGate conspiracy theory while declaring that "the Democratic Party is the party of pedophilia. Which is Satanic."
Jon Miller explains the real appeal of MAGA hats: "The only thing that made the maga hat cool is that it was white nationalist coded ... you were giving a nod to an america that existed before it was infested with immigrants, faggots, and free blacks."
John Doyle claims that women "who are radically left-wing" want to "date guys like me" because "they can't help but be sort of attracted to how radical our politics are."
C. Jay Engel wants to ban rap music: "Rap was a catalyst of cultural revolution. It was a tool of Elites to degrade Heritge America."
Andrew Isker says that if any country receives U.S. foreign aid, then "these places should be colonies of America": "We should be able to exploit all their natural resources as much as we want."

---

===

rww

01/02/2025

Kyle Mantyla

Mario Murillo asserts that God orchestrated Donald Trump's election "to spare America from disaster": "Trump is here to give the church the time to reform America morally."
Brenden Dilley declares that "Barack Hussein Obama was/is a terrorist by every definition of the word."
Anna Perez wants it known that she was born racist: "I hate when they say racism is 'learned behavior.' I honestly think I was born this way and I don’t get enough credit for it."
Johnny Enlow claims that 80-90 percent of world leaders "have been people either involved in the worst type of pedophilia [and] Luciferianism that you can imagine, or they're blackmailed by it."
Finally, Christian nationalist Ben Zeisloft appears to have wiped his Twitter feed ahead of announcing that he's stepping away from the platform until his book is published in the spring.

===

wired oct 21 2024

Russian-aligned propaganda network notorious for creating deepfake whistleblower videos appears to be behind a coordinated effort to promote wild and baseless claims that Minnesota governor and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz sexually assaulted one of his former students, according to several specialists tracking the disinformation campaign.

Experts believe that the campaign is tied to a network called Storm-1516, which has been linked to, among other things, a previous effort that falsely claimed vice president Kamala Harris perpetrated a hit-and-run in San Francisco in 2011. Storm-1516 has a long history of posting fake whistleblower videos, and often deepfake videos, to push Kremlin talking points to the West.

The propaganda unit’s work has successfully reached the highest levels of the Republican party, with vice presidential candidate JD Vance repeating at least one of their narratives. NBC reported this week that the group has pushed at least 50 false narratives in this manner since last fall, which comes amid a broader Russian government effort to disrupt next month’s election with the aim of helping former president Donald Trump return to the White House.

Numerous figures in MAGA world boosted the Tim Walz assault claims, including Jack Posobiec, the Pizzagate promoter who is now a member of Trump’s campaign team, and Candace Owens, the popular right-wing podcaster. The claims went viral on X last week, when an anonymous account called Black Insurrectionist posted screenshots of emails from a purported victim. Other X users quickly debunked the claims, citing formatting errors in the images that suggested the emails were fake, but days later another conspiracist posted a video on X claiming he had spoken to one of Walz's supposed victims on the phone—without providing any proof. The video racked up millions of hits.

Then, on Wednesday, a video claiming to show a former student of Walz describing abuse by the former football coach spread widely on X. According to a WIRED analysis using several deepfake detector tools, the video was created using AI. The video, shared by a prominent anonymous QAnon-promoting account, garnered over 4.3 million views before it was deleted.

The campaign to attack Walz predates the video; it traces back to John Dougan, a former Florida cop who now lives in Moscow and runs a network of pro-Kremlin websites. Dougan appeared on Zak Paine’s QAnon show RedPill78 on October 5 with an anonymous man named “Rick,” who said he was a foreign exchange student at Mankato West High School in 2004 when Walz was a teacher there. “Rick” then claimed Walz assaulted him. Dougan did not respond to a request for comment.

Most Popular

Politics

Canvassers for Elon Musk’s America PAC Were Fired and Stranded in Michigan After Speaking Out

By Jake Lahut

[://www.wired.com/story/physicists-reveal-a-quantum-geometry-that-exists-outside-of-space-and-time/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_3cafb880-6228-471a-ad5a-dbc381e732a0_popular4-1-reranked-by-vidi)

Politics

Election Deniers Are Out in Full Force. We Went Where They Did

By David Gilbert

The claims, however, didn’t go viral until last week and the release of the deepfake video.

Darren Linvill, codirector at Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub, tells WIRED that he immediately recognized this tactic as part of Russia’s well-established disinformation playbook.

“There is little doubt this is Storm-1516,” says Linvill, whose team uncovered the network last fall.

Linvill says the account that first shared the AI-altered video bears all the hallmarks of previous Storm-1516 campaigns. “It is standard for them to create an X or YouTube account for initial placement of stories,” says Linvill.

The campaign orchestrated by Storm-1516 often begins with the posting of a fake story and video from a whistleblower or citizen journalist, the US mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe outlined in July. Disinformation is “amplified by other seemingly unaffiliated online networks,” the US mission stated. The claims then take on a life of their own, shared and reposted by unwitting social media users who likely have no idea of where the videos originated.

The fake stories can also be picked up by other media outlets that cover viral social media stories. In the case of the Walz claims, they ended up on MSN, a news aggregation site owned by Microsoft.

In the past, Storm-1516 has relied on a network of fake news websites run by Dougan to push its narratives. On Saturday, a story that referenced the RedPill78 interview, the Black Insurrectionist posts, and the deepfake video was published on over 100 of Dougan’s websites simultaneously.

This was first discovered by Alex Liberty, a researcher who tracks the activity of Russia’s propaganda networks and who agrees with Linvill’s assertion that the deepfake video bears all the hallmarks of a Storm-1516 campaign.

“We believe that it might be a coordinated campaign in [an] attempt to bring numerous false accusations of the same nature against Tim Walz through different channels and in different formats in order to bring an image of legitimacy to the narrative,” Liberty tells WIRED.

McKenzie Sadeghi, the AI and foreign influence editor at NewsGuard, agrees.

“The false narrative appears to be part of a wider campaign pushed by pro-Kremlin media and QAnon influencers ahead of the November 5, 2024, US elections aimed at portraying Walz, whose political appeal is as an everyman schoolteacher and coach, as a pedophile who had inappropriate relationships with minors,” Sadeghi wrote in an analysis of the deepfake video.

From the very beginning, the allegations against Walz were easily debunked. In his interview on the RedPill78 QAnon show, Dougan’s source claimed he was in the US thanks to the State Department–funded Future Leaders Exchange program, which allows students from countries formerly under the control of the Soviet Union the chance to study in the US for a year.

However, a spokesperson for the US State Department, told NewsGuard that it has no record of any Future Leaders Exchange student from Kazakhstan in Mankato area schools from 2000 through 2020. Mankato Area Public Schools communications director Mel Helling told NewsGuard the allegations were “outlandish.”

The baseless claims were shared by some far-right accounts in the days after the episode was published, but they didn’t really take hold until a week later, when the X account known as Black Insurrectionist posted a clip from Dougan’s RedPill78 episode. The clip was viewed over 800,000 times.

Google search trends data shows a huge spike in people searching for “Tim Walz pedophile” and “Tim Walz abuse” on October 13, the day the Black Insurrectionist account began posting their claims.

The Black Insurrectionist account is anonymous and launched a year ago; its followers include Donald Trump Jr. and former Trump adviser Roger Stone. The account’s bio reads: “I am MAGA.” It rose to prominence weeks before the Walz post, when it claimed to have been in contact with a whistleblower at ABC who said Harris had been provided with the questions ahead of her September debate with former president Donald Trump. Those claims were widely debunked by multiple major fact-checking and media organizations.

Last week, the Black Insurrectionist account shared screenshots of email correspondence the account had with an alleged victim on X. Almost immediately, the evidence was questioned when X users spotted a text cursor in one of the screenshots, suggesting that Black Insurrectionist was editing the document. Others pointed out that the date and time format shown in some of the screenshots was inconsistent with how they are displayed on real emails.

Black Insurrectionist initially defended itself before going silent. The account was deleted on Thursday.

The two dozen posts from Black Insurrectionist laying out their alleged evidence have been viewed over 33 million times, according to X’s own metrics, and have been shared on numerous other platforms, including Truth Social, Instagram, Telegram, and TikTok.

Among those sharing Black Insurrectiont’s claims was Paine, who hosted Dougan on his QAnon show. “I have no reason to doubt the veracity of this story,” Paine wrote on X.

The posts have also caught the attention of the wider MAGA universe in a way that Dougan’s initial claims didn’t. Prominent right-wing figures like Owens and Posobiec both flagged the “allegations” as something worth looking into.

Owens discussed the conspiracy on her top-rated podcast, with the episode racking up over 630,000 views on YouTube since it was posted on Wednesday.

Posobiec wrote on X that there were “lots of allegations going around regarding Tim Walz sexually abusing young student(s).” While he added that he didn’t “know about any of the recent allegations being made,” he did share a link to Dougan’s claims from earlier in the month.

When Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee for president in July, Russian-aligned propaganda networks struggled to mount effective disinformation campaigns targeting the vice president and her team.

But as Microsoft reported in the summer, those campaigns have started to find their footing. "The shift to focusing on the Harris-Walz campaign reflects a strategic move by Russian actors aimed at exploiting any perceived vulnerabilities in the new candidates," Clint Watts, head of Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center, wrote in August.

===

---

mma 7 24

July 15, 2024, edition of Infowars' *The Alex Jones Show

ALEX JONES (HOST): And I'm gonna explain this to you like in the Watchmenmovie. You think I'm locked in here with you? You're locked in here with us. You're locked in here with me, OK? And once you cross that line, our people are everywhere. And I wouldn't want to be with any of these Silicon Valley people when this goes down, because your security hates your guts. I wouldn't want to be any of these globalists, senators or people, when this goes down, because you know what's going to happen. Because people know you did it, and they know that there's no choice.

So you start this full hot red war and you know what you're getting. You know what you're getting. And I'm shooting you straight, new world order. Shooting you deadly straight.

...

