June 26, 2023

“It’s all in good fun. If you’re taking it like that, then that’s a you problem. Not an us problem."

Said Kelly Autorina, "a longtime parade veteran" and "'huge supporter' of drag," quoted in "NYC Pride Parade revelers sound off on controversial Drag March chant: 'Just adding fuel to the fire'" (NY Post).

The chant was "We’re here! We’re queer! We’re coming for your children!"

Of course, it was satire. The question is whether it's too cruel — or impolitic — to satirize the fear that drag performers are trying to sexualize children. 

The linked article ends with this quote from Jimmie O’Brien, "a 66-year-old gay man from NYC: "I think humor is the truth that breaks everything. When humor comes out, that’s where inspiration comes from. When it doesn’t come out, it’s repressed. And then it comes out as anger." 

And yet we no longer feel free to openly mock gay people (something that was routine in mainstream speech and entertainment a few decades ago). And it's certainly not a generally understood social norm that the person who says something "in good fun" can brush off anyone who takes offense at their fun. 

But laughing at your opponents is a tactic. "We’re here! We’re queer! We’re coming for your children!" is very funny in the Drag March context. But when you're in a larger social/political battle, you've got to consider how that will look clipped out. 

173 comments:

deepelemblues said...

"Of course, it was satire."

Was it?

Owen said...

Good analysis of how humor is weaponized for political purposes. There are at least two readings of this chant --as a true statement of intention and practice in the "wider world" and as a satirical provocation to those hypersensitive types who, would you believe it, take it seriously?!? And IMHO these enable the "Motte and Bailey" game to be played to perfection. Motte (the hard rhetorical position) = we really are coming for your kids. Bailey (the easier position) = just kidding! Can't you take a joke?

Humperdink said...

The chant: "We’re coming for your children!"

AA: "Of course, it was satire."

Satire? I think not. Reports of teachers shielding parents from trans counselling at school have surfaced.

Meade said...

Who threw the first brick at the Drag March?

Enigma said...

Is this how the left rediscovers humor? How they accept black comedy? They purged jokes as insensitive and anti-PC but also cannot attack the transgendered community in any way. Mental compromise needed! Growth needed! Standards and rules essential!!!!

This 2023 dark humor is identical to the John Waters anti-establishment films of the 1970s and 1980s, often starring the 300 lb transvestite "Divine." Divine rose to fame for picking up and eating dog poop:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_(performer)

The Waters film "Female Trouble" (1974) has an exchange where the 'adult' is pushing the 'youth' to be gay. Is this humor okay today or non-Woke?

[Dialogue from "Female Trouble," between Edith Massey and Michael Potter]
[Aunt Ida Nelson:] "Have you met any nice boys in the salon?"
[Gator:] "Oh, pretty nice."
[Aunt Ida:] "I mean any nice queer boys. Did you fool with any of them?"
[Gator:] "Aunt Ida, you know I dig women."
[Aunt Ida:] "Aw, don't tell me that."
[Gator:] "Christ, let's not go through this again."
[Aunt Ida:] "All those beauticians, and you don't have any boy dates?"
[Gator:] "I don't want any boy dates."
[Aunt Ida:] "Oh honey, I'd be so happy if you turned nelly."
[Gator:] "Hey, no way. I'm straight. I mean I like a lot of queers, but I don't dig their equipment, y'know? I like women."
[Aunt Ida:] "But you can change. Queers are just better. I'd be so proud if you was a fag, and had a nice beautician boyfriend. I'd never have to worry."
[Gator:] "There ain't nothing to worry about."
[Aunt Ida:] "I'm worried that you'll work in an office, get married, have children, celebrate wedding anniversaries. The world of heterosexuals is a sick and boring life."
[Gator:] "Sometimes I think you're fucking crazy. I'm real happy just the way I am."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_Trouble
https://genius.com/Sloppy-seconds-i-dont-wanna-be-a-homosexual-lyrics

I'm so confused. Tell me the Woke rules again.

Ann Althouse said...

"'Of course, it was satire.' Was it?"

It was obviously intended to make fun of the people who criticize them for coming after children.

I'm not addressing the extent to which they are, in fact, coming for children. The humor smokescreens that matter, which remains important. I think they themselves would concede, in a serious conversation, that they are at the very least coming for children in the sense that they want to teach children to feel accepting and good about gay and transgender people.

Meade said...

Calm down, I was joking.

Jersey Fled said...

The problem is that it’s too close to home.

When you advocate for explicit depictions of gay sex in grammar school libraries, it’s hard not to conclude that they are indeed “after our children”

Immanuel Rant said...

I think the humor would come across easier if men on bikes at the parade weren't showing their junk to kids and another man in underwear wasn't twerking for families in the crowd.

Or maybe I am missing *that* as satire.

RoseAnne said...

I think it makes it more difficult for people who would ordinarily be allies to their cause. I don't doubt many in the march consider it a joke but is it worth it in a cost/benefit anaysis.

Narayanan said...

"Of course, it was satire."
=========
but not self-parody?

then it is serious stuff!

deepelemblues said...

Well, professor, I asked if it was satire not because I think they all, or most of then, truly want to sexualize or otherwise abuse children. I don't think it was satire though.

Rather, I think it was a taunt by those who feel they have unassailable power aimed at those they feel have no power. It was, 'We can do anything we want and you cannot stop us. Including, if we wanted, anything we want to and with your children. And you cannot stop us.'

It's very much the tactic of a bully, as confirmed by the 'just having fun, it's your problem if you had a problem' quote.

Iman said...

What is the matter with these sick fucks?

https://thefederalist.com/2023/06/23/local-wisconsin-supervisor-calls-for-police-investigation-after-child-participates-in-madisons-adult-naked-bike-ride/

donald said...

“It was obviously intended to make fun of the people who criticize them for coming after children”.

A twofer in not being able to read a room.

Iman said...

This country has been queered for several decades now.

Drake 8 said...

I did my first pride march in 1975 and quickly learned that the energy behind it all came from extremist leftists (like Maoists). They are mean and angry and so is their sense of humor.

MadTownGuy said...

From the post:

"But laughing at your opponents is a tactic. "We’re here! We’re queer! We’re coming for your children!" is very funny in the Drag March context. But when you're in a larger social/political battle, you've got to consider how that will look clipped out.

It's not about the look. It's a 'tell.'

Original Mike said...

The Heisenberg Joke Principle: It remains a superposition of joke/nonjoke until you've observed the reaction of your audience.

Rob Crawford said...

It was obviously intended to make fun of the people who criticize them for coming after children.

Why make fun of them? Why not stop trying to groom children?

ex-madtown girl said...

The attempt at humor in this instance is only successful if it is poking fun at an idea borne out of paranoia, which it is not, as these same people prove again and again. So it is either a failed attempt at humor, which is highly possible because these people do not understand humor or comedy, being extremely nasty, or it is them telling the truth and throwing it in the face of those who would stop them, with the added bonus (to them) of being able to say “it’s only humor, lighten up, it’s not our fault if you don’t get it!”

gspencer said...

"Of course, it was satire."

Really?

I don't.

Randomizer said...

"We’re here! We’re queer! We’re coming for your children!" is very funny in the Drag March context.

To be funny, wouldn't it need to be absurd or subvert expectations in some way?

At a drag march, would it be funny to say, "We're here! We're queer! We're going to make sure your daughters can't win anymore NCAA competitions!"

Or, "We're here! We're queer! We're going to get erections in Women's locker rooms, then get membership cancellations for anyone who does doesn't enjoy our presence!"

And, "We're here! We're queer! We're going to get transferred to Women's prisons, then rape the inmates who are trapped in the cage with us!"

TIL I have a gift for writing Drag March satire.

mezzrow said...

Inside one man's silo, it's humor. Outside, it's incitement.

Being outside this particular humor silo myself, I'd like to understand why folks inside that silo lost their fear of those outside it. This may not work out the way these guys anticipated it would. It sure does feel good to get away with all this shit though, I bet. I can see how people would get carried away.

"Call me Hitler all you want, but leave the kids alone. No, we can't negotiate on this." - The Breeders

Jake said...

I think “very funny” is a stretch in any context.

Josephbleau said...

There is either “we are coming for your children” or there is “ we are not coming for your children”, there is no joking. Claiming satire is just a way to distort communication so the public can’t know the truth. The purpose is to hide your true intent.

Comedians are funny, in part, because of the need to guess if they really believe what they are saying.

J said...

Funny not funny.Truth.

Humperdink said...

Headline on Ace of Spades this morning: "When have they not been coming for your children?"

MadTownGuy said...

Ann Althouse said...

