“How difficult it has become to decipher the truth from the fictitious, to trust one’s own eyes over the art of image distortion. Information is power and if readings have taught us anything, it is that power inevitably corrupts.”
“Evil does not just arise from nothingness, most of the time it is nurtured by society’s failure to activate its moral standards”
― Aysha Taryam
I don’t usually include trigger warnings, but this post will reference suicide, child abuse, sexual assault, and human trafficking, albeit not in any detail. At the end I will include a list of links to articles and organizations.
The latest argument I’ve seen against masks is that they will make it easier for predators to abduct our children because they can just walk right out of stores with them. I asked one of my sons if he knew what to do if a stranger ever tried to grab him in a store or any other populated place. First he said, “Beat ’em up” (for context, we’re involved in martial arts).
“Okay, but what else are you supposed to do?”
“AUGH!!!”
That’s self defense 101. If someone grabs you in a public place, you scream and/or try to get away because the last thing you want is for them to take you away from people who can help, and the last thing they want is for you to attract the attention of people that can help. Who’s bringing kids to the store, and letting them run around unattended anyway? Especially during a pandemic that – bored as we all are of it – has not gone away?
That said, some children may not scream or try to get away because the abductor is known to them. The sad reality is that as much as stranger danger was hammered into my generation – and as important as it is to address, especially in the internet era – children are most often victimized by someone they know.
Recently some people have complained that the media isn’t talking about the children who were saved from trafficking in Georgia, but the media is talking about it. Not all were rescued from traffickers. Some had been abducted by parents (which does not make it any less serious because the threat of physical or sexual violence can still be present). Others were found safe and sound where they belonged during wellness checks. The truth gets distorted to push a sensationalized narrative that makes people feel scared and helpless instead of empowered to protect themselves and their families in effective meaningful ways.
When people do not extend their skepticism of the media to social media, they demonstrate a lapse in critical thinking skills needed to defend against predators and other opportunists. This is exemplified by the way in which fear is being exploited to recruit people into a conspiracy group linking everything to a single plot involving Hollywood and Deep State operatives who may or may not be under alien control. As many will tell you: “It’s all coming out”. And they’re always so weirdly gleeful, like the interest is less in pursuing justice for victims, and more for wanting to feel in the know, like it’s just a game to them. They present memes and unsubstantiated rumors as truth. The resulting hysteria will inevitably be used to provide cover for actual predators, and as another excuse to disbelieve victims. I worry that’s part of the originators’ intent. Some images are triggering for victims and stimulating for predators. Not helpful.
That the group reveres as its champion someone who has objectified his own daughters since infancy, bragged about watching teen beauty queens in dressing rooms and grabbing women without consent, and been credibly accused of sexual assault by over twenty people, including a minor Epstein trafficked, makes it all the more horrifying. The courts are being stacked with like-minded judges, including the highest court in the land, but the courts already played a role in perpetuating these problems.
The other sad reality is society has normalized sexual abuse of minors all along, even judges who continue to embrace Stanley Kubrick’s depiction of Lolita as the villain rather than the victim. In 2013, a judge reduced the sentence of a teacher that raped a student to a month in prison, saying the victim (who had died by suicide) looked older than her years and was “probably as much in control of the situation as was the defendant”. Even if that BS was true, a child is a child. The adult is responsible for making the adult decision. The victim wasn’t even alive to defend herself against these slanderous remarks from the person meant to bring her rapist to justice.
Despite public outcry, other cases play out in similar ways. Rapists receive little to no consequence because judges value their future over the future of the victim. They get shown a degree of compassion rarely afforded to far lesser offenders, or even non-offenders. In 2017, a New Jersey judge decided a 16 year old shouldn’t be tried as an adult for raping a 12 year old because it wasn’t ‘heinous’ enough a crime. In 2018, another New Jersey judge tried to spare someone who admitted to rape on camera while filming it because he had good grades and came from a ‘good family’. The judge was rebuked, and the case moved forward anyway, which I guess is why some people will try to tell you with a straight face that “Me Too” went too far.
Recently Daisy Coleman, an advocate who had been raped at 14, committed suicide. She appeared in the documentary Audrie & Daisy, which included the story of another victim who killed herself after being assaulted and photographed. Her rapists served a month in juvie. Coleman’s rapist was charged with child endangerment for leaving her in her yard and served no time. Though he came from a well-connected family, it’s the community that rallied around him and tormented her, not some cabal of global elitists. Just regular ol’ people.
Boys who are victimized don’t have it much better. When a professional cheerleader was convicted of raping a minor in 2019, some men of the dude bro variety made light of it, saying things like “can’t rape the willing” and “I wish she raped me”. Sexual assaults in locker rooms, even against the mentally disabled, have been dismissed as pranks and hazing.
And these are just the cases that make it to trial. Opponents of police reform like to play the “who will you call if you get raped?” card, as if that isn’t one of many issues underlying the need for reform, between the mistreatment of victims, untested rape kits, and worse. Even today, many victims don’t bother reporting because the system is quick to remind people who matters and who doesn’t. And still some wonder why others demand change.
Some people fear child marriage being legalized in the states but it already is. Advocates have been fighting that battle for decades. Even states that designate the age of consent as 18 may have exceptions for things like pregnancy or parental consent.
Here are some links to organizations that help survivors, combat problems, and educate people on meaningful ways to help because serious problems deserve a serious response:
Child Marriage in the US: information from Global Citizen
End Slavery Now: organization that combats modern day slavery
Girls Not Brides: international advocacy, linking to page specific to US
NCMEC: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Polaris Project: operates the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline
RAINN: Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network
So well said!