It's not gonna get any better if we blind ourselves. It's not going to get any better. We have become a satanic nation. None of us are perfect, but my god, we at least love God and want to be good. These people are beyond evil. They're cancer, and they're going to have to be cut out. Now, you're gonna see people start getting real, like the judge in Florida just struck down Jack Smith, and I told you that's what the Supreme Court did. They gave it back to her to strike it down. They said clearly, a month ago, they said this is, this is, he wasn't appointed correctly, just like their Jan 6 committee on its face was illegal. Then they destroyed all the evidence. They destroyed my testimony. Because it didn't fit in with their BS. And so these are just a bunch of dirty, evil pedophile lawyers who inherited the apparatus of the American republic and all the brains and weapons and the rest of it. And now, they've squandered it.

ali alex investigation colo texas? 5 24

===

---

rww 5 24

on Tuesday night, far-right broadcaster Stew Peters announced that he would be holding an “Extreme Accountability Event” in October at Caesars Atlantic City Hotel and Casino in New Jersey.

On Wednesday, Right Wing Watch reported on Peters’ plan, noting that he is a virulent antisemite and racist who has openly advocated violence and called for the overthrow of the U.S. government. RWW also revealed exactly what Peters had in mind for this event:

According to the website, the theme of the weekend will be “Nuremberg 2.0” and the event will feature “drinks and specialty cocktails all weekend like ‘The Retribution’ and ‘Bloody Bidens,’” as well as “a red-carpet ‘Gallows Gala’” and a “Gallows and Mimosas” brunch.

But the highlight of the event will be a literal book-burning, reminiscent of those that occurred in Nazi Germany, which Peters has repeatedly praised.

By Thursday, Caesars had canceled Peters’ event and, predictably, Peters used his show that evening to lash out at RWW and other outlets that had reported on his plans.

“Just one day after we announced the Extreme Accountability Event,” Peters fumed, “these people at Right Wing Watch, these lizard things, these pedophile-enablers at Right Wing Watch … these parasites at Right Wing Watch and the rest of the corporate media came out running hit pieces on me, and you, and our event.”

“In response, the cowards—who we now know are pedophile-enablers—at Caesars of Atlantic City, New Jersey, canceled on us,” Peters complained. “Their whole legal team, a team of lawyers was in a complete panic based on the lies told by Right Wing Watch, and Newsweek, and Raw Story. It took less than 24 hours for the Extreme Accountability Event that was announced right here on ‘The Stew Peters Show’ to be shut down by Caesars, who knew exactly who I was, who knew exactly who we are, and what it is that we plan to do, and who it is that we plan to protect. But they booted us off of their reservation list so they could try washing their hands of the entire thing as quickly as possible.”

Undaunted, Peters announced that he is working on moving his event to Florida and vowed that it will feature “an even bigger bonfire.”

“We will restore order to this country,” Peters pledged. “We will restore the rule of law in this country, whether these people like it or not. They can run their little fake hit pieces. They can call up Caesars or any other place that they would like and complain about us, but they will not stop us from cleansing our society. They can’t stop any of you from ripping the filth off of the shelves at these public schools, from writing it out of the textbooks, from burning all of it in a massive bonfire for national salvation. And now, we’ll have an even bigger bonfire, we’ll burn even more of these perverted pedophile training manuals, and we’ll have an even bigger impact. You know, we are the normal ones; they are the freaks!”

===

rww

far-Right Broadcaster Stew Peters Plans An ‘Extreme Accountability’ Weekend Of ‘Bloody Bidens’ And Book Burning

Kyle Mantyla | May 22, 2024

Far-right broadcaster Stew Peters is a racist, anti-LGBTQ bigot who regularly uses his nightly program, speeches, and social media accounts to promote white nationalism and virulent antisemitism while spreading wild conspiracy theories, bigotry, and open calls for violence.

Peters has repeatedly called for violence against the government and his perceived political enemies, threatening time and again to deliver “extreme accountability,” by which he means public executions.

Now, Peters appears poised to take his radicalism out from behind the camera and into the real with an “Extreme Accountability Event” to be held in October at Caesars Atlantic City Hotel and Casino in New Jersey. According to the website, the theme of the weekend will be “Nuremberg 2.0” and the event will feature “drinks and specialty cocktails all weekend like ‘The Retribution’ and ‘Bloody Bidens,'” as well as “a red-carpet ‘Gallows Gala'” and a “Gallows and Mimosas” brunch.

But the highlight of the event will be a literal book-burning, reminiscent of those that occurred in Nazi Germany, which Peters has repeatedly praised.

“If we demand that the classroom bookcases and school library shelves be cleansed of filth and perversion and pedophilic materials, then we’re called a bunch of book burners. Well, guess what? That’s exactly what we are, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” Peters said during his Tuesday night broadcast. “It’s time for us to go into the public libraries, to go into these public schools, and rip the filth off of these shelves and destroy it. To remove it from the face of the planet for all of eternity. To turn it to ash. And every time it’s reprinted, we do it all over again. And eventually we’ll get ahold of the perverts’ hard drives, and we’ll burn those too. All of this filth will never again see the light of day and an army of Americans, an army of patriots millions of men strong, will make sure of it.”

“We will not stop until we are victorious on all fronts,” Peters declared. “And when they finally have waved the white flag, they’ll be put on trial. And when they’re found guilty of grooming and mutilation and child rape and all of their other crimes against our kids and against our country and against humanity, they will face the ultimate punishment: Maximum accountability. Extreme accountability at the end of a rope.”

Peters pledged that “we’ll do the things that those at Nuremberg 1.0 were too cowardly to pull off” and vowed that “the perverts and globalist Zio-crime syndicate ruling over our country will fall to its knees and will beg us for mercy.”

“This is what has to be done,” Peters proclaimed, insisting that he is focused on “taking real action and stepping out into the physical world and fighting back and exposing these freaks and criminals that are ruining our country.”

“We’ve all sat idly by long enough,” Peters announced. “It’s time to do something. And this fall, that’s exactly what’s going to happen. I’m not talking about some gay, rigged presidential election. No, I’m talking about taking real action in the real world. And I’m calling for every single one of you to join my army. Come and join me in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on October 11, 12, and 13 where we will begin the march down the road to extreme accountability.”

“We will begin the national cleansing process right then and right there,” Peters said. “We’re gonna spend the summer going into our communities and removing all of the filth and smut and pedophilic and pornographic materials from the schools and the library bookshelves and everywhere it’s hawked onto our kids. And come October, we’re going to bring it all to Atlantic City Beach, New Jersey, and we’re going to kill it with fire. We’re going to vanquish it from the Earth.”

“This will only be the beginning,” Peters promised. “This is an extreme event like no other. You want to call us extremists? We’ll show you extreme.”

IFrame Content

It is important to remember that despite his bigoted views and openly violent rhetoric, Peters regularly manages to get Republican leaders, elected officials, and candidates for office to appear on his program, and that Peters himself has participated in ReAwaken America events alongside various Trump insiders and members of the Trump family.

4 24

QAnon Was Born Out of Sex Ad Moral Panic Over Backpage.com

intercept no lnx

QANON WAS BORN OUT OF THE SEX AD MORAL PANIC THAT TOOK DOWN BACKPAGE.COM

For years, the political establishment opportunistically railed against sex trafficking. Then came Pizzagate.

Trevor Aaronson

April 27 2024, 6:00 a.m.

AMERICANS ADORE A moral panic.

During the Red Scare, we believed that Soviet agents were everywhere, having secretly infiltrated all levels of society. In the 1950s, the U.S. government banned switchblades over unfounded fears that we were in the throes of “West Side Story”-style knife violence. The Satanic Panic convinced Americans of the 1980s that absurd claims of ritual abuse and sacrifice were somehow credible. Around the same time, there was “stranger danger” — which was debunked like other moral panics, but never went away entirely.

At any given time, America is moving in and out of some moral panic or another. Harm to children is a persistent theme. In recent years, however, our national obsession with these moral panics has consumed our politics. We’ve come to believe that sex trafficking rings are all around us. The driving force may come as a surprise: a moral panic about consensual sex workers who advertised legally on the internet.

The far-right’s current obsession with “child sex trafficking” — the animating force behind such conspiracy theories as QAnon and Pizzagate, as well as coded political insults like “groomer” — has roots in this moral panic hyped by powerful Republicans and Democrats alike. The panic reached its crescendo with the 2018 federal indictments related to a sex ad hub called Backpage.com.

The Backpage story may stand as a cautionary tale not only of overzealous prosecutions, but also of the second- and third-order effects of moral panics.

A classifieds site that became known predominantly for “adult” advertising, Backpage was born of a more dispersed industry that used to operate in the back pages of local alternative weekly newspapers like the Village Voice, Chicago Reader, and LA Weekly — known as alt-weeklies. For a time, the sex ad industry had its central platform on Craigslist, the free classifieds website, which spurred large-scale campaigns against the ads. As the campaigns took hold, Craigslist buckled and effectively handed the mantle to Backpage — until eventually it, too, came under a sustained morality attack.

I spent four years reporting on this saga — the rise and fall of alt-weeklies, adult advertising, and Backpage — with fellow journalists Sam Eifling and Michael J. Mooney. The result, a documentary podcast series, now on Audible, titled “Hold Fast: The Unadulterated Story of the World’s Most Scandalous Website,” reveals how cynical politicians can take hold of a moral panic and exploit it for political gain.

One thing that struck me during my reporting was that the Backpage story may stand as a cautionary tale not only of overzealous prosecutions, but also of the second- and third-order effects of moral panics — in this case, conspiracy theories like Pizzagate and QAnon. If you look closely enough, you can trace a line from adult ads in alt-weeklies to escort ads on websites like Craigslist and Backpage, to conspiracy claims that Donald Trump is fighting to break up a global child sex-trafficking cabal run by Hillary Clinton and her malevolent minions.

Conspiracy theories don’t grow in isolation. They wrap themselves around kernels of truth. The truth here is that sex trafficking and sexual exploitation are horrific crimes, and no one should underestimate the harms experienced by survivors. For the last two decades, though, powerful politicians, breathless news media, and a host of ill-informed celebrities have conflated “sex trafficking” with “prostitution” — fanning a national hysteria that underpins the conspiracy theories now wracking American society.

Sex Ad Industry

A quick history: Starting with the Village Voice in the 1950s, alt-weeklies popped up in cities nationwide. These papers prized investigative reporting and magazine-style narrative writing; pioneered attitudinal pop-culture criticism; and published classified ads in their back pages that would make half the country blush.