["'Of course, it was satire.' Was it?"]

"It was obviously intended to make fun of the people who criticize them for coming after children.

I'm not addressing the extent to which they are, in fact, coming for children. The humor smokescreens that matter, which remains important. I think they themselves would concede, in a serious conversation, that they are at the very least coming for children in the sense that they want to teach children to feel accepting and good about gay and transgender people.
"

Or you could perceive it as part of a larger effort to discourage reproduction. At the very least, the aim is not to teach children to feel accepting and good about gay and transgender people; it's about normalizing their aberrant behaviors. That has been the playbook since that Seventies movie "A Very Natural Thing."

Saint Croix said...

Humor is a potent weapon and many people use it to confuse, mock or decimate political opposition. I've used it myself in that way, many times.

Humor is also fun. It's fun to laugh and enjoy yourself. Humor reduces the stakes and is an act of humility. In the South we often use self-effacing humor, turning humor on our own friends or family members, our pets or loved ones, and ourselves. People do this in church because one of the lessons of Christ is that we are all flawed human beings.

(See Mark 10:17-19)

There are many people including myself who see a lot of humor in the Bible, often at Peter's expense. See, for instance, when a stranger on the beach yelled out some fishing advice to experienced fisherman who hadn't caught anything. ("Put your net on the other side of the boat!")

Or that time Peter tried to walk on water.

The great movie The Name of the Rose features a bad Christian who is killing other Christians because he thinks humor and laughter is some kind of abomination. Or in modern times, the Ayatollah Khomeini would be an example of somebody who has a rather bizarre hatred of humor, joy, and happiness.

God gave us free will and so we laugh and damn if I respect any human being who says it is a crime or a sin to find and spread joy in the world.

Having said that, there are actual child predators in the world. There are many gay people -- and straight people -- who fantasize about fucking little children, and some monstrous people who act on it.

To belittle this fear just signifies to others that you don't really give a damn for children and their safety. And it kind of confirms a bias that parents have that they care more for their children than people who don't have children and will never have children.

Children are open and accepting people who are learning about reality. The attempt to introduce sexual confusion at an early age is an obvious attempt to fuck up normal reproductive sexuality (man + woman = baby) and destroy the teaching of basic biology about human reproduction.

I think they are using humor to fight what is a serious battle. If I were to fight back, I would say, "Do you know how babies are made? Do you know what a woman is? Maybe you should fuck a woman because you seem confused." Or something similar.

tommyesq said...

I think humor is the truth that breaks everything.

So "we're coming for your children" is true?

Shoeless Joe said...

Imagine Bill Cosby cracking rape jokes as he's mixing drinks for his lady friends.....

Leland said...

There is a bit of truth in a good joke.

Michael said...

I am unpacking my queer jokes folder. Good to know humor is back. Thick file by the way. The file.

wendybar said...

We're here, we are PISSED, and we are coming for corrupt Politicians...and then you get put in the DC gulag for going against the Deep State corruption.

pacwest said...

It's a taunt. You can find humor in a taunt if you so choose, but like all taunts the humor is not the main intent. "Fuck you" is always the basic intent in a taunt. One of the best taunts (which I personally found humorous) recently was the baseball cap Hillary wore emblazoned with the words "but her emails". Just like "we're coming for your children" Hillary's cap is a middle finger. Schoolyard stuff. If you put on your cruel neutrality hat you can find humor, but who is the joke really on? In both of these instances I'd say the taunter is the but of the "joke" in the end.

dbp said...

It's very important for the press to provide context, for instance:

When a GOP rally is perfectly polite, context is added by making up racial slurs, which surely were happening in the minds of the attendees.

When members of a pride march say that they're coming for our kids, context needs to be added, they were just making fun of people who think that's exactly their plan.

Immanuel Rant said...

Probably of no probative value:

https://www.westernjournal.com/gay-mens-choir-said-coming-children-rushes-cover-pedophilia-accusations/

"Some of the members of a gay men’s chorus that released a controversial viral video in which the singers promised to “corrupt your kids” and “convert your children” appear to be convicted pedophiles, according to research conducted by The Western Journal.

The chorus roster and board of directors of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus were apparently removed from the group’s website around the time these revelations became public."

dbp said...

Somebody, maybe Heinlein or Twain, said that the best way to lie, is to tell the truth unconvincingly.

MadisonMan said...

I know tag proliferation is taboo, but I suggest "People who live in a bubble"

GDI said...

It's satire if you're willing to give the benefit of doubt. I decline.

John henry said...

In a real democracy 50% plus 1of the citizenry could decide to round up all the transers, lesbians and gays and exile them to a reservation in Maine.

They would be allowed to participate, of course. It's a democracy after all. It has to work for everyone.

No need for liberty and justice for all when you have democracy instead.

John lgb Henry

Tina Trent said...

There is satire, and then there is exposing one's genitals in public and in front of underage (or any other) females in a woman's locker room.

The latter should be arrested. Full stop.

Sebastian said...

""We’re here! We’re queer! We’re coming for your children!" is very funny in the Drag March context."

It would be if it effectively lampooned an obvious absurdity. But if a joke can be heard as a gaffe, it's not so funny. And in fact, progs are "coming for your children," as they always have: breaking down the nuclear family, isolating the vulnerable, and overriding bourgeois sentimentailty has been their MO for many years. Though not quite what Lenin and Stalin and Mao and Castro had in mind, drag queens are just the latest vanguard.

Michael said...

This is not satire. This is taunting. Satire contains a measure of respect, of consideration if not affection for its object (not to mention humor). This chant is merely contemptuous of parents who are concerned about their children and of conservatives in general. As Glenn Reynolds often says: If people tell you who they are, believe them.

Laslo Spatula said...

Are we sure they weren't chanting ""We’re here! We’re queer! We’re cumming for your children!"?

Cause it kinda sounds the same.

Perhaps they can clarify.

I am Laslo.

Tina848 said...

There is truth in jest.....I read this somewhere.

Satire is not taunting, as Michael said above.

Balfegor said...

But laughing at your opponents is a tactic. "We’re here! We’re queer! We’re coming for your children!" is very funny in the Drag March context. But when you're in a larger social/political battle, you've got to consider how that will look clipped out.

It's . . a tactic. But it relies on an absolute confidence that the audience are going to see your opponent's concerns as ridiculous. It's like if Trump offered, as a "modest proposal," that illegal immigrants should be rounded up and gassed. It's ridiculous -- even more ridiculous than "we're coming for your children" -- but it would be stupid for Trump to crack that joke because his opponents absolutely will take it literally and the average member of the public may not be 100% certain it's a joke. Here, the problem is all these tiktok schoolteachers and drag artists that have made pretty clear that no, it isn't a joke, some of them really are keen to indoctrinate your children.

gilbar said...

Serious question
IF a bunch of ultra conservatives Marched past a gay bar, chanting
WE'RE HERE! WE'RE STRAIGHT!! WE'VE COME TO CASTRATE!!!

and during their trial for hate speech, claimed "we were only joking, it was satire"
What would Ann Althouse's response be?

Greg the Class Traitor said...

The chant was "We’re here! We’re queer! We’re coming for your children!"

Of course, it was satire.


No, it wasn't.

Because if it was satire, and they weren't interested in our kids, then there would be not "Drag Queen Story hours", anywhere, ever.

Because if it was satire, and they weren't interested in our kids, there would have been no attacks on DeSantis and the Parent's Rights in Education Law preventing "queer" "teachers" from discussing their sex lives with 5 year olds.

What that was is "an admission against interest"

Yancey Ward said...

That chant wasn't satire. It was a taunt, and that is why some on the left were pushing back. Note the use of the phrase "this is the truth that breaks everything"- the speaker of that line accidentally spoke the truth in trying to deny the truth.

hombre said...

"Of course it was satire."

That's one reaction. Another reaction is that when people tell you who they are, it's a good idea to believe them.

tim maguire said...

I don't understand the people who insist it's not satire simply because they see it as true. Of course it's satire. Yes, they engage in activities that their opponents describe as coming for their children, but they do not describe it that way, they do not think about it that way. They use an entirely different language to describe what they do. That they used this language is a clear signal they think it's a joke.

Saint Croix said...

Also it's worth noting that the Supreme Court decided a lot of anti-segregation cases, but the one case that inflamed and upset the country was Brown v. Board of Education, because of a suspicion by many that this was an attempt to indoctrinate children into being non-racists. That upset a lot of parents and caused an exodus from public schools.

