Episode 202: Grooming Panic

Finn Robinson. Not listening to and learning from cautionary tales of those who came before us and wrote words of warning that people like you choose to bury their heads in the sand over IS our country's problem. Accusing one's opponents of pedophilia was part of the Soviet Active measures playbook and is clearly part of the Russian Putin playbook.

George Gifford

Orc. Wrong. The groomer panic is a variation of the anti-homosexuality conspiracies. The killing of children and drinking their "adrenochrome" is a variation of the Jewish Blood Label conspiracy.

George Gifford

Police do read to kids. As a matter of fact former Euclid, OH police officer Donald Ivory participated in the Books with Badges program and read a book which was filmed for children to watch. This officer was later fired and convicted of sexual assault on a 13 year old, which happened in his apartment when he was off duty. He was previously fired once for domestic violence but the police union got him back on the force until he was convicted of attempted assault, endangering children and attempted disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. So not only do cops indoctrinate kids by reading story books to them, but are documented in at least one instance of being the very predators these chuds claimed to be concerned about.

Mike Parker

A Nazi that says do your own research. It’s somehow ironic.

Claire Hofbauer

Quick note. Drag in the UK definitely is more like standup than US drag. So wild to see these right wingers criticize drag and they probably haven't even seen a drag show. One again brilliant reporting!

Chris

Yes, indeed. And, somehow, I forgot all about Monty Python.

Liam Harte

Omg, I just found out about there being a Reno 911 Qanon movie lol

Andrew Fortson

They had protest here in Helsinki, Finland, when drag queen story hour took place. Well, they tried. https://yle.fi/news/3-12519403. It is just sad.

Merja Savelainen

Also when these people were making definitive statements about where things were... how many listening wanted to respond with "OH NO IT'S NOT?"

Tiffany Craig

Never forget national treasure Paul O'Grady and Lily Savage who most definitely was on afternoon TV in the 2000s. Oh and Queen who dressed up as 50s housewives.

Tiffany Craig

So are these idiots going to turn up and start protesting panto this season?

Tiffany Craig

I’ve been to part of a similar counter presence in the DC area as Anne, it’s crazy how similar the narrative of these fascists are.

Don't forget Hinge and Bracket and Kenny Everett. Terry Jones as Brian's mum in Life Of Brian. Half of the characters in the now very derided Little Britain TV show. British men need little excuse to dress up. #notallbritishmen.

british media in the seventies and eighties. idk, probably most of them weren't and were ok people

yeah this groomer panic is just a variation on blood libel

orc

Do you really think so? Why?

Liam Harte

seriously can't believe how stupid this post is. like, of course russia is funding/helping *american* right wing groups. but you're just making this tenuous connection and implying it's real evidence. accusations of pedophilia have been used against LGBT+ people for *decades* in america. the right wing is trying to hurt LGBT+ people as much as possible and this is the best way they can think to do it. there's no reason to think this trend didn't evolve naturally from american and british right wing culture. automatically blaming your own country's problems on russia is such a cop out.

the irony is half of those men probably *were* molesting kids. (though not while wearing drag)

About the now ubiquitous use by the right wing of the word "pedophile" to attack one's opponent. Injection of the word pedophile into our body politic is only about a year old. In Solzinitza's book, the author described how under Soviet Rule the accusation of being a pedophile was a common state tactic used against any person or group considered an enemy of the Soviet government. Has a Russian influence campaign been in full effect in our nation since 2014? Absolutely.

George Gifford

Besides the panto dames, there were men in drag on TV all the time when I was growing up in England in the sixties and seventies. Danny La Rue, especially, was such a big star that he made it onto the cover of Led Zep II. I’ve seen John Inman (better known as Mr Humphries in ”Are you being Served?”) trying to decide whether to have his necklace hanging between or around his fake breasts, while belting out music hall songs on “The Good Old Days.” Eric Sykes, one of the most successful British post-war comedians, played the drag role in “Charley’s Aunt.” Even the Rolling Stones dressed up as women in the promotional film (we didn’t have “videos” then) for “Have You Seen Your Mother Baby Standing in the Shadow.” In the eighties and nineties, Dame Edna Everage (who *is* Australian) seemed to be everywhere. I’ve even done it myself, to perform in a couple of revue sketches at college. I never heard anyone suggest that any of these men were trying to groom kids, nor that Shakespeare was when he had boys perform the female roles in his plays. So, as far as I’m concerned, these self-styled English patriots are attacking a very deeply-rooted part of English culture.

Liam Harte

I loved the leap to “Because of a fear of reprisals??” Gold.

David D.