The “adult” ads on the last pages of the tabloid-style papers promoted sex work. At first, they were written in coded language, which created enough ambiguity that federal judges had upheld the ads’ First Amendment protections. The legal doctrine was simple: The government couldn’t deprive a massage therapist or a dancer of their First Amendment right to advertise on mere suspicion that they might also provide an illegal sexual service behind closed doors.

For decades, wink-and-a-nod adult ads could be found in alt-weeklies nationwide. Publishers knew what was being advertised. Most readers knew. So did police and prosecutors. No one, however, seemed to holler about sex ads in newspapers that could be found at busy bus stops, crowded restaurants, or smoky bars. Society didn’t collapse. The kids were all right.

The Majority of Voters Now Support Decriminalizing Sex Work. It’s About Time.

Then came Craigslist, a simple website that slashed a gaping hole in the newspaper industry’s hulking money bags. Who would pay for an ink-smeared classified ad in a newspaper when you could get a more effective one for free, in minutes, on Craigslist? People selling cars, boats, guitars, whatever — they moved to Craigslist. And those sex workers advertising in the back pages of alt-weeklies? They did too.

In response to the migration of classifieds to the internet, the largest publisher of alt-weeklies launched a Craigslist competitor, Backpage. Essentially a knockoff, Backpage used a design and category scheme almost identical to Craigslist’s. Throughout its early existence, the alt-weekly-run Backpage never matched the popular site from which it was cribbing.

Then the government and the press turned on the burgeoning online classifieds industry. Public officials latched on to a study from the University of Pennsylvania that claimed 326,000 children in America were “at risk for commercial sexual exploitation.” The report analyzed data from the 1990s using methodologies so deeply flawed that the Washington Post described it as “bogus.”

The jaw-dropping stat — More than 300,000 children in the United States could be victims of sex trafficking! — nonetheless lodged itself in our national consciousness. Politicians trumpeted the claim. Actor Ashton Kutcher, fashioning himself an advocate against sex trafficking, announced unchallenged on CNN that there are “between 100,000 and 300,000 child sex slaves in the United States today.” It sounded even then like an improbable total. But with kids’ lives reportedly at stake, few Americans pushed back.

Pressure Campaigns

The FBI, conditioned to view any national clamor as a federal funding bonanza, launched Operation Cross Country to investigate the supposed scourge of sex trafficking. The FBI’s ongoing efforts now include partnerships with 400 law enforcement agencies nationwide, but the feds still haven’t uncovered any sort of large-scale, highly organized trafficking ring as part of Operation Cross Country.

That’s because — while cases of sexual exploitation and trafficking do occur, many of them horrific in their details — the perception of a large-scale threat in the United States is perched on a mountain of distortions and exaggerations.

“If you believe that hundreds of thousands of kids are being trafficked, you have to believe your husband, your dad, your brother, your sons are the ones buying them,” Juliana Piccillo, a sex worker advocate, explained to me. “It’s not just a handful of guys buying 300,000 kids.”

For context, the union-covered employees of UPS, those brown-clad delivery drivers we see daily, number 300,000.

As America bought into myths of large-scale sex trafficking, individual accounts of sexual exploitation made headlines. Yet the more nuanced story of online adult ads went unreported. Put simply, the internet made sex work, on the whole, safer by giving consensual sex workers a marketplace away from the streets and the ability to screen potentially dangerous clients.

Sex Workers and their supporters protest a police raid on Oct. 25, 2016, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, saying shutting down sites like Backpage.com exposes them to more risk.

pix]

These gains in worker safety benefited a large portion of Americans, and the reason is simple: The nation’s sex work industry is enormous. The National Institutes of Health estimate that sex work in the U.S. generates $14 billion per year in economic activity. That makes sex work a significant American industry, on par in revenue with the streaming music industry.

As police and politicians conflated sex trafficking with sex work, journalists dutifully followed along. A study from the University of Minnesota of 1,500 news articles from 1995 to 2014 found a dramatic increase in the media’s use of “sex trafficking” in place of “prostitution.” That trend hasn’t reversed. A local news report from Florida last year described a standard prostitution bust as being part of “a sweeping sex trafficking investigation.” Or consider a local news report from South Dakota, where an undercover cop posed as an underage sex worker in a prostitution sting. The TV anchor described it as “an undercover sex trafficking investigation,” even though no one involved was being trafficked. A right-wing sheriff in Florida fashioned a national profile by running prostitution stings and hosting chest-beating press conferences that promote how he’s bravely fighting “human trafficking.”

Backpage became the world’s internet brothel. It was the same legal business alt-weeklies had been in for decades, now operating at an industrial scale.

In August 2010, 17 attorneys general banded together in a letter pressuring Craigslist to take down its adult ads. It wasn’t a legal threat; federal judges had upheld the legality of such ads since their days on the back pages of alt-weeklies. Instead, the attorneys general were mounting a coordinated pressure campaign. And it worked. Bowing to the coercion, Craigslist shuttered its adult section, slapping the word “CENSORED” across it on the website.

Suddenly, adult ads flooded into the also-ran, Backpage, and the company’s annual revenue skyrocketed from $11.7 million to $78 million in just a few years. Backpage became the world’s internet brothel. It was the same legal business alt-weeklies had been in for decades, now operating at an industrial scale.

Backpage’s owners, Arizona newspaper moguls Michael Lacey and James Larkin, believed they could withstand what the nerds at Craigslist couldn’t. After all, they were career alt-weekly publishers, owning 17 papers nationwide, including the Village Voice, LA Weekly, and Miami New Times. They’d printed adult ads in the back pages of their papers for decades. How could the internet be any different?

Political Opportunism

As the world’s largest platform for adult ads, Backpage became the target of withering scrutiny and sensational claims that it was encouraging child sexual exploitation. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof led the charge with stories headlined “When Backpage.com Peddles Schoolgirls for Sex” and “Google and Sex Traffickers Like Backpage.com.”

Protestors gathered outside the Village Voice’s office in New York. They held up signs reading “End Sex Trafficking” and “Women and Girls Will Not Be Silenced.” An anonymously run website, VillageVoicePimps.com, aggregated reports of violence and sexual exploitation.

The drumbeat drowned out a more complicated reality. Backpage, whose owners and employees knew large amounts of its ads were using ambiguous language to promote illegal sex work, was minting money by cynically pushing First Amendment protections and internet laws to their legal limits. Backpage, though, didn’t turn a blind eye to possible harm. One of the company’s executives had received an award from the FBI for working proactively with law enforcement. Prosecutors at the Justice Department had even advised against filing criminal charges involving Backpage after concluding, in an internal memo, that “Backpage genuinely wanted to get child prostitution off of its site.”

Politicians, on the other hand, saw blood in the water.

FILE - In this April 25, 2014 file picture California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who as a prosecutor once specialized in child sexual assault cases addresses the Domestic Human Trafficking symposium in Los Angeles, Trafficking, forced labor and modern slavery are big business generating profits estimated at $150 billion a year, the U.N. labor agency said Tuesday May 20, 2014. The report by the International Labor Organization finds global profits from involuntary workers an estimated 21 million of them have more than tripled over the past decade from its estimate of at least $44 billion in 2005. ILO Director Guy Ryder said his agency?s report Tuesday calls attention to the need ?to eradicate this fundamentally evil, but hugely profitable practice as soon as possible.? (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes,File)

Then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris addresses the Domestic Human Trafficking symposium in Los Angeles on April 25, 2014. Photo: Damian Dovarganes/AP

Vice President Kamala Harris, then the ambitious attorney general of California, boasted of being tough on human trafficking. In 2016, while running for U.S. Senate, she filed criminal charges against Backpage’s owners. The case garnered Harris national headlines — What politician doesn’t want to be seen as tough on child sex trafficking? — but a judge threw out most of the charges shortly after the newly elected Harris was sworn into the Senate. Her case hadn’t helped end exploitation at Backpage, but it had launched her into national politics.

Around this time, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain’s think tank, the McCain Institute, focused its efforts on human trafficking. His wife, Cindy, became a self-appointed expert in the subject. McCain Institute reports circulated in Washington, pointing the finger at Backpage for sex trafficking cases in the United States.

The McCains had a wounded history with the owners of Backpage, who started their publishing company in Arizona with the muckraking alt-weekly Phoenix New Times. The paper had written unflatteringly about the McCains for decades and in the mid-1990s revealed how Cindy McCain was stealing painkillers from her medical charity — a story headlined with the very alt-weekly pun “Opiate for the Mrs.” Cindy spun the scandal as a story of addiction and redemption, but it dogged her husband through his failed presidential bids.

Political chicanery and sensational news reports about sex trafficking fueled each other, creating a media environment by 2016 in which Americans had been inundated with reports about sex trafficking and online classifieds. Just as Americans had come to believe that strangers were abducting thousands of children in the 1980s, we came to believe that child sex trafficking was endemic, with hundreds of thousands of our kids at risk.

In April 2018, bowing to pressure from Harris, McCain, and other elected officials, the Justice Department seized Backpage and filed criminal charges against its owners. None of the charges alleged sex trafficking — of either children or adults. The government accused Backpage’s owners and executives of money laundering and facilitating prostitution. Because prostitution is not a federal crime, the Justice Department filed charges under the Travel Act, which outlaws interstate activities intended to violate state laws.

In the first Backpage trial, federal prosecutors repeatedly referred to “child sex trafficking” — even though none of the charges alleged such activity — forcing the judge to declare a mistrial. In November 2023, a federal jury in Arizona convicted Backpage’s principals following a second trial. Lacey was convicted on one count of money laundering, acquitted on another, and no verdict was reached on the other charges, many of which were thrown out by a judge this week ahead of an possible retrial. He faces sentencing in June. Larkin took his own life in 2023, on the eve of the second trial.

Any of the nation’s alt-weeklies — which published the same types of adult ads that Backpage did — could have faced the same charges decades earlier, but prosecutors had deferred to First Amendment protections.