Many scientists now think that children are genetically more open than adults. Open to different ideas or visions of reality. There's a biological reason for this, because a child's prefrontal cortex is not really developed yet, and won't finish until humans reach college-age. So you can indoctrinate children to believe all sorts of wild shit and they will believe it.

It's dangerous as fuck to intentionally confuse the sexuality of children. The startling number of children who now say they are fluid or gay is evidence to me that orientation is fluid and young children are vulnerable. You want to teach them to be gay? Many kids will try it to see what it's like. Why? Authorities are telling them it's fine and no different than any other form of sexuality.

Of course many parents will object to this, either loudly or quietly. If you destroy trust in the schools -- for instance, by teaching kids that human reproduction is bad and we need to avoid it -- you could fuck up human beings for decades.

Just the other day I heard a middle-aged man tell me that there are too many people in the world and reproduction should be discouraged. And so he was perfectly fine with the idea of teaching kids to be gay, or helping them sterilize themselves.

He probably has heard of the "baby boom" and I wonder if he will be ready for the "baby bust" and how a failure to have children can decimate societies and cultures.

Christians spread like weeds mainly because they were breeding like rabbits and refused to adopt the infanticide practices of the larger pagan culture. Every parent who loves and sacrifices for children is a (loose) follower of Christ. Love is the way. Indoctrinating children for your own partisan purposes is not the way. And if you wonder why heterosexuality is the norm and other forms of sexuality have been labeled deviant, I would respond, reproduction is important.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

I can't believe nobody has posted this link.

https://www.theonion.com/gay-pride-parade-sets-mainstream-acceptance-of-gays-bac-1819566014

Blair said...

It's a hiding in plain sight joke. It's the same sort of joke that Jimmy Saville used to make. When Saville made jokes about raping kids with cancer in hospitals, it distracted from the fact that he actually was raping kids with cancer in hospitals.

Blair said...

It's a hiding in plain sight joke. It's the same sort of joke that Jimmy Saville used to make. When Saville made jokes about raping kids with cancer in hospitals, it distracted from the fact that he actually was raping kids with cancer in hospitals.

Quaestor said...

Althouse, please explain the obviousness of the satire, because it’s not obvious to me.

FBI crime statistics show that convicted pedophiles molest same-sex children at significantly higher rate than the incidence of homosexuality in the United States would predict. I assume your “obvious satire” assumption hinges on the claim that homosexuals are born and not made, whereas the science on that question is not settled. So far, no genetic or congenital mechanism has been plausibly hypothesized, let alone tested experimentally. However, neither you nor I are competent to argue this nature versus nurture question. Instead I wish to point out that many advocates of “Pride Month” include a P in their alphabet soup of sexual alignments. Perhaps they’re not coming for our children, as your assumption goes, to convert them.

Temujin said...

It's not only tone deaf, it's mean. It's going right after a wound, opening that wound up, and shoving some hot sauce in it. It would have been in good fun a decade or so ago. Before I had to walk into the Naked Parade in Seattle stepping outside of my downtown hotel a few years ago. Or before the Summer of Love, 2020 version. Or before we started to notice our kids not sure of their genders- in clusters, coast to coast. Or before that bizarre notion that anyone, can be any gender, at any time, because..., or before we reached the point where no one was willing to give a definition of a woman, or before men were undressing in women's dressing rooms, with approval of school officials, or competing in women's sports, with approval of national organizations.
And it might have been in good fun years ago, before it was directed at kids.

I still question how an adult can sit through any of that. I'm not a prude. It's just awful entertainment. But there is zero reason to make that a part of your kid's entertainment. But that's just my personal taste. Still...there has been years of literally attacking- with approval- the family structure. Mix in the more recent gender insanity. It leaves no room for 'satire'. Not now. It's too late for that now.

You don't joke about people's kids in an era when there's so much trafficking- both legal and illegal- in taking kids from their lives.

Ampersand said...

Oh, I see, it was a joke. I should stop worrying about the takeover of our media and educational systems by the cultural and political left. These are the forces which intend to destroy the family. They intend to subvert the process by which our society and culture makes the ongoing transfer of knowledge and values that allows a society to reproduce itself. Whether or not the people chanting were all just performing what they thought was stand-up comedy (I doubt it), the fact is that the media-educational complex IS coming for our children.

Rabel said...

"We’re coming for your children!" is very funny in the Drag March context."

I read somewhere that satire is the lowest form of humor.

Original Mike said...

Blogger Yancey Ward said..."That chant wasn't satire. It was a taunt,"

Yep.

JK Brown said...

Perhaps it was "satire" to provoke

But to be on the safe side, best to check the children for sticky or dried substances when they come home from school.

Of course, the professors are all in on getting the children.
From Instapundit around 11 today
"Academics: Allowing kids to opt out of drag storytime is a ‘dangerous setback’ for gay rights."

And remember, drag storytime is not a man dressed as an elegant woman reading books, but a man dressed as a stripper twerking and strutting for children.

Owen said...

Gilbar @ 9:42: whoa!

Saint Croix said...

"Have you ever seen a vagina? Or a vulva. I can't remember which is which. I fell asleep in sex ed. It was so boring. There was no porn, it was all fill-in-the-blank and damn if I could find the fallopian tubes. We didn't even put condoms on bananas. I would love to put a condom on a banana.

"Hey, Joe, your penis is bent! Don't have sex with Joe, look at his banana."

Lars Porsena said...

it's the Jon Stewart rule i.e. clown nose on, clown nose off. They get to tell you when they're serious or when they're just kidding.

Gusty Winds said...

Of course, it was satire.

It's not satire. It's real. And its evil. It's not just the pride people marching in the parade. It's the SF Gay Men's choir open singing the same thing last year.

It's the fully naked men twerking and riding their bikes in Pride parades over the weekend with children present. That's not satire.

It's also public school teachers grooming children to transition, and then hiding it from parents. That's not satire.

Robert Cook said...

"Why make fun of them? Why not stop trying to groom children?"

Who do you know is grooming children? What do you consider to be "grooming" of children? Simply carrying on in drag? What evidence do you have that drag queens (or gays) as a group are grooming children? A substantial number (if not majority) of the groomers I've read about are nondescript suburban married men with children who secretly have sex with children in their own families or in other opportune circumstances. The successful groomer must be covert to avoid detection or even suspicion.

Gusty Winds said...

It was obviously intended to make fun of the people who criticize them for coming after children.

sat·ire
noun
the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues

It's only satire if they are NOT coming after "your children". They are coming after America's children. And they mean it. They also have the full support of college educated white women, who for some reason like to deny this is actually taking place.

Robert Cook said...

"I read somewhere that satire is the lowest form of humor."

That would be slapstick. Satire is among the highest forms of humor, but probably the least appreciated, as so many people lack the discernment to recognize or understand it.

farmgirl said...

My Mother always say: there’s a little bit of truth in everything you say.
A friend!s adage: it’s not what you do-it’s how you do it.

Satire doesn’t always equate humor, does it?
It’s a sad state when that’s what you lead with: mocking and a pseudo-superior mindset.

After a while, the “it’s a joke” and the “I’m just kidding” modifiers are not covering asses any longer.

RideSpaceMountain said...

Everything about the alphabet mafia is clown nose on/clown nose off.

As many have already pointed out, that was not satire.

M said...

They want to teach children that sexuality is a spectrum and that everyone should be open to any sexual encounter that comes their way. They want to teach children to degrade themselves, complicate their lives, infantilize themselves and be ready and willing for any kind of sexual or mental abuse aimed at them by gays.

Michael K said...

I was not at all amusing and certainly wasn't satire. It was proudly proclaiming that the thing parents are concerned about, grooming and attempted sexualizing of small children, is what the "Pride" types think is worth a parade. It is sick and we know why. These people are sick.

Oso Negro said...

"Of course, it was satire." Beg the question much?

Misinforminimalism said...

satire
noun
sat·​ire ˈsa-ˌtī(-ə)r
Synonyms of satire
1: a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn
2: trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly


Not a literary work, so number 1 is out.

Not trenchant, certainly, and not exposing or discrediting vice or folly, so number 2 would appear inapplicable as well.

So no, not clearly satire. Also not particularly funny.

Real American said...

But they are coming for our children. Trannies aren't born. They're made. And these are the type of sickos who prey on vulnerable kids, many who are simply gay, to do so. The trans activists have made it abundantly clear in many other contexts that they're coming for our children. In fact, they object when we notice it. Saying "just kidding" here doesn't erase the threat. They may just be foolin' about, but we aren't.

hombre said...

Althouse: "It was obviously intended to make fun of the people who criticize them for coming after children." Where cruel neutrality breaks down.

It was "obviously" taunting with a ring of truth. It is neither fun nor funny to parents particu!arly when the trannies are "here, queer and coming for the children" along with their teacher accomplices.

Respectable homosexuals need to break from these destructive assholes and their abettors unless, of course, it's true of all.

Old and slow said...

Blogger Original Mike said...

The Heisenberg Joke Principle:

This is an excellent characterization of the chant. It succinctly describes many of the points already made in a smart and humorous manner.

hombre said...

Gusty Winds: "They also have the full support of college educated white women...."

"It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers−out of unorthodoxy." - Orwell 1984

pacwest said...

The successful groomer must be covert to avoid detection or even suspicion.

That may have been true in the past, but recent examples, teachers and politicians put the lie to your thesis.

You must be thinking of the guy who showered with his daughter only to be found out by a diary entry.

pacwest said...

The successful groomer must be covert to avoid detection or even suspicion.

That may have been true in the past, but recent examples, teachers and politicians put the lie to your thesis.

You must be thinking of the guy who showered with his daughter only to be found out by a diary entry.

hombre said...

"Who do you know is grooming children? ...."

Cook in his bubble at 10:20. Predictable, illogical and uninformed. If we don't know 'em, it's not happenin'.

Dagwood said...

A friend told me once of a gay pride demonstration many years ago in Austin, TX. The city responded by sending out police in riot gear (remember, this was many years ago).

In response, the protestors began chanting to the cops, "Your vests don't match your shoes!" Both sides had a better sense of humor back then.

JAORE said...

" "We’re here! We’re queer! We’re coming for your children!" is very funny in the Drag March context."

All humor has an element of truth.

Humperdink said...

""Who do you know is grooming children? ....""

The Loudoun County school district for one.

JAORE said...

Was it satire/a JOKE when BLM marchers called, "Pigs in a blanket. Fry 'em up like bacon"? You know when the left went silent and cops began to be ambushed.

Couldn't call those assholes out either.

Mason G said...

"It's only satire if they are NOT coming after "your children"."

I was just about to write those very words. You don't hear much about the Alphabet People agitating for the ability to hold Drag Queen Story hours in nursing homes. There's a reason for that.

MB said...

I am willing to believe the people saying it saw it as satire. The problem is, there are bad people in any group and this will come back to bite them in the ass. It will come up the next several times (at least) that a gay/trans person is arrested for child SA or porn.

Greg the Class Traitor said...

Blogger Robert Cook said...
Who do you know is grooming children?
No one I know is grooming children, because if they were and I knew it, they'd be dead

What do you consider to be "grooming" of children?
Acting to desensitize children to sexual situations and inputs, while encouraging them to trust you more than they trust their parents.

Ring any bells for you? Or are you too stupid?

Simply carrying on in drag?
Nope. Do "drag" with adults all you want.
Creating "family friendly" drag events, however is always a "grooming" behavior.

Don't do strip shows / sexual shows in front of kids.

What is it about you that makes that requirement so horrible?

What evidence do you have that drag queens (or gays) as a group are grooming children?
People demanding that there be "Drag Queen Reading Hours" at schools / libraries are grooming kids
People throwing "family friendly drag shows" are grooming kids

People complaining about DeSantis signing into law a requirement that school teachers not discuss their homosexual sex lives with 5-8 year olds are clearly pro "gay" grooming of children

A substantial number (if not majority) of the groomers I've read about are nondescript suburban married men with children who secretly have sex with children in their own families or in other opportune circumstances.
And the support you provide for this claim is? Why, it's not a thing! What a shock!
/sarc

The successful groomer must be covert to avoid detection or even suspicion.
Not when you can get the Left to sick the FBI on anyone trying to stop you

Scott said...

These people are humorless - of course they were serious. They are spinning cause of the response

MB said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gahrie said...

In California they have already passed laws that allow strangers to provide genital mutilation and puberty blockers to children without the knowledge much less permission of their parents and are currently in the process of passing a law which would allow the state to take custody of children from parents who oppose the mutilation of their children.

In California they are quite openly and successfully coming for our children.

Part of the sickness in Leftism is the need to display and celebrate their power by taunting others.

Bruce Hayden said...

“This is not satire. This is taunting. Satire contains a measure of respect, of consideration if not affection for its object (not to mention humor). This chant is merely contemptuous of parents who are concerned about their children and of conservatives in general. As Glenn Reynolds often says: If people tell you who they are, believe them.”

It might have been satire, if they hadn’t actually been coming after the children. But they were, and are. Those children are the most important thing in many parents eyes, and the trannies are telling us that we can’t do anything about then turning them into trannies, destroying their fertility, and our chance at posterity. They are telling us to shut up, and take it. That’s a taunt. It’s not satire.

gilbar said...

is funny because it's true?
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/former-democrat-transgender-state-rep-shocking-criminal-past-arrested-child-pornography-charges
Former Democrat transgender state rep with shocking criminal past arrested on child pornography charges
A former Democrat New Hampshire state representative who identifies as transgender was arrested Thursday for allegedly distributing "sexually explicit images of children."

Stacie-Marie Laughton, a biological male who identifies as female, was initially elected to the New Hampshire legislature in 2012, but was unable to serve due to still being on probation for a 2008 felony conviction of credit card fraud.

The former Democrat representative, who faced several charges down the road, was arrested for making a bomb threat against the Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in 2015 and was arrested again in 2021 on charges related to the misuse of the state’s 911 texting system.

Despite Laughton's criminal past, the candidate was elected for a second term

Robert Cook said...

"Cook in his bubble at 10:20. Predictable, illogical and uninformed. If we don't know 'em, it's not happenin'."

This fails as a thoughtful or informative response or as a proof of claims.

Robert Cook said...

"'The successful groomer must be covert to avoid detection or even suspicion.'

"That may have been true in the past, but recent examples, teachers and politicians put the lie to your thesis."


How so? Just making the statement fails to explain or substantiate the claim.

Tina Trent said...

Thousands of male inmates, most of them sex criminals, are claiming to be transgender in order to be transferred to women's prisons. Gay organizations and the ACLU are vigorously supporting them.

In other Western nations, the situation is even worse.

In states such as California, this in not only permitted, but taxpayers are forced to pay for whatever level of actual "sex change" treatment the prisoners demand.

But even in Red States like Florida, taxpayers are paying vast amounts for the ACLU and defense attorneys to file appeal after appeal to transfer rapists and woman-killers to women's prisons because they "identify female."

We read about this in the newspapers now. But as far back as 1984, there are cases where the literal defense for raping and killing a woman was predicated on the offender claiming gender dysmorphia.

Even worse, some of those offenders got new trials. Recently, James Owen, who raped and murdered a 14-year old girl and also slowly killed an adult woman, was executed by the State of Florida. In the 80's, the State of Florida actually granted Owen a new trial because he said he was only trying to "absorb female hormones" by raping and killing the girl and woman. He is suspected in other gristly killings. He raped the 14-year old girl, stabbed her 18 times, and then raped her corpse repeatedly.

First the ACLU in Florida tried to overturn Owen's death sentence on the grounds that he was gender dysmorphic, then they spent decades trying to get him a sex change operation, off death row, and transferred to a female prison, claiming it was cruel and unusual punishment to not give in to his (otherwise homicidal) delusions about being female by granting him female hormones, a female identity -- and access to women.

Based on such cases, and the fact that both the ACLU and major gay organizations have successfully lobbied to prevent same-sex serial rapists and killers from being charged with gender-bias hate crime (and made sure child molestation isn't counted as hate), I would say that, on paper and in practice, politically active gay and gender activists do legislatively support sex crimes by LGBTQ offenders, whether their victims are the same sex, opposite sex, or children. They lobby for lesser sentences for them than other sex offenders.

So, yes, HRC, other gay organizations, and the ACLU have, based on their former legal activism, not slogans or jokes, already come for our children. And others. If you are gay, this is what they are doing in your name.

Gusty Winds said...

Blogger Robert Cook said...

Who do you know is grooming children?

By denying the obvious, you are Mr. Cook...at least indirectly.

There is an obvious push in the liberal, female dominated education to promote transgender ideology, encourage it, and hide it from parents.

In September 2022, parents in the Eau Claire, WI school district sued over their published "gender affirmation policy".

A district policy titled “Administrative Guidance for Gender Identity Support” encourages transgender students to reach out to staff members with concerns and instructs employees to be careful who they talk to about a student’s gender identity, since not all students are “out” to their families.

“School personnel should speak with the student first before discussing a student’s gender nonconformity or transgender status with the student’s parent/guardian,” the policy says.