Until the political pressure ramped up on Backpage.

wiki manhat

2020s

During the early 2020s, City Journal has attracted widespread national attention for its role in elevating debates on critical race theory, LGBTQ+ topics in education, and similar issues in the United States.^[7][8][9] Contributor Christopher Rufo, in particular, has drawn attention for writing numerous pieces in the magazine that often focus on these matters. In articles published by City Journal, Rufo has accused Seattle's Office of Civil Rights of "endorsing principles of segregationism, group-based guilt, and race essentialism",^[7] highlighted Disney and Twitter workers who have been convicted of child sexual abuse,^[8] suggested that there were significant levels of "'grooming' in public schools",^[8] accused a California curriculum designer of wanting to make children "chant to the gods Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli, and Xipe Totek",^[9] compared the diversity training conducted by the city of Seattle to "cult programming",^[9] and accused an Oregon school district of promoting revolutionary Marxist ideas.^[9]^

---

https://www.mediamatters.org/diversity-discrimination/right-wing-medias-shameful-history-defending-pedophilia-and-sexualizing

mma 6 23

Over the past year, the far right’s obsession with accusing its opponents of pedophilia has become a staple of the modern Republican playbook. Conservative media stars and GOP elected officials have used baseless accusations of sexual abuse and child “grooming” to attack Democrats and demonize the LGBTQ rights movement across the nation.

A review of the right’s hypocrisy on pedophilia and abuse found that conservative media personalities have repeatedly made comments promoting the sexualization of children, while others have defended figures who have been accused of abuse or pedophilia — and several reported abusers have even worked in right-wing media themselves.

The right-wing fixation with pedophilia dates back decades and has been a central facet in dangerous right-wing conspiracy theories including Pizzagate and QAnon, both of which have led to real-world violence. Baseless pedophilia accusations have been used by the right to discredit and attack the LGBTQ rights movement and any figure or symbol that they disagree with — from Elmo and public libraries to a plethora of businesses and organizations.

The moral panic behind these accusations puts the real lives of LGBTQ people at risk. These groundless allegations have led to neo-Nazi encroachment at Pride events and calls for violence against pro-LGBTQ people and organizations, including children’s hospitals.

As we enter Pride Month — a time of the year that has invigorated right-wing extremists in their attacks against LGBTQ people — allies, political leaders, and businesses must not succumb to bad-faith actors making groundless accusations against these underrepresented communities.

Here is a non-comprehensive breakdown of right-wing media figures and organizations who have either made comments that promote or mock the sexualization of minors, or supported or defended figures who have been accused of abuse or pedophilia:

---

// to voter fraud, always by GOP?!

https://www.alternet.org/registered-sex-offender-charlie-kirk/

no lnx

'Beyond hypocritical': Charlie Kirk’s recent Pastors Summit was funded by a 'registered sex offender'

Maya Boddie May 27, 2023

Right-wing host and Turning Point USA Chief Executive Officer Charlie Kirk' second-annual Pastors Summit, held in Nashville, Tennessee, was sponsored by "a registered sex offender," Rolling Stone reports.

Rolling Stone notes Kirk has been outspoken amid conservative-led criticism of Target for selling transgender-inclusive youth apparel, alleging the corporation shows "support for grooming kids."

The publication reports:

:{:{}:

Rolling Stone has learned that one of the TPUSA summit's corporate sponsors is a Christian fashion company that is led by a registered sex offender, Shawn Bergstrand, who served time in federal prison for attempted 'coercion and enticement' after trying to persuade 'a minor female” to 'engage in sexual activity.'

:{:{}:

READ MORE: Charlie Kirk’s attempt to call out left’s hypocrisy goes up in flames

:{:{}:

CEO if Rightside Up — a "Christian 'lifestyle apparel' company" — Bergstrand is "a registered sex offender in North Dakota," after being "convicted in 2014 for attempted 'coercion and enticement.'"

:{:{}:

Per Rolling Stone, "a redacted indictment shows" the CEO "was originally charged with attempting to 'entice and coerce a minor female … to engage in prostitution and sexual activity,'" and "despite facing a maximum of 20 years in jail," he "received a sentence of one year in prison, and five years of supervised release."

However, Bergstrand "was discharged from supervision more than a year early in 2018."

University of North Georgia professor Matthew Boedy revealed the sex offender's connection to TPUSA to Rolling Stone, saying, "I'm all for second chances and paying your debt to society. Even perhaps creating a brand based on how you overcame your own terrible decisions.But for Turning Point and Charlie Kirk to highlight this particular person — whose crime involved a child and attempted sexual acts — while decrying 'groomers' and sending mobs to stores who sell products they don’t like, is beyond hypocritical."

READ MORE: 'Spectacularly obtuse white supremacy': Charlie Kirk lambasted for asking if 'white people' get reparations

The professor added, "It's even more outrageous that this business was promoted to a group of pastors who likely had no idea of this person's story. I can only hope Kirk practices what he preaches and takes responsibility."

Kirk, in response to Rolling Stone's reporting, said during the summit, "First of all, it's not my Turning Point. It's the Lord’s Turning Point. I am both a Christian and a nationalist, but most importantly, I'm a Christian."

READ MORE: 'It's worth it': Charlie Kirk calls school shootings 'a prudent deal' to protect the Second Amendment

Rolling Stone's full report is available at this link (subscription required).

---

rww 3 23

rick Scarborough—a self-described “Christocrat,” strident anti-LGBTQ activist, and longtime critic of public education—has his sights set on taking over public education in Texas this year. He intends to do so by taking over school boards and fearmongering about public school students “being groomed by homosexuals and the trans perverts [and] recruited into their evil lifestyles.”

:{:{}:

Last week, Scarborough revealed another aspect of his strategy. about his intention to take over school boards at an event organized by the Texas Tea Party Republican Women, Scarborough admitted that he is trying to “take over America” for Jesus and is working to “expunge this entire state of every immoral book in the library.”

Scarborough began his remarks by recounting how, earlier in his career, he had been portrayed in the media a right-wing theocrat intent on forcing his far-right Christian views on the nation. That was an accurate assessment, Scarborough now admits.

“They went after me as trying to take over the town, trying to take over America,” Scarborough said. “And, in all honesty, I was, but I couldn’t say that. I mean, why not take it over for Jesus?”

“Sixty-eight percent of the teachers in Texas, by poll … now believe that the LGBTQ agenda should be taught and embraced,” Scarborough complained later in his speech. “We’re grooming our children for pedophiles. That’s what’s happening. Now, let me tell you what I’m going to spend the rest of my life doing—and by God’s grace, if I can raise the budget and get people behind me: In four years, I want to expunge this entire state of every immoral book in the library. Call me a Nazi, call me a book-burner, I’ve been called worse." [vid]

scarborough has plenty of company. Right-wing politicians and political groups are restricting the freedom to learn by demanding the removal of books they don’t like—often those featuring Black or LGBTQ characters—from schools and public libraries. In Texas, the author of the state’s anti-abortion bill is drafting local ordinances that would allow citizens to sue librarians over “immoral content.”

---

no lnx vid

https://www.mediamatters.org/diversity-discrimination/non-exhaustive-list-everything-and-everyone-right-accused-grooming

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

A non-exhaustive list of everything and everyone the right accused of grooming

From Joe Biden to Fox News, no one was safe from the right’s bigoted smear campaign

Written by Beatrice Mount & Alyssa Tirrell

Published 01/23/23

Content warning: This article includes extended discussion of sexual violence and LGBTQ hate. The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline, which can be reached at 800-656-4673 or online via hotline.rainn.org. Trans lifeline, a hotline staffed by and created for transgender and nonbinary people, can be reached at 1-877-565-8860 or translifeline.org. The Trevor Project’s crisis intervention and suicide prevention hotline for LGBTQ youth can be reached at 866-488-7386 or through thetrevorproject.org/get-help/.

Last year, no one — not even Elmo — dodged the right’s bigoted groomer smear campaign. Accusations that individual people, organizations, and companies were engaged in widespread attempts to groom children (either sexually or into a so-called LGBTQ lifestyle) reached staggering levels in 2022, spreading from social media platforms and conservative cable all the way to representatives in Washington.

Grooming is a set of manipulative behaviors abusers use for the explicit purpose of forming a sexual relationship with minors. Right-wing media outlets and figures misappropriated the term, drawing on old and bigoted stereotypes that LGBTQ people are a sexual threat to minors in order to perpetuate hate — turning a once useful term into a de facto anti-LGBTQ slur.

This rhetoric supported dangerous bans on life-saving trans healthcare, a directive investigating parents who support their trans children, legislation revoking the parental rights of LGBTQ allies, and vague laws restricting any mention of LGBTQ people in the classroom. The smear has also contributed to a wave of anti-LGBTQ violence — including armed terrorists storming drag queen story hours and family-friendly pride events, death threats against gay politicians, and bomb threats against Children’s Hospitals.

Mainstream press perpetuated the smear by platforming its architects in puff-piece profiles and articles framing LGBTQ rights as a political debate. By the time the Associated Press had officially released guidance against uncritically repeating the slur, groomer was already the right’s catchall for the LGBTQ community.

Select accusation

Transgender People

The use of the word groomer to refer to transgender people echoes a tactic utilized in the early 2000s against gay people. Grooming was already misappropriated when applied to LGBTQ acceptance or same-sex marriage and now the right has expanded the definition even further in an effort to frame the existence of trans people as an encouragement of sexual acts. Hate spread by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA), right-wing influencer Will Witt, conspiracy theorist James Lindsay, and Gays Against Groomers founder Jaimee Michell, was buoyed by anti-trans coverage on Fox News that fearmongered around trans representation, healthcare, and the notion of transness.

Drag Queens

Referring to drag performers as groomers has created the false impression that drag performance is inherently sexual or that it encourages gender dysphoria. Right-wing media figures, such as conservative podcasters Owen Shroyer and Steve Bannon, Fox News hosts Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity, and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson claimed that drag performers were intentionally sexualizing children. Other figures, including OAN host Dan Ball and right-wing commentator Dominique Samuels, claimed that this alleged sexualization is an effort to indoctrinate children into leftism. In even more extreme cases, the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh encouraged or excused direct violence against drag performers. These smears have fueled a violent political atmosphere and targeted attacks. Mainstream media has noted the uptick in the presence of Proud Boys and other violent protesters outside of drag events across the country, individual drag queens have expressed concern for their own safety, and some performers have been the victims of online harassment campaigns.