This type of arrogance in the education system is all over the place. They pretend they are protecting children, when in fact, they are actually engaged in grooming them. It also correlates with the left/liberal desire to replace the nuclear family with reliance on public institutions.

When you force a kid to wear rainbow colors to school, and march in a parade, you have gone beyond teaching tolerance. You've crossed the line into grooming on a mass scale.

stlcdr said...

"we're here, we're straight, we are coming to burn you and your house to the ground!"

Don't worry, it's just satire. Does that work? As long as don't explicitly state what is going to happen (I'm not touching you!!!) it's ok? While knowing full well what the meaning is.

mezzrow said...

Who do you know is grooming children? What do you consider to be "grooming" of children? Simply carrying on in drag? What evidence do you have that drag queens (or gays) as a group are grooming children? A substantial number (if not majority) of the groomers I've read about are nondescript suburban married men with children who secretly have sex with children in their own families or in other opportune circumstances. The successful groomer must be covert to avoid detection or even suspicion.

All true. Who do I know? No one. Except that suburban dad guy sitting in the lockup for "texting middle school girls". I knew him. He was also a public school teacher. In middle school. With kids and a nice wife. Found it impossible to believe when I heard it. I'd have trusted him on a field trip with kids I cared about until I knew what I knew. I've done gigs with this guy.

If what he did was normalized, he's still be doing it. The transgressive queers want to normalize the transgressive, and they're not picky. This really riles the normies, and the thrill is visible when these folks review the possibilities. I can see it. Can't you? I actually like and liked this guy. He's where he belongs.

Night Owl said...

It's not cute or clever to "joke" about coming after people's kids. These people are destroying goodwill towards the gay community that was built over many decades of struggle. They've set their movement back by decades. Congratulations idiots.

Robert Cook said...

"'What evidence do you have that drag queens (or gays) as a group are grooming children?'

"People demanding that there be 'Drag Queen Reading Hours' at schools / libraries are grooming kids

"People throwing 'family friendly drag shows' are grooming kids"


What "people?" What is the prevalence of such above events?

Frankly, it all strikes me as nothing but cheap lowest-common-denominator panic-mongering by far right Republicans (redundant, I admit) to scare people into voting for troglodytes such as Abbot, De Santos, Boebert, Greene and their slimy ilk, as it is easier than making a case for their actual policy proposals. I honestly find it difficult to believe all those hyper-ventilating here about such issues believe this bullshit.

Mr. T. said...

Blogger Robert Cook said...

"A substantial number (if not majority) of the groomers I've read about are nondescript suburban married men with children who secretly have sex with children in their own families or in other opportune circumstances. The successful groomer must be covert to avoid detection or even suspicion."

Ah... it all makes sense now-you are a sockpuppet account for Brett Blomme.

Didn't a judge ban you from computer access?

Mr. T. said...

Except this wasn't satire...

SteveWe said...

Hey Cookie, Why shouldn't parents think drags are grooming children when they constantly flaunt their deviant behavior in schools and events? These "performances" have become so pervasive that one might think that they're not just grooming children but also trying to enlist adults.

JaimeRoberto said...

When you read the origin story of the group behind Drag Queen Story Hour, it's pretty clear they are coming for your children. Maybe some of the people chanting that believe it's satire, but it's not.

pacwest said...

How so? Just making the statement fails to explain or substantiate the claim

I'll play your silly game this once since you seem to be self filtering your news intake. Go to libs of TikTok to see several instances of what I'm talking about. Or not.

Robert, when I comment I rarely go into instances since evidence abounds on the internet. My assumption is that anyone interested is able to check out the details for themselves. Or not.

BTW, one of my favorites was when you claimed coverage of the 2020 riots were way overblown. Kinda mostly peaceful I guess. Or not.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

July 2021, Breitbart News reported the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus unpublished a music video where singers promised to “convert” children to their LGBT ideology once the clip went viral online.

Lyrics to the song include:

You think we’re sinful. You fight against our rights. You say we all lead lives you can’t respect. But you’re just frightened. You think that we’ll corrupt your kids if our agenda goes unchecked. It’s funny. Just this once, you’re correct.

…We’ll convert your children. Happens bit by bit. Quietly and subtly, and you will barely notice it. You can keep him from disco, warn about San Francisco. Make him wear pleated pants. We don’t care. We’ll convert your children. We’ll make them tolerant and fair.


Stop being a groomer denier.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Role model:

Stacie Marie Laughton, who became America’s first transgender lawmaker when he was elected to New Hampshire’s House of Representatives in 2012, has been arrested on four felony counts of distributing child sex abuse imagery.
The Democrat is no stranger to law enforcement, having twice resigned from politics after arrests for offenses including fraud, stalking, and bomb threats.

Laughton was hailed as an LGBT role model when he was elected, with the media describing how his election in New Hampshire “not only made history in the state, but for the broader trans movement as [he] became the first out trans person ever elected to a seat in a state legislature.”


Oh yes he IS a role model. Modeling groomer behavior. Probably just a "joke."

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

That they used this language is a clear signal they think it's a joke.

Or.

That they used this language is a clear signal they think it's funny to taunt straights because the power of the state is now used to separate children from their parents.

FIFY. Google "California senator Scott Weiner" if you need to learn more about official approval of grooming in the Golden State. They ARE coming for our children and using perverted laws to do it.

Gospace said...

Sure. It's satire. Right.

And we're coming to your country but we're not going to implement sharia when we're in the majority. As the people supporting the parade look aghast at Hamtramck which has banned display of pride flags on public property.

Anyone see any similarity? Besides me?

The percentage of homosexual men who didn't have their first homosex experience as an under 18 youth with an older man introducing him to those bodily pleasures is approximately zero. And that's from what they say.

Many above have dissected what is/isn't satire. It wasn't satire. It backfired on them. So they're looking to get high minded intellectuals to excuse what they said by pretending it was.

Gusty Winds said...

It used to be that if a man exposed his penis to young children, he was committing crime and would be arrested.

Now the same behavior is perfectly OK as long as you are taking part in a Pride parade. I guess, by some sort of special dispensation, if your liberal parents took you too the pride parade, penis exposure is a high probability.

Left wing influencers will even defend your behavior on social media.

Butkus51 said...

I know right? Mein Kampf is satire.

People need to lighten up.

Mark said...

Seriously - Do you REALLY want people in drag to be the poster boys for gays? For people to associate all gays with these guys? And could you really blame people if they did?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Who do you know is grooming children?

The Human Rights Campaign, DHS and AMA, Target and Kohls, LA Dodgers, Loudon County School District, State of California, the American Librarian Association, etc. Damn! There's too many to list.

Basically, only national organizations that are explicitly right wing are NOT grooming children at this time, although the Lincoln Project might be the exception, and a parent should assume any left-affiliated organization (including the LP) whether for-profit or non-profit is either actively or passively helping the Big Groom in progress, including Big Media, the DNC and teachers unions.

Greg the Class Traitor said...

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/405068.php

Ace has a rundown on the Toronto, NYC, and Denver "Pride" events.

The "all ages family-friendly" Denver pride festival featured a performer singing about oral sex while another performer acted out a sex scene on stage.

So, Althouse, "I think they themselves would concede, in a serious conversation, that they are at the very least coming for children in the sense that they want to teach children to feel accepting and good about gay and transgender people." Which part does the "singing about oral sex" fit in to?

Then there's Toronto: Libs of TikTok tweeted out a video of naked men on bicycles in order to make a point that naked men on bicycles should not be parading in front of kids

But of course, for the Left it's "Libs of TikTok";s fault for pointing this out, not the freaks who run the Toronto "Pride" for letting it happen

Yeah, Cookie, there's not sexual grooming of children going on HERE!
/sarc

walter said...

Wait till the folks at the hetero parade come up with saucy chants.
If the sexuality is innate, explain the pride involved.
Similar to pot legalization parades, the Pride parades have lousy brand ambassadors.

From that Onion link:
"Among the parade sights and sounds that did inestimable harm to the gay-rights cause: a group of obese women in leather biker outfits passing out clitoris-shaped lollipops to horrified onlookers; a man in military uniform leading a submissive masochist, clad in diapers and a baby bonnet, around on a dog leash; several Hispanic dancers in rainbow wigs and miniskirts performing "humping" motions on a mannequin dressed as the Pope; and a dozen gyrating drag queens in see-through dresses holding penis-shaped beer bottles that appeared to spurt ejaculation-like foam when shaken and poured onto passersby.
Timothy Orosco, 51, a local Walgreens manager whose store is on the parade route, changed his attitude toward gays as a result of the event.
"They kept chanting things like, 'We're here, we're queer, get used to it!' and 'Hey, hey, we're gay, we're not going to go away!'" Orosco said. "All I can say is, I was used to it, but now, although I'd never felt this way before, I wish they would go away."
Members of the Laguna Beach Leatherdaddy Association make their final pre-march preparations.
Members of the Laguna Beach Leatherdaddy Association make their final pre-march preparations.
Allison Weber, 43, an El Segundo marketing consultant, also had her perceptions and assumptions about gays challenged by the parade.
"My understanding was that gay people are just like everybody else–decent, hard-working people who care about their communities and have loving, committed relationships," Weber said. "But, after this terrifying spectacle, I don't want them teaching my kids or living in my neighborhood."

Greg the Class Traitor said...

Robert Cook said...
Cookie: "'What evidence do you have that drag queens (or gays) as a group are grooming children?'

Me: "People demanding that there be 'Drag Queen Reading Hours' at schools / libraries are grooming kids

"People throwing 'family friendly drag shows' are grooming kids"

What "people?" What is the prevalence of such above events?


It doesn't matter what the prevalence is. What matters is that you on the Left fight tooth and nail to keep those sex grooming events going.

Robert Cook said...
"Cook in his bubble at 10:20. Predictable, illogical and uninformed. If we don't know 'em, it's not happenin'."

This fails as a thoughtful or informative response or as a proof of claims.


Quite amusing, coming from the guy who provides not one shred of evidence for his claim that all the sex grooming is coming from suburban straight men

Mountain Maven said...

I have noticed an uptick in criminals being shot by threatened citizenss. Some of those shootings may have been overreactions. Sadly this is inevitable when law enforcement is deterred from tracking down and locking up the miscreants. Could this happen with militant homosexuals accosting innocent children? They probably won't get shot, but roughed up by an outraged father. If I felt threatened when I was out with my grandson I wouldn't take it well. It's the old saw that law enforcement is supposed to protect the criminals from the citizenry.

Quaestor said...

"I read somewhere that satire is the lowest form of humor."

That would be slapstick. Satire is among the highest forms of humor, but probably the least appreciated, as so many people lack the discernment to recognize or understand it.


Robert Cook never misses an opportunity to pay himself a compliment. Self-approbation is better than none, I reckon.

Jamie said...

"We're coming for your children" is very funny in the Drag March context.

Hmm.

So. Drag is simultaneously a sweet, fun, family-friendly, cartoony thing that none of us should worry about exposing young children to, because it's clearly innocent and just involves someone expressing himself or herself or themself or whatever as authentically as possible, and the in-drag participants love and honor children so much that they want to be a friendly, Santa Claus-like part of their lives...

...and an activity in which in-drag participants perform explicitly sexually in public no matter whether young children are in the crowd or not. They don't cover their genitalia or secondary sex characteristics when they see that a small child is watching; instead, they leer and gyrate in proximity to the child, or maybe the child's parents. And then they say, "We're coming for your children," and then they say "It's just satire, squares!"

I liked Robert Cook's take too - that satire is too sophisticated for us bumpkins.

Oh, Robert Cook? About the grooming? I didn't know the groomer, but I knew his victim - a teenage boy whose father was a bum and absent from the time he was about twelve (abusive before that), whose mother was looking for male role models for him. So when the nice neighbor offered to take him under his wing, Mom was grateful. And when the nice neighbor started giving the boy porn mags, the boy thought maybe that's what fathers do.

And when the nice neighbor watched him as he looked at the mags, and started suggesting that he could touch himself if he wanted, and then, and then, and then...

So:

* when schools encourage teachers to cultivate the trust of their students specifically with regard to their students' sexuality, and encourage their teachers to withhold such information from parents, and provide in-school venues for students to discuss their sexuality where they are explicitly told there is no need for their parents even to know they're there,

* and when school teachers and school librarians actively promote "graphic novels" with oral sex scenes in them in school libraries for middle school kids,

* and when gay elementary school teachers fight for their right to discuss their home life - which doesn't mean their tv watching habits; it means the person to whom they're married or with whom they're sleeping - with six-year-olds, under the auspices of "tolerance," even though NO elementary school teacher, gay or straight or other, considered their personal lives to be relevant to the curriculum until yesterday,

* and when preschoolers are encouraged to choose a gender, though when I directed a preschool for almost a decade and saw plenty of boys in princess dresses and girls in firefighter outfits who nevertheless were secure in their gender identity, as we now say...

...these things look like grooming to me: an adult working on a child's sense of self, on a child's sense of whom to trust and how, and on a child's understanding of sex, pushing the child into sexual precocity and blurring interpersonal boundaries. What do they look like to you?

And also, when detrans people say they were groomed online by older men claiming to be trans, that sounds to me as if they were groomed by older men who may or may not have been trans, but who certainly liked the idea of a younger person undergoing chemical and surgical alteration to make him- or herself into a sex doll for someone (since the process apparently often doesn't permit the victim - sorry, the young trans person - to experience sexual pleasure).

It's hard for me to believe that anyone can actually support this insanity.

TickTock said...

"But laughing at your opponents is a tactic. "We’re here! We’re queer! We’re coming for your children!" is very funny in the Drag March context"

This is not funny in any context. And damaging to whatever cause they wish to promote to a larger audience, unless it is pedophilia. Sick, Sick people. I don't believe this was said in jest, even for the other draq queens. I think it wassaid only to be in the face of the onlookers which is bad tactics, and suggests mental issues rather than humour.

Jamie said...

These people are destroying goodwill towards the gay community that was built over many decades of struggle.

That's how I see it too.

Freeman Hunt said...

It's only satire if it's not true.

Jamie said...

I just left a way too long comment which I will delete when it shows up. This subject drives me beyond the boundaries of decorum and discretion, and to anyone who manages to read my comment before I see and delete it, I apologize.

Owen said...

Mike (MJB Wolf) @ i12:30 and 12:37: major props for informing the thread with some highly relevant and truly revolting information.

For me this “debate” ended long ago. These people are sick and they need to be stopped. By only legal means. Of course.

Saint Croix said...

The Real Story Behind Drag Queen Story Hour

Jim at said...

Of course, it was satire.

It is/was?

So all this shit going on in our public schools? That's satire, too?

And I'm pretty sure the trans bitch that shot up a Christian school wasn't using satire, either. But maybe she mentioned it in the manifesto ... that we're not allowed to see.

Satire. Got it.

tommyesq said...

"'What evidence do you have that drag queens (or gays) as a group are grooming children?'

"People demanding that there be 'Drag Queen Reading Hours' at schools / libraries are grooming kids

"People throwing 'family friendly drag shows' are grooming kids"

What "people?" What is the prevalence of such above events?


https://nypost.com/2022/06/11/over-200k-being-spent-on-drag-queen-shows-at-nyc-schools/

https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/minneapolis-hosts-drag-queen-story-hour-and-transgender-activist-at-elementary-school/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11916303/Drag-queen-performs-lap-dance-teen-gyrates-cheering-children.html

https://www.foxnews.com/world/teachers-union-urges-schools-promote-drag-queen-story-hours-help-further-inclusive-atmosphere

etc.

You can argue that these should be allowed or encouraged if you so believe, but stop being disingenuous that this really isn't taking place.

buster said...

What would Voltaire think? That it's funny? I doubt it.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

CS Lewis in The Screwtape Letters.

Humour is for them the all consoling and (mark this) the all-excusing grace of life. Hence it is invaluable as a means of destroying shame. If a man simply lets others pay for him, he is ‘mean;’ if he boasts of it in a jocular manner and twits his fellows with having been scored off, he is no longer ‘mean’ but a comical fellow. Mere cowardice is shameful; cowardice boasted of with humourous exaggerations and grotesque gestures can be passed off as funny. Cruelty is shameful—unless the cruel man can represent it as a practical joke… And this temptation can be almost entirely hidden from your patient by that English seriousness about Humour. Any suggestion that there might be too much of it can be represented to him as ‘Puritanical’ or as betraying a ‘lack of humour’!”

~ Gordon Pasha said...

Michael Walsh summarizes the current state of affairs

THE COLUMN: Tent, Meet Camel
THE COLUMN: Tent, Meet Camel

Michael K said...



Blogger Robert Cook said...

"A substantial number (if not majority) of the groomers I've read about are nondescript suburban married men with children who secretly have sex with children in their own families or in other opportune circumstances. The successful groomer must be covert to avoid detection or even suspicion."


Cook is heavy into that pedophile literature and video stuff. No surprise.

Rocco said...

Robert Cook said...
"A substantial number (if not majority) of the groomers I've read about are nondescript suburban married men with children..."