Video

Citation From the October 19, 2022, edition of The Daily Wire's The Matt Walsh Show

Pride Parades

During Pride Month, right-wing media utilized the groomer slur to fearmonger around pride events, going so far as to doctor footage of drag performances in an effort to mobilize extremist reactions. Right-wing influencers such as Chaya Raichik, creator of Libs of TikTok, and avowed Christian fascist Kelly Neidert, targeted specific gatherings. Meanwhile, OAN’s In Focus, Real America and Tipping Point segments waged a more generalized campaign of hate against pride events.

Extremism researchers and LGBTQ activists drew a direct connection between this bigoted smear campaign and the far-right extremists who protested pride parades, including the highly publicized arrest of white nationalist group Patriot Front, in which police charged dozens of members with conspiracy to riot.

The Entire LGBTQ Community

In addition to targeting specific LGBTQ people or groups, right-wing media accounts such as Libs of TikTok, OAN personalities Landon Starbuck and Alison Steinberg, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, right-wing podcasters Tim Pool, Allie Beth Stuckey, Matt Walsh, and Freddy Silva, and conservative commentators Christopher Rufo and Dave Rubin made generalized claims against the entire LGBTQ community. Following a severe uptick in the use of the word groomer on right-wing social media accounts, evidence that the slur contributed to real-world violence against LGBTQ people, and calls for guidance from organizations, including Media Matters, some social media outlets incorporated the slur into their hate speech policies. The Associated Press eventually cautioned against uncritical use of the slur, but on social media, regulation and enforcement remain varied.

Club Q

After the mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, right-wing figures blamed the LGBTQ community for motivating violence against themselves. They weaponized the groomer slur in a confusing response that oscillated between excusing anti-LGBTQ violence and denying any culpability right-wing media bore in stoking anti-LGBTQ sentiment. Far-right trolls subsequently harassed Club Q survivors both on and offline — dubbing the man who disarmed the shooter a groomer. The House Oversight Committee held a hearing on the rise in anti-LGBTQ extremism following the shooting, during which Republican representatives claimed that their Democratic colleagues were using the tragedy as a means of smearing the right. The hearing was followed by GAG founder Jaimee Michell slandering one witness who had appeared before the representatives as a groomer.

WATCH: Club Q shooting survivor Michael Anderson testifies before House Oversight Committee hearing on violence against LGBTQ+ community.

“Hate speech turns into hate action, and actions based on hate almost took my life...at 25 years old.” pic.twitter.com/2c3QEaompc

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 15, 2022

Teachers, Schools, School Districts, and School Boards

Right-wing media figures Libs of TikTok, Tucker Carlson, Jesse Watters, James Lindsay, Christopher Rufo, OAN’s Kara McKinney, and the Daily Wire’s Candace Owens contributed to the false claims that inclusive curriculum, the teachers who support it, and the school boards that fund it were all guilty of sexually grooming children. As a result, multiple teachers and school board members were harassed, threatened, and doxxed after becoming the right’s target of the week. Meanwhile conservative educational organizations who oppose LGBTQ representation in schools began to plan their own counter-curriculums at the state and federal level. Nevertheless, a record number of LGBTQ people ran for school board positions in 2022.

High School GSA’s

Gay/Straight Alliance organizations and clubs have existed for over thirty years as a means of providing community to LGBTQ students. In 2022, they faced new scrutiny under the gaze of figures such as Christopher Rufo and OAN hosts Dan Ball and Addison Smith, who accused the clubs of grooming children and keeping information from parents.

Librarians and Libraries

Far-right outlets like OAN and activists like Chistopher Rufo gave voice to a broad campaign of hate that accused libraries and librarians of grooming children by including LGBTQ materials or hosting drag queen story hours. Many local libraries and librarians faced censorship, funding complications, and counter protests. In response, some libraries have considered privatizing while others remain public and committed to a pro-LGBTQ stance.

Elmo

BlazeTV host Chad Prather told OAN that Sesame Street character Elmo was a groomer after the beloved puppet received his COVID-19 vaccine. “I've always said that Elmo is a groomer anyway. They use these puppets to try to influence kids with their agenda.” Prather continued, “This actually should be illegal. You are pushing — I mean, what happens in a month? Is Elmo going to get a vasectomy? How much can we continue to push on this medical tyranny on our kids using a puppet?”

Video

Citation From the July 1, 2022, edition of OAN's Real America with Dan Ball

Books

Alongside right-wing legislative efforts aimed at schools and libraries, 2022 saw a concerted effort to ban LGBTQ books under the guise of protecting children from grooming. Many of these policies were successfully implemented.

American Girl

American Girl released “A Smart Girl’s Guide: Body Image,” discussing practical and intersectional advice about body image and gender identity — which Jaimee Michell called the “definition of grooming.” Others called for a boycott of American Girl for promoting “transgender ideology” to kids — or as one right-wing commentator put it, “using girls’ love of dolls as a Trojan horse to teach them to destroy their bodies.” American Girl stood by the book, emphasizing:

“The content in this book was developed in partnership with medical and adolescent care professionals and consistently emphasizes the importance of having conversations and discussing any feelings with parents or trusted adults. … We are committed to delivering content that leaves our readers feeling informed, confident, and positive about themselves.”

Hospitals and Doctors

Libs of TikTok instigated a series of online harassment campaigns against specific hospitals and doctors, falsely conflating gender-affirming care to mutilation, child abuse, and grooming. The effort was later amplified by other media figures such as Jesse Kelly, Matt Walsh, and Terry Schilling. Enraged followers left online comments and voicemails labeling health care providers groomers. This led to a series of bomb threats. As a result, some facilities limited either their care or the information on their websites, making it more difficult for trans people to access gender-affirming care.

Parents

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, conservative “parody” site Babylon Bee’s CEO Seth Dillon, conservative commentators Steven Crowder and Tim Young, Fox News guest Jimmy Failla, and Candace Owens contributed to claims that parents who expose their children to LGBTQ themes or supported their LGBTQ children were themselves groomers. This trend continues to fuel new legislative efforts. Gov. Abbott directed Texas state agencies to investigate parents and medical caregivers of trans youth. Florida Republicans proposed legislation criminalizing adults taking children to drag shows while Republicans in Idaho, Alabama, and Michigan proposed legislation criminalizing guardians providing gender-affirming care to their children.

Video

Citation From the November 17, 2022, edition of Louder with Crowder, streamed on Rumble

Democrats

Leading up to the 2022 midterm elections, Republicans and right-wing media figures spread anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in an effort to rally their base. Fox News host Laura Ingraham, conservative podcaster Liz Wheeler and Jesse Kelly, Steve Bannon, and Matt Walsh associated grooming with the Democratic party or the left more broadly. After the election, Media Matters noted that political attacks on LGBTQ people and supporters failed to produce the victory Republicans had promised.

President Joe Biden

In addition to the Democratic party, some right-wing media figures turned the groomer slur against individual politicians. OAN’s Chanel Rion accused President Joe Biden of being the “groomer-in-chief” during a rant against gender-affirming health care. In her segment, Rion claimed that grooming was the first step in a top-down leftist strategy to “sterilize your children, abort your babies, discourage nuclear families, and encourage non-reproducing unions.”

Video

Citation From the April 9, 2022, edition of OAN's Weekly Briefing

U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health Admiral Rachel Levine

On Transgender day of Visibility, Tucker Carlson claimed that “No one's attacking transgender kids, young people,” denying evidence that shows “transgender people are four times more likely than cisgender people to be the victims of violent crime.” Carlson falsely claimed that most trans youth “have been led to where they are by adult predators,” a statement which he then used to introduce a segment on the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health Adm. Rachel Levine.

The Proposed U.S. Budget

The groomer slur reached such prevalence that it became a go-to smear for Democratic policies and agendas. In an extreme example, The Blaze’s Daniel Horowitz claimed that Democrats were promoting “grooming throughout the federal budget and international relations budget.” Horowitz did not elaborate.

Title IX and the U.S. Department of Agriculture

Steve Bannon claimed the Biden administration was “going to hold back the school lunch program … until they fully implement the grooming project.” Bannon’s claim reflected a right-wing media lie that the Biden administration was withholding funds for meal programs from schools that did not comply with proposed rule changes to Title IX and USDA policy, which prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Conservatives slammed the recommendations, with Florida Education Commissioner promising Florida’s education department “will not stand idly by as federal agencies attempt to impose a sexual ideology on Florida schools” last July. The Advocate reported on the link between these smears and a wave of threats to schools last June.

Fox News

After Fox News ran a positive segment with a trans teenager, anti-trans activists and other right-wing media members lost their minds — most notably Terry Schilling. Schilling told OAN he “felt really betrayed” by Fox News for participating in what host Chanel Rion called a “concerted effort to normalize the transgender agenda in conservative circles.” Schilling then expressed doubt about whether Fox News shared his deep concern with children’s ability to orgasm. Fox, for its part, remains deeply committed to their anti-trans ethos.

Obergefell and the Respect for Marriage Act

Fearing that the Supreme Court would overturn Obergefell v. Hodges and end national marriage equality, Congress passed the Respect for Marriage Act, which affirmed a federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriage. As the act made its way through Congress, right-wing figures including Alex Breusewitz, Lauren Chen, James Lindsay, and Kelly Neidert turned to old, slippery-slope claims that protecting same-sex marriage would normalize grooming and pedophilia. Right-wing media continued spiraling after Biden signed the bill into law in December, with Daniel Horowitz telling OAN the act is “about reinforcing a national grooming.”

Video

Citation From the December 17, 2022 edition of MSNBC's Symone

California State Sen. Scott Wiener

State Senator Scott Wiener was doxxed and received multiple bomb and death threats for his work protecting LGBTQ civil rights, which he connected to “extreme homophobic and transphobic” rhetoric from right-wing media and lawmakers. One email called the openly gay lawmaker a “pedophile” and “groomer” and threatened to “fucking kill” him.

The Proposed Transgender Bill of Rights

Terry Schilling dubbed a House resolution to create a Transgender Bill of Rights “a groomer manifesto because it goes into education and healthcare.” Despite support by more than 30 organizations, including the National Center for Transgender Equality and National Education association, the bill has yet to advance.