(Said in Winsome Sears voice)
Robert, you need to read more!

lonejustice said...

I spent 20 years as a criminal prosecutor. Every single one of the people who were arrested and/or convicted of having sex with a child were straight, white, males. Not a single gay or trans person. Of course, this may have been just a coincidence.

lonejustice said...

I should add that in my 20 years of experience as a criminal prosecutor, none of the defendants in child sex abuse cases were strangers. The straight white males who sexually abused children were almost always someone the victim trusted, such as a stepfather, an uncle, a grandfather, one of dad's friends, or the boyfriend of an older sister. These are the real groomers.

lonejustice said...

I should add that in my 20 years of experience as a criminal prosecutor, none of the defendants in child sex abuse cases were strangers. The straight white males who sexually abused children were almost always someone the victim trusted, such as a stepfather, an uncle, a grandfather, one of dad's friends, or the boyfriend of an older sister. These are the real groomers.

Saint Croix said...

When I talked to teens for my book iGen in 2015 and 2016, most were skeptical about transgender identities. “They’re just confused,” said one. Another said, “They weren’t born that way. I feel like they’re denying their previous existence. They’re not true to themselves and I kind of don’t like it.”

Those beliefs, it turns out, were so mid-2010s. In a 2019 poll, two-thirds of U.S. young adults said they had become increasingly supportive of transgender rights over the last five years. Today’s teens not only support transgender rights, but arrive home from school excited when one of their friends comes out as trans.


Time Magazine.

Note how the kids used to worry about honesty and truth and now they believe -- they've been taught -- that man + woman = baby is a lie.

I suspect much of this elite dishonesty comes from a hostility to binary morality (a.k.a. "good and evil"). But the problem with thinking that binary is bad or wrong or stupid, and that non-binary is preferable (more options! more choices!) is that some of your choices might be fucking bad ones.

God gives us unlimited optionality (a.k.a. free will) but he also gives us some important rules. Love your neighbor as yourself is a primary one. So all you liberals who object to the castration of your own children, please tell us why it's okay to castrate other children.

Robert Cook said...

"BTW, one of my favorites was when you claimed coverage of the 2020 riots were way overblown. Kinda mostly peaceful I guess. Or not."

Are you referring to the Black Lives Matter demonstrations? Yes, they were predominantly peaceful, and in the cases where violence occurred, uniformed police, police agents provocateurs, and/or white supremacist counter-demonstrators were believed to be the primary instigators.

Robert Cook said...

"Hey Cookie, Why shouldn't parents think drags are grooming children when they constantly flaunt their deviant behavior in schools and events? These 'performances' have become so pervasive that one might think that they're not just grooming children but also trying to enlist adults."

How pervasive? How many? How frequently? Where?

Mason G said...

"These people are destroying goodwill towards the gay community that was built over many decades of struggle."

Whether or not it's fair, people are often judged in part by those they choose to associate with. Children used to be taught that by their parents.

Rocco said...

"The chant was 'We’re here! We’re queer! We’re coming for your children!'"

You're coming for our children. Ok.

It’s all in good fun. If you’re taking it like that, then that’s a you problem. Not an us problem," said Kelly Autorina, 'a longtime parade veteran' and 'huge supporter' of drag."

Good fun. Ok.

"Of course, it was satire."

Satire. Ok.

Suppose I said in response "I'm Italian, and I own-a lupara, an-a sedan with a three-body trunk, an-a woodchipper sittin' on fiddy acres inna middl'a nowhere. Cummathinkuvit, da sedan izzonly a two-body considering the size 'a some 'a youse fat gavon' at da parade. You leave my nichi alone, capisce?"

Now, would that be seen as "in good fun", "satire", and just riffing on cliched stereotypes? Or would it be seen differently?

Jim Gust said...

Contra to Homer Simpson, because this really is true, it really is not funny. Not funny at all.

I once was sympathetic, but I no longer am.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

#LeaveTheKidsAlone

Mind your own business said...

I'm not convinced it was satire at all.

The LGB had best divest itself of the TQ+ folks, who are actually more mentally ill, and predominantly aggressive males with a strong positive correlation with sexual violence, rape, and pedophilia.

JAORE said...

How pervasive? How many? How frequently? Where?

How many are too many?

But I guess unless we can name them all, or provide a count accurate to three individuals it doesn't count.

Lilly, a dog said...

Robert Cook landed so many fish today with his smug bait. That's the real "good fun" of this thread.

gilbar said...

i "suppose" this SATAN LOVES LGBTQIINC++ banner is "satire" too?
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/satanlovestherainbow.jpg

Serious Question, that i keep asking:
IF the Westboro church defended their "GOD Hates Fags" banners, by saying "it's Satire"..
Would Professor Althouse say: "Oh, yes; that's Just FINE! because, it's Satire"
i'm kinda thinking NOPE

Craig Mc said...

Many a truth told in jest.

Or as a gropy senator once said, "kidding on the nail".

SteveWe said...

Cookie, When drags have a big show at a children's event in Camp Verde AZ (pop. 12,244 (2021)), it's pervasive. And perverted!

hpudding said...

The question is whether it's too cruel — or impolitic — to satirize the fear that drag performers are trying to sexualize children.

Anything asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

If the empty assertion is intended to rely on fear and panic to spread, then ridicule is obviously appropriate.

hpudding said...

Right-wingers are relying on slandering and defaming queers as a political strategy, because:

1. They can’t identify any policies they’ve enacted to improve American lives (except for billionaires)
2. They’re sore about attracting so many sex criminals and enablers to their party leadership - Dennis Hastert (House Speaker), Larry Craig, Roy Moore, Mark Foley, Jim Jordan, Donald Trump (who bragged about walking in on naked Miss America contestants and lost a $5 million lawsuit to a woman he was found by a jury to have sexually abused).
3. They are more motivated by hate, greed, ignorance, and exclusion than by truth, inclusivity and doing productive work.
4. They are lazy and dramatic and find lying to be fun.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

I was struck a few weeks back by a poster (not sure if it was here) who asked: If drag queen story hour isn't about kids, then why aren't there drag queen story hour performances in old folks' homes? If the idea is to brighten the days of people who have precious little light shone upon them, aren't the elderly and infirm at least as in need of that as the wee kiddies?

I know, and have worked with, ensembles that would come into elementary schools and retirement homes alike, and play them classical music. But I'm not seeing drag queens doing the latter. I would like to be proven wrong, so have at it.

hpudding said...

5. They are theocrats who rely on pedophile cultists on the Supreme Court to enforce abortion decisions that would allow 10-year old rape victims to force-gestate rape-spawn through all three trimesters of pregnancy to full term and delivery. Assuming the 10-year old survives, with or without complications. They have given more rights to rapists than to their victims at every age.

The cultists on that court don’t seem to have done much about the global Catholic priest pedophile ring that is sheltered and enabled by the conservative forces of the Church and their silly sex-oriented policies.

One of them was literally part of a Catholic sect that referred to women as handmaiden. You can’t make this up!

Basic rule-of-thumb: Every right-wing accusation is ultimately a projection.

hpudding said...

I assume your “obvious satire” assumption hinges on the claim that homosexuals are born and not made, whereas the science on that question is not settled. So far, no genetic or congenital mechanism has been plausibly hypothesized, let alone tested experimentally.

Hilarious. I suppose the person who wrote this had to be taught/“made” by others to feel any heterosexual attraction, too?

Maybe conservatives really are that pliant. Perhaps they actually don’t know what gender to feel attracted to unless socially taught to.

Like I said, every accusation is a projection.

Michael K said...

Cook and lonejustiuce are a team hiding the current drag culture behind accusations of incest. You guys should get a room together, although you might be too old to enjoy sex without pedophilia.

Lincolntf said...

"We only want gay marriage", they said. "We are actually trying to fuck children", is what they did. I believe one of those statements is more true than the other. Raping kids is a core value of the Gay/Lesbian "community".

Greg the Class Traitor said...

hpudding said...
Basic rule-of-thumb: Every left-wing accusation is ultimately a projection.
FIFY

Greg the Class Traitor said...

Robert Cook said...
"BTW, one of my favorites was when you claimed coverage of the 2020 riots were way overblown. Kinda mostly peaceful I guess. Or not."

Are you referring to the Black Lives Matter demonstrations? Yes, they were predominantly peaceful


If you ever wonder whether or not Cookie is a lying sack of shit, this very nicely answers the question: yes, he is

Saint Croix said...