Dylan Mulvaney and Ulta Beauty

Last October, Meta largely ignored OAN host Alison Steinberg’s harassment campaign against TikTok influencer and Broadway actor Dylan Mulvaney. After Mulvaney interviewed Biden about anti-trans legislation and hate, Steinberg suggested Mulvaney is “a government plant” and compared Mulvaney’s content celebrating her journey as a transgender woman to sexual indoctrination. That same month, the right launched the #BoycottUlta campaign after Ulta interviewed Mulvaney for their YouTube series “The Beauty of…” — which one OAN host likened to watching “the bones of our once great civilization” get “picked clean by vultures.” Mulvaney discussed the emotional toll of the hate and harassment with Today and continues using her platform of over eight million subscribers to stand up for the trans community.

Jeffrey Marsh

The right turned TikTok influencer and nonbinary activist Jeffrey Marsh into the target of an online harassment campaign by equating their uplifting videos preaching self-acceptance with grooming. Marsh and their partner addressed the hate and death threats in a Tiktok video in May:

@thejeffreymarsh those pesky little death threats! #relationships #lgbt #happy #truelove #nonbinary #rainbow #mentalhealth ♬ original sound - Jeffrey Marsh

Yoel Roth

:{:{}:

Twitter CEO Elon Musk smeared former Twitter Head of Trust & Safety Yoel Roth by implying Roth wanted to expose children to explicit material. The allegation prompted responses from a range of right-wing commentators, including Tim Pool, who tweeted: “This tweet just clarified why the term 'groomer' was considered 'hate speech' on Twitter.” The smear campaign and ensuing threats forced Roth to flee his home.}:

Pizza Hut

Right-wing media and hate groups accused Pizza Hut of “exploiting America’s children to be ‘groomed’ by wokeness” and pushing “the indoctrination agenda” by adding LGBTQ inclusive books to their BOOK IT! Program. The BOOK IT! Program has incentivized reading in elementary aged kids nationwide since 1984. A book about finding acceptance as a member of the LGBTQ community proved too much for conservative media, as pundits promptly called for a Pizza Hut boycott, which did not materialize.

State Farm Insurance

State Farm faced widespread backlash after backing out of plans to fund the GenderCool Project’s LGBTQ books program following a coordinated, right-wing media harassment campaign, which falsely equated the program with grooming and child indoctrination. The program would have provided age-appropriate LGBTQ books to schools who voluntarily sign up.

Oreos

Conservatives demanded Oreo “stop sexualizing children” and vowed to boycott their “gay cookies” after Oreo released a two-minute short film about coming out. The film accompanied a $500,000 donation to PFLAG — the nation’s first and largest organization supporting LGBTQ people and their families through advocacy, education, and community support.

Stop sexualizing children, @oreo.

— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) April 4, 2022

Target

Last May, conservative media accused Target of going “all in on gender grooming” after the retailer rolled out Pride-themed and transgender-inclusive clothing lines. They characterized Target’s products, which ranged from chest binders to to kids’ tees saying “trans rights are human rights,” as an inappropriate attempt at “indoctrinating the youth into the transgender ideology.” Target stood by the LGBTQ community despite boycott calls from hate groups like the Family Research Council.

World Aquatics: the International Swimming Federation (formerly known as FINA)

OAN host Addison Smith claimed World Aquatics’ (formerly known as FINA) ban on transfeminine athletes who transitioned after age 12 would “promote child transgenderism.” A spokesperson for World Aquatics had already dismissed this characterization as “ridiculous.” World Aquatics received more criticism for an exclusionary policy that amounted to discrimination against transgender athletes.

The state of New Jersey

As MMFA’s Mia Gingerich noted, Fox News falsely claimed New Jersey subjected first and second graders to “predatory grooming” and “psychological torture” after the state implemented new, LGBTQ-inclusive student health and physical education standards. The network misleadingly conflated one sample lesson plan from one school district, which was not implemented, with the 2020 state standards in order to malign trans people and rekindle their attacks on comprehensive and inclusive sex education.

Disney

After Disney came out against Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill (following a walkout by Disney employees), right-wing activist Rufo accused Disney of trying to sexualize children. Fox News and right-wing pundits followed and whined about “woke-ism” poisoning Disney. Months later, cartoon robot Baymax was a part of a nefarious “plan to re-engineer the discourse around kids and sexuality” and proof Disney went “full throttle with this agenda of indoctrination” — because a man wearing a shirt with trans pride colors helped the robot buy tampons. All that whining resulted in an ineffective boycott campaign and limp protests outside Disney World.

Video

Citation From the June 30, 2022, edition of OAN's In Focus

Hollywood

Claims of Hollywood pedophile rings preying on children have been a central part of right-wing conspiracy theories for decades, including the 1980’s Satanic Panic and more recent QAnon conspiracy. Last year, conspiracy theorists and pundits — notably Candace Owens — twisted Disney’s opposition to homophobic legislation, Balenciaga’s PR scandal, and legitimate discussions of sexual abuse from former child stars into further proof Hollywood was uniquely full of groomers among our cultural and political institutions.

By hijacking the conversation around grooming with conspiracy theories, the right has turned child abuse into a demeaning moral crusade that obscures legitimate concerns about predators with flashy fiction. Child sexual abuse is a problem outside of Hollywood, and most abusers aren’t executive producers or directors — they’re the acquaintances, family friends, and family members of their victims. While pretending this isn’t the case may earn Owens views, it makes it harder for victims and survivors — especially queer victims and survivors — to share their story, seek justice, and heal.

The Latest

Benny Johnson mocks Karine Jean-Pierre for being openly gay

01/24/23 2:22 PM EST

Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum to keynote fundraiser for group that “trains leaders to push forward the conservative agenda”

01/24/23 1:48 PM EST

Daily Wire host defends book bans: “If the book is being banned by just and wise and prudent authorities, then maybe don't read the book”

01/24/23 12:43 PM EST

Fox accused Xbox of going “woke” due to new power saving mode

01/24/23 12:15 PM EST

Instagram is allowing a network of white nationalist “groypers” to promote Nick Fuentes' racist ideology on its platform

01/24/23

Diversity & Discrimination

Libs of TikTok

LoTT

Fox News

Anti-LGBTQ hate has increased on Twitter since Elon Musk officially acquired the company

12/13/22 10:17 AM EST

“Doom & Groom”: Fox News has aired 170 segments discussing trans people in the past three weeks

04/08/22 9:38 AM EDT

Right-wing media are pushing for vigilantism against trans people and drag queens. Fascists are answering the call.

06/21/22

---

no lnx vid

https://theintercept.com/2022/12/16/viral-spread-lies-katie-porter-shows-twitters-power-amplify-disinformation/

intercept 12 22

LIES ABOUT REP. KATIE PORTER reached millions ofTwitterusers this week, as the California Democrat’s remarks about how the platform has been used to falsely label LGBTQ+ people as pedophiles were misleadingly edited and captioned in tweets by influential right-wing activists.

:{:{}:

The deceptive clips of Porter’s remarks, accompanied by false claims that she had condoned pedophilia, were viewed more than 2.2 million times on Twitter after being shared by right-wing activist accounts, including Chaya Raichik’s Libs of TikTok and Jaimee Michell’s Gays Against Groomers.

Those video clips were created by Porter’s political enemies, who made it seem as if Porter, at a Congressional oversight hearing on Wednesday, had argued that pedophilia was not a crime but an identity.

Transcripts and video of Porter’s complete remarks make it clear that she was saying something entirely different — namely, that right-wing activists have inspired hatred of LGBTQ+ Americans in tweets falsely accusing them of being pedophiles, or so-called groomers.

[vid]

a spokesperson for Porter also told the fact-checking service VERIFY, which works with local news stations in 29 states, that the representative “did not say that pedophilia is not a crime.”

In an irony that perfectly encapsulates the impossibility of reasoned discourse with far-right activists willing to lie, the video used to smear Porter was taken from her discussion of a report documenting how activist accounts like Libs of TikTok and Gays Against Groomers use Twitter to falsely accuse LGBTQ+ liberals of pedophilia. The report was produced by the LGBTQ+ civil rights organization Human Rights Campaign.

At the hearing, Porter prefaced a question for Kelley Robinson, the HRC president, by saying: “Your organization recently released a report analyzing the 500 most viewed, most influential tweets that identified LGBTQ+ people as so-called groomers. The ‘groomer’ narrative is an age-old lie to position LGBTQ+ people as a threat to kids. And what it does is deny them access to public spaces, it stokes fear, and can even stoke violence.”

Porter then asked Robinson if Twitter’s hateful conduct policy allows users to call LGBTQ+ people “groomers” on the platform.

After Robinson explained that those slurs are used in violation of Twitter’s poorly enforced community guidelines, she added that when people baselessly use words like “groomers” and “pedophiles” to describe LGBTQ+ people, “it is dangerous, and it’s got one purpose: It is to dehumanize us, and make us feel like we are not a part of this American society, and it has real-life consequences.”

Porter responded by saying that she agreed with Robinson that the use of such terms to smear members of LGBTQ+ communities whose politics differ from the far-right activists was intended to marginalize them.

“I think you’re absolutely right,” Porter said. “And it’s not, you know, this allegation of ‘groomer’ and of ‘pedophile,’ it is alleging that a person is criminal somehow, and engaged in criminal acts, merely because of their identity, their sexual orientation, their gender identity. So this is clearly prohibited, under Twitter’s content, yet you found hundreds of these posts on the platform.”

in addition to Raichik and Michell, whose anti-LGBTQ+ activism has previously been amplified by America’s most-watched cable news host, Tucker Carlson, misleading clips of Porter were also shared by Greg Price, a former Republican operative and Daily Caller social media editor; Sebastian Gorka, who was fired by the Trump White House; and Ian Miles Cheong, a far-right Malaysian blogger Elon Musk frequently replies to and agrees with on Twitter.

While the tweets from Cheong and Raichik — who falsely asserted that “Rep Katie Porter (D) says pedophilia isn’t a crime- it’s an identity” — were eventually flagged as misleading by Twitter users, the 1.5 million people who follow Michell, Price, or Gorka encountered no such warning.

Although he did not share the video, Rep. Ronny Jackson, a Texas Republican, also lied about what Porter said on Twitter. “Katie Porter just said that pedophilia isn’t a crime, she said it’s an ‘identity,'” Jackson claimed, falsely. “The sad thing is that this woman isn’t the only VILE person pushing for pedophilia normalization. This is what progressives believe!”

While the HRC report Porter highlighted showed that right-wing activists had violated Twitter’s hateful conduct policy repeatedly before Musk bought the platform, the previous ownership team did make some attempt to rein in Raichik, who was temporarily suspended several times.

Left-Wing Voices Are Silenced on Twitter as Far-Right Trolls Advise Elon Musk

Since Musk took control, however, “retweets of right-wing figures’ tweets that included the anti-LGBTQ ‘groomer’ slur increased substantially, as did mentions of right-wing figures in tweets containing the slur,” according to new data from LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD and Media Matters, a watchdog group that monitors right-wing misinformation.

Michell’s Gays AgainstGroomers account, the study found, “saw an increase of nearly 300% for retweets of tweets with the slur,” comparing the two months before and after Musk took control of the platform. Raichik’s Libs of TikTok “saw more than a 600% increase in its mentions,” over the same period for tweets using “groomer” slurs.

---

mma 12 22

After posting an anti-LGBTQ rant about pronouns and invoking QAnon-related rhetoric, Twitter CEO Elon Musk has now sought to weaponize a well-established QAnon smear tactic to brand Twitter’s former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth as a pedophile. Right-wing media personalities were quick to run with the baseless claims, and Roth was forced to flee his home amid threats.

After the rollout of the fifth installment of the so-called “Twitter Files,” which specifically brought Roth’s actions into question over the decision to ban then-President Donald Trump from the platform, Musk sent two tweets that endorsed baseless claims that Roth had advocated for children to be exposed to sexually explicit online material.

Responding to a resurfaced 2010 tweet from Roth sharing an article discussing whether or not a legal adult who was still in high school could consent to sex with a teacher, Musk wrote, “This explains a lot.” He then posted a one-paragraph excerpt from Roth’s 2016 PhD dissertation on the gay social media dating app Grindr, incorrectly claiming that Roth’s dissertation advocated for “children” being able to access the app.

Musk’s recent attack against Roth mirror tactics commonly used by QAnon adherents, and it comes after Musk posted a known QAnon phrase and has spent his short tenure as he company's self-styled “Chief Twit” openly embracing far-right personalities on the platform. Musk’s actions and tweets have resulted in a meteoric rise in hate speech and harassment toward LGBTQ individuals on the platform, often at the hands of extremists who had previously been banned for spreading hateful rhetoric but were given verified status through Musk’s Twitter Blue feature.

Much of what’s happening on Twitter has coincided with the existing right-wing campaign to smear LGBTQ people and political enemies as “groomers,”which has led to a level of threats and harassment against Roth that forced him to flee his home.

Several prominent right-wing pundits have taken to prime-time news and Twitter to amplify the baseless conspiracy theories against Roth, with others still lobbing anti-LGBTQ attacks that stop short of a full-blown conspiracy theory. A Media Matters’ analysis also found that fringe outlets, including the notorious 4chan board /pol/, saw a significant rise in mentions of Roth’s name and anti-LGBTQ slurs.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham, citing Roth’s past research and tweets, mentioned “pup kink” content and suggested he “wouldn’t see much harm in kids checking it out." She also accused him of standing “with the deviancy” when “the trans fanatics” are “preying on our children.” Ingraham also complained that Roth is “now playing the victim.”
On Twitter, conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec shared a screenshot of Roth’s 12-year-old tweet about “whether high school students can ever meaningfully consent to sex with their teachers” and said: “If only there had been some warning signs about Yoel Roth.”
One America News host Kara McKinney read an excerpt from Roth’s dissertation, saying, “New information is coming to light about Roth and his disturbing proclivities.” McKinney baselessly smeared Roth as being responsible for “child exploitation” on the platform, saying moderation and “the accommodation approach that Roth pioneered may be responsible for the proliferation of unwanted sexual advances, child exploitation, and lewd comments about sexual relationships between adults and children.” McKinney asked her guest, “Do you think it’s part of the overall movement on the left of really pushing down the age of consent lower and lower?” Mckinney’s guest, anti-LGBTQ figure James Lindsay, suggested that pedophilia is “part in parcel" for gay relationships and claimed that “it's quite clear that characters like Roth don't know what a healthy boundary” between minors and adults “looks like.”
Discussing Roth’s dissertation, OAN host Addison Smith claimed that “this so-called LGBTQ comprehensive sex education” is just “cryptic language for … ‘we’re coming for your children; we’ll convert your children.’” Smith later asked his guest, Standing for Freedom Executive Director Ryan Helfenbein, why companies like Twitter “all so explicitly target young kids.” Helfenbein responded calling it “sex Marxism” trying to “deconstruct a child in order to groom them.” Helfenbein called it “demonic” and “straight from the pit of Hell.”
After reading an excerpt of Roth’s dissertation, The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro misrepresented it and said Roth “is recommending Grindr make itself available to 16-17 year old kids so they can hook-up with each other, quote unquote, ‘safely.’”
Right-wing comedian and radio host Tim Young repliedto Roth’s 2010 tweet saying, “This tweet just clarified why the term 'groomer' was considered 'hate speech' on Twitter.”

no lnx

Anti-LGBTQ hate has increased on Twitter since Elon Musk officially acquired the company

12/13/22

“Elon is an Anon”: QAnon community celebrates Elon Musk’s “Follow the White Rabbit” tweet

12/13/22

Right-wing extremists and conspiracy theorists are spreading hate on Twitter with their newly purchased blue check marks

11/10/22

---

https://www.mediamatters.org/tim-pool/tim-pool-responds-club-q-shooting-using-groomer-slur-accusing-lgbtq-communities-harming

---

https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/fox-news-club-q/

mass shooting revert BS

---

https://www.alternet.org/2022/10/proud-boys-members-harass-groomers/

pride event?

---

an 7 22 ME

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, a new op-ed is shedding light on the evolution of Republicans' seemingly contradictory stance on the sexual assault of minors.

According to The Daily Beast, Republicans have gone from wanting to protect children from a fabricated pedophilia ring they accused Democratic leaders of running to forcing children to suffer consequences that might be imposed on them as a result of sexual assault.

The Beast's Eleanor Clift noted the belief of conservatives and their ultimate goal for pregnancies. "Anti-abortion extremists are adamant about seeing every pregnancy through to term, however horrific the circumstances, be it rape or incest," Clift wrote. "At the same time, the GOP is all worked up over elementary school teachers 'grooming' children."

Clift went on to raise questions about the reason for conservatives' adamant dismissal of young rape victims. She wrote, "How can conservatives be so dismissive of a young rape victim unless, of course, this is more about raw politics than health care or education?"

Speaking to The Daily Beast, Kristen Mark a sexual education professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School, weighed in on the definition of the word grooming and how it has been used in a social context. “That word ‘grooming’ has been used as a tool to create hysteria and to create a social panic,” said Mark. “It’s a loaded term, and to be used in that context, it’s frankly inaccurate.”

She went on to discuss how sexual information has been politicized. “There’s a lot of fear around kids learning (sexual) information,” says Mark. “Kids and adolescents have always been kept away, but today they have the internet, and they’re getting information. It’s medically accurate information that’s become a political issue.”

Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), also weighed in on the grounds of child abortion.

“No child should ever go through such tragic abuse as was reportedly perpetrated on this girl by a criminal in this country illegally. Those who commit such crimes should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law," Tobias said in a statement. "Not only has a child been abused in one of the worst ways imaginable, this has also cost another child their life.”

William Galston, a Brookings Institution senior fellow of governance studies, also discussed the connection between grooming and child abortion.

“Republicans are being pushed by their activists to dramatically overshoot the center of gravity,” with ongoing calls for federal and statewide abortion bans, Galston told the news outlet. "If you make that point in a reasonable way, you get attention. But pedophiliac grooming really jumps the shark.”

David Finkelour, a University of New Hampshire sociology professor and the director of Crimes against Children Research Center, also weighed in with his take on the idea of a strict ban on abortion rights.

"Removing all abortion from consideration feels like a way to return to a time when fear of pregnancy stifled sexual license. Wild accusations of pedophilia and grooming feel like a way to scare anyone from talking with children about sex except to say that it is evil and corrupting," Finkelour wrote. "So they are in some ways both trying to restore a condition of imagined sexual innocence to children with some very crude tools.”

---

A 27-year-old right-wing youth pastor from Arlington, Washington has been charged with two counts of third-degree child rape for allegedly sexually abusing a girl who at the time was just 15 years old.

The Everett Herald reports that prosecutors are alleging that Kendal Kippen met a 15-year-old girl at a youth group in 2017, when Kippen was at the time 22 years old.

The two became friends and exchanged contact information, which the girl told prosecutors flattered her at the time. The girl also said that she felt comfortable exchanging her information with Kippen because he was a church leader, which she figured meant he would not take advantage of his position.

The pair's relationship eventually grew to be sexual in nature, however, and prosecutors allege that Kippen repeatedly urged her to not tell anyone about their relationship until she turned 16 years old, which is the legal age of consent in Washington.

Additionally, it appears that the 15-year-old girl wasn't the only member of the church who drew Kippen's attentions, as an anonymous tipster called police in 2020 to report that he had been having "inappropriate relations" with multiple young congregants.

---

7 22 an

Republican candidate in the state of Maryland has been apprehended for concocting an erroneous report riddled with false child trafficking accusations.

On Friday, July 15, Ryan Dark White was taken into custody at the Harford County Detention Center after being arrested, according to a statement released by the sheriff's office.

Per HuffPost: "The Harford County Sherriff’s Office said White, an employee at an adult bookstore in Edgewood, Maryland, falsely reported in April that a girl aged 10 to 12 was being trafficked by a man at the bookstore and forced to perform sex acts on male customers. The sheriff’s office identified both the male and the young girl, and said investigators found no evidence supporting White’s allegations."

Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey R. Gahler weighed in with a response to White's false report saying, “It is shameful that a candidate for public office would make up such a story and use it to further his own political agenda."