I'm not up-to-date on all the humor org charts. Satire in my experience is the least funny of all forms of comedy, at least for me. And humor is notoriously subjective. So it's quite common for satire to fail to get any laughs. My first girlfriend (Jewish) and I sat through The Life of Brian, which was painfully bad because there were almost zero laughs for us. I had kind of a bark laugh at the absurdity of the crucifixion scene. (And people are wrong to call this "blasphemy," because crucifixion was a common form of the death penalty back then, and lots of criminals were crucified). I was worldly and not religious at all when I was in high school -- ask any of my drinking buddies -- but damn if I'm going to enjoy painful lessons from comedians about non-conformity. (I think John Cleese later felt guilt about his part in that movie, because he narrated The Screwtape Letters, which isn't funny either, but I think it would also qualify as satire).

Anyway, yes, it's a stupid taunt. But they are clearly and unmistakably satirizing the idea that they want to molest children. It's not funny and it's actually a brainless "let's be strange and queer as possible" ode to non-conformity.

At this point in my life I see Millennials with tattoos as hopelessly boring and Millennials without tattoos as daring and quietly subversive. So take that, America.

(What makes this parade even more ill-advised is that mobs are notorious for being unthinking and unruly, whereas loners who stand up to mobs impress).

Narayanan said...

male teaching how to walk like female model not satire

Jamie said...

"So far, no genetic or congenital mechanism has been plausibly hypothesized, let alone tested experimentally."

Hilarious. I suppose the person who wrote this had to be taught/“made” by others to feel any heterosexual attraction, too?


Well... since heterosexual sex is how literally ALL species that reproduce sexually actually reproduce... not really a requirement that they be taught, is it? You know... Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it?

(Yes, there is "homosexual" activity among some animal species. My spayed female dog would try to hump my son's neutered male dog, for instance, because she was the boss of him and wanted him to know it. But it was a dominance display, not an expression of her True Self as a trans dog, using "dog" in the sense of "male dog," or a bi dog, using "dog" in the sense of "species Canis familaris". And some female animals will join with other female animals to raise young - which is also easily explained by biological imperatives; offspring are more important than anything else.)

So, no. Heterosexual people are not heterosexual because they've been "groomed" to be so.

Pudd'n, you're being even more silly than usual here.

Saint Croix said...

Satire is among the highest forms of humor, but probably the least appreciated, as so many people lack the discernment to recognize or understand it.

I mock your humor org chart!

Bow down before my satiric attack, peon.

I whip out my massive penis and pee all over you.

You slip and fall in my pee.

A satiric double whammy!

hpudding said...

Go on Greg the Traitor, Footsoldier for the Party of Pedophile Dennis Hastert. Tell us what problems your billionaire party has addressed, and the difference it has made in the lives of everyday, non-paranoid Americans.

Apart from forcing a pregnancy ten-year olds were raped into carrying through three trimesters to full term, that is. That’s a form of pedophilia that Republicans specialize in. Forced-gestation for ten-year olds.

Jim at said...

"Yes, they were predominantly peaceful, and in the cases where violence occurred, uniformed police, police agents provocateurs, and/or white supremacist counter-demonstrators were believed to be the primary instigators."

Who knew Cookie and Inga were on the same boogaloo reddit thread?

Jim at said...

And somebody needs to call the pound on hpudding.

Jim at said...

"I should add that in my 20 years of experience as a criminal prosecutor, none of the defendants in child sex abuse cases were strangers." altchuck

It's quite possible you sucked as a prosecutor. Or you're lying.

I was up to my fucking ears in the Wenatchee sex ring scandals.

Care to share you expert opinion on those cases?

wendybar said...

"Apart from forcing a pregnancy ten-year olds were raped into carrying through three trimesters to full term, that is. That’s a form of pedophilia that Republicans specialize in. Forced-gestation for ten-year olds."

If her illegal alien mother didn't let her illegal alien boyfriend f*ck her over and over again... https://nypost.com/2022/07/14/gershon-fuentes-charged-with-raping-impregnating-ohio-girl-entered-us-illegally/

AND she wasn't in her "third trimester" She was raped in May and had her abortion in June, so maybe try to get some facts before you start spewing disinformation and lies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Ohio_child-rape_and_Indiana_abortion_case

It seems like YOUR side in opening up the border to LET these people in to do what they do in other countries, so instead of blaming Republicans for being pedophiles...look in your own backyard.

Saint Croix said...

Apart from forcing a pregnancy ten-year olds were raped into carrying through three trimesters to full term, that is. That’s a form of pedophilia that Republicans specialize in. Forced-gestation for ten-year olds.

Lawyers (or judges?) have an expression, "hard cases make bad law."

10-year-olds are too young and ignorant to understand ideas like "responsible for their actions" or "why didn't you take Plan B birth control which is cheaper and safer and never kills a baby."

Please tell me why the pregnant 10-year-old upsets you and you need to abort that baby, but big hairy man waving a dildo in her face doesn't upset you at all.

It's almost like that 10-year-old child is a narrative construct who doesn't exist until we humanize her.

Like give her a name. We'll call her "Suzy."

I say, as a Christian trying to find and follow God, that if I have helped create Suzy, I really ought to love Suzy. I should love her regardless of whether she has black skin or white skin or red skin or yellow skin. I am not going to reduce my baby to pigment, okay? You shallow fuckers. My love is deep! I should love my baby even if she's retarded with Down's syndrome. I should love my baby even if she's an imperfect child who annoys the shit out of me. I should love my baby even if I'm not feeling it. But it's way, way, way, way more fun to love your baby if you are feeling it.

I say we love Suzy even if I don't have health insurance and can't afford an ultrasound. I say that maybe we should love Suzy even if we can't see her.

And I feel a little bad calling our baby "Suzy" because I know feminism teaches us that girl babies are way more special than boy babies, we all know that shit from feminist day care, and I have been giving my theoretical unborn children girl names for a couple of decades now, why don't we transition the little fucker to a boy in the uterus -- just ask a surgeon to open it up and inject some hormones in that theoretical baby with the wrong equipment, and now our theoretical unborn baby is no longer "Suzy," she is now "Ted."

Love her now? Or him? Do the pronouns help?

Yes, we need to love all our children, even the fucked up ones who do fucked up things. All those kids trying to be queer and strange to impress other people? Try to love them. They're children and they don't know any better. We're all human and we're all flawed sinners. We're all children to God.

Saint Croix said...

Serious question
IF a bunch of ultra conservatives Marched past a gay bar, chanting
WE'RE HERE! WE'RE STRAIGHT!! WE'VE COME TO CASTRATE!!!

and during their trial for hate speech, claimed "we were only joking, it was satire"
What would Ann Althouse's response be?


Semi-serious answer

you had her on the intellectual ropes and you were smacking the shit out of her and then you said

during their trial for hate speech

and then she ducks your uppercut and floors you with a free speech haymaker and Gilbar is bloody and he's lost another one

damn it, you were so close

Greg the Class Traitor said...

hpudding said...
Go on Greg the Traitor, Footsoldier for the Party of Pedophile Dennis Hastert. Tell us what problems your billionaire party has addressed, and the difference it has made in the lives of everyday, non-paranoid Americans.

1: We got rid of Dennis Hastert. You embraced Barney Frank and Ted Kennedy. Gosh, I wonder which is the Party of sexual deviants and monsters?
2: "billionaire party"? You mean like Soros, Zuckerberg, the Google twits, etc? Again, that you be you projecting your evils on us

Apart from forcing a pregnancy ten-year olds were raped into carrying through three trimesters to full term, that is

Gee, let's see, what happened in that case?
A raped 10 year old girl was brought to a Democrat abortion fanatic mandated reporter, who gave her an abortion and then sent her back to live with her rapist
It wasn't until Republicans started demanding to know who had raped this 10 year old, and demanded to know what CPS was going to do about it, that anything was done to arrest the illegal alien rapist who was also screwing her mother.

What's got puddinghead "outraged"?
It's not that the 10 year old was raped.
It's not that teh adults in her life, including doctors and social workers, conspired to cover up the roe by getting her an abortion and then sending her back to be raped more.

No, what absolutely outrages puddinghead is that a republican anti-abortion law upset the coverup and led to an end to the rapes of teh 10 year old girl.

Protecting children from being raped is what puddinghead hates.

Tina Trent said...

Lonejustice, you must live in a pretty white place. And know nothing about federal crime statistics, which would be extremely odd for a prosecutor. The two highest ethnicities involved in child abuse are Native American and African American. Statistically, Hispanics are responsible for outsized percentages of child rape.

Perhaps you're just lying about being a prosecutor. They usually don't turn crime victims into political fodder as preeningly as you do.

GingerBeer said...

It's funny because it's true.