Gahler also criticized an unnamed candidate who isn't facing criminal charges as part of the investigation. “It is even more appalling that another individual, who is running for a law enforcement position, would embrace such an obviously false narrative in an effort to gain political traction — nothing more,” Gahler said.

White's arrest follows multiple appearances he reportedly made with Andy Kuhl, who is a Baltimore Count Republican candidate for sheriff. Kuhl's campaign website issued warnings about a so-called "multistate child trafficking operation," per HuffPost.

The website says, “Jon McGreevey and I go undercover to expose these sick and heinous crimes against children. We must bring these criminals to Justice.”

White also went on record saying he took a job at a bookstore in hopes of uncovering an alleged drug distribution operation as he insisted drugs were being sold out of the location.

“They started exploiting children,” White said in a clip uploaded to Kuhl’s campaign website in June. “There’s a child trafficking ring being run through there as well.”

Gahler applauded his office and the resources exhausted to for the false reporting investigation.

“I am beyond grateful this young girl is safe, but extremely disappointed someone would attempt to discredit and disparage the work of the dedicated men and women of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office and Child Advocacy Center,” Gahler said. “Fearmongering and antagonism caused wasted time and energy by our personnel, whose time would have been better served protecting the citizens of Harford County, instead of investigating lies.”

---

an 6 22 badash

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has hired a far right-wing agitator and activist who appeared to support sexual “relationships” between boys as young as 13 and older men.

In 2016 Milo Yiannopoulos said, “I think in the gay world some of the most important, enriching and incredibly life-affirming, important shaping relationships very often between younger boys and older men.”

Those remarks were part of a video in which “Yiannopoulos discussed romantic relationships between teenage boys and adult men while being interviewed for the Drunken Peasants podcast in early 2016,” NBC News had reported in 2017. “Asked whether he was advocating for ‘cross-generational relationships,’ Yiannopoulos said: ‘Yeah, I don’t mind admitting that.'”

At that time, Heavy also reported: “In the video, Yiannopoulos describes how he feels sexual relationships between boys and older men can be positive. He denies he was defending pedophilia in the video, saying that term refers to younger children, not ‘someone who is 13-year-old, who is sexually mature.’ He also says, ‘We get hung up on this sort of child abuse stuff to the point where we are heavily policing consensual adults.'”

Yiannopoulos said in an apology, “I do not advocate for illegal behavior,” and, “I do not support child abuse. It’s a disgusting crime of which I have been a victim.”

Monday afternoon The Hill reported: “Right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos is working as an unpaid intern in the Congressional office of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).”

“Yiannopoulos, 37, announced the job on his Telegram account Monday with a photo of his official intern congressional badge,” The Hill added, noting “Greene’s office confirmed to The Hill that Yiannopoulos is indeed their intern.”

“At the end of April,” The Daily Beast also reports, “the hate-spewing ideologue—once a ubiquitous MAGA figure until he appeared to defend pedophilia in a YouTube video—attended a Greene press conference and, after it wrapped, was escorted with the congresswoman into the Capitol building through a ‘members only’ entrance.”

Rep. Greene has repeatedly attacked the LGBTQ community, and expanded her attacks to the larger liberal voting bloc, suggesting Democrats and anyone who supports LGBTQ people is a pedophile or supports pedophilia. Earlier Monday she posted this, one of several of her tweets calling people “groomer” or using the term “grooming.”

---

hypoc on kids

https://www.alternet.org/2022/04/political-shenanigans-kansas-city-star-torches-josh-hawley-for-his-pseudo-concerns-about-abused-children/

A Missouri attorney is torching Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) for his pseudo concern about abused children in his state. In a blistering op-ed published by The Kansas City Star, attorney Rebecca Randles called out the Republican lawmaker for dropping the ball on an investigation that may have impacted the lives of many abused children.

The op-ed began with a brief comparison of Hawley and newly-confirmed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, whom Hawley strongly opposed. Noting that both individuals have had to make professional decisions that impact the lives of others, Randles explained how Hawley failed to hold up his end of that bargain.

"Her black garment is a metaphor for the difficult decisions she has made that impact the lives of others," Randles wrote in reference to Jackson. "Sen. Josh Hawley’s decisions also impact the lives of others. His garment, however, should be a lime green leisure suit on a hanger. He attracts a lot of attention; he’s loud; he makes a lot of statements. But he doesn’t do anything."

After offering a brief overview of Hawley's unfavorable actions amid Trump's post-election legal battle, she weighed in on the lawmaker's "political shenanigans."

"Hawley’s political shenanigans obscure the truth about victimization. He has introduced legislation about pornography, but only in concert with his bashing of the first Black woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court," she wrote. "When he grilled Jackson on her sentencing of an 18-year-old in a child pornography possession case, he was winking at QAnon true believers’ delusions about fictional networks of celebrity and politician pedophiles. However, Hawley ignores his own failure to protect sexually abused children who are very real."

Randles recalled the 2018 Pennsylvania child abuse case that opened the door for her office's Missouri investigation. At the time, Hawley was the attorney general, but according to Randles, he took very little interest in the case. "On review, my law partners and I found that Missouri had even more," she wrote. "Where was the then-attorney general’s outrage?"

Her office had appealed to Hawley to take action and although he agreed to do so, he abandoned the agreement when he moved on to the Senate and made no effort to express any other concerns about the investigation.

"After we challenged Hawley in letters, through advocacy organizations, and in press conferences, he agreed to investigate priests who had abused children," Randles added. "Then he left for the Senate, having done nothing. He left the so-called 'investigation' to his successor. He did not contact our clients (we have had hundreds). He did not contact us for information, and he did not make any kind of report regarding these abuses."

The op-ed concluded with a blistering statement saying, "Loud. Attention-grabbing. Do-nothing. A lime green leisure suit on a hanger.We challenge Sen. Hawley to take a fresh look at the crimes against children committed in his own state, including allegations against elected officials in his own party, and actually do something to protect kids."

---

an 4 22

Some right-wingers have taken to using “groomer” to describe those who are sensitive to the concerns of LGBT-plus people.

A spokesperson for Florida Governor Ron Desantis tweeted: Don’t Say Gay “would be more accurately described as an Anti-Grooming Bill.”

US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted: “Anyone who opposes anti-grooming laws like the one in Florida is pro-child predator.”

Fox’s Laura Ingraham did a segment called “Doom and Groom.”

I agree with progressives. This is a transparent ploy having little to do with protecting children. Some argue, including Lindsay Beyerstein, that the discourse is an attempt to spread QAnon ideology. A key takeaway from John Stoehr’s interview with Gabriel Rosenberg was that “groomer speech” is being used to harden the line between real conservatives (anti-pedophile) and those who are not (pro-pedophile).

I’m interested in why the typical conservative – not the thought leader or political elite – might use the term. A more interesting reason the right uses “groomer speech” is it’s theequivalent of “bigot” on the left.

The logic appears to be this: if the left can call me a racist for all these things I don’t see as racist, I’m justified in calling the left “groomers” because they want to teach gender and sexual identity to children.

Let’s dig in.

The function of a slur

When someone hears the word “slur,” they are likely thinking of racial slurs referring to racial or ethnic groups in a dehumanizing manner.

The n-word is the paradigmatic example.

But slurs can be defined more broadly as “an insulting or disparaging remark or innuendo,” or words having “a shaming or degrading effect.”

In this sense, we use slurs quite often.

Consider the charge of being a “bigot” - a racist, sexist, homophobe or transphobe. This canbe solely a descriptor of behaviors. But usually, the charge of bigotry is infused with a moral evaluation.

The identified bigot is a bad person who does not live according to what “correct-thinking people” believe is appropriate.

The identified bigot is insulted, shamed and degraded.

But slurs serve a purpose.

The French sociologist Émile Durkheim said deviant behavior has a useful function in society. I can simplify it in three bullet points.

1. When we see deviance and call it out, we clarify right and wrong.

What do you do when you discover that your male coworker thinks women are too emotional to lead a company? Call him out as a sexist! He may see this as slurring his good name, but it can be the catalyst for a positive chain of events. By calling him out, you let him know you think those ideas are morally wrong and damaging to women.

2. When people react to deviant behavior, it strengthens social bonds.

Other people learn the man is a sexist. They come together in a collective denunciation of the man and sexism.

3. After coming together against deviance, they can enact social change.

The collective agreement that sexism is wrong can lead to collective political action and the passing of legislation against sexism.

In this way, a slur can be a small catalyst for social change.

This is one reason why I vacillate between the social niceties necessary for productive exchanges. Slurring someone can end a conversation. But slurring someone can also spark positive social change.

False equivalencies

Although we don’t usually think of them as slurs, calling someone racist, sexist or transphobe is indeed a type of slur.

However.

These slurs are grounded in the link between action or idea.

They are grounded in the fact of the harm done to people.

It’s easy to chart the consequences of someone who believes women are too emotional for leadership positions. They may not hire a qualified woman for a leadership position or listen to women who are in leadership roles. And so calling that out has justification.

Similarly, we are aware of higher rates of suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts among transgender youthand adults. Efforts to suppress healthy conversations around trans identity in public settings can exacerbate the problem. A trans activist is wholly justified in calling someone who’s suppressing these conversations “transphobic.”

People on the right complaining about the left hurling accusations of bigotry at them without basis are usually quite wrong.

But what is the link between discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools and grooming? There is none.

Obviously.

There is no link between discussing sexual orientation and gender identity and setting out to abuse children sexually, or grooming.

There is no link between learning about sexual orientation and gender identity in school and being vulnerable to sexual advances in school.

(Learning does not make kids vulnerable. It makes them powerful).

Claiming that “bigot” is the same as calling someone a “groomer” is a false equivalency. The former alerts us to actual attitudes and behaviors that can lead to harming populations. The former draw spurious links between education and sexual behavior and, in the process, diminish the actual crime of child sexual abuse.

“Groomer,” far from leading to good social change, harms two groups. It introduces noise into pedophilia discourse, making it harder for people to tune into real evidence signaling child sexual abuse. It also prevents discussions about gender and sexual identity. That may increase rates of suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts among LGBT-plus people.

---