De Facto Degeneracy
The push to normalize the horrific phenomenon of trans-strippers performing for children is now in full swing. Drag queen story hour has already become a fixture at public libraries and educational institutions. Activists have spent the last few years advancing the narrative that exposing children to sexually explicit performances at Pride events is key to building tolerance and diversity. Both of these movements have combined to reach their natural conclusion, which can be observed in grotesque detail on the Twitter account Libs Of TikTok. I will not include the video currently making the rounds on Twitter, but you can click on the link if you want to see it. A trans-stripper in Miami parades around topless with cash stuffed in a g-string, holding the hand of a bewildered toddler as patrons of the restaurant where this gross spectacle is taking place cheer. This is not an isolated incident, you can find hours of similar footage from Pride parades and drag shows in just the last month. Many of those events were specifically advertised as kid-friendly or family-friendly.
People often ask me why trans-strippers who are clearly exposing themselves to children are not prosecuted for what has always been seen as a particularly egregious crime. The answer is very simple: the perpetrators are involved in a state-sanctioned religious ritual that law enforcement knows to steer clear of. In America, we like to think of ourselves as a nation of laws. There are no kings, no masters. Everyone, even those who enforce the law, are subject to the law. This is what makes us equal. But of course, laws are not magic, they are cultural artifacts that must be interpreted and enforced by flesh and blood humans. At best, laws are a formalization of moral codes that reflect the organic values of the people who write them.
It does not matter what a law actually says (de jure) if in practice a different standard is actually enforced (de facto). Yes, de jure, an adult exposing themselves to a minor is a crime that places them on the sex offender registry. But, de facto, there is a protected class who are celebrated by our ruling elites for doing exactly that. There are parades, festivals, and special events where this behavior is not just allowed but encouraged as a celebration of tolerance. These events are implicitly and often explicitly celebrated by the media, academia, and public officials. Sometimes, they are even organized by the state itself. Law enforcement knows better than to apply the law equally to individuals at these events. Doing so would mean immediate personal and professional destruction for an officer or deputy who made that mistake.
Pride parades and drag shows are not the only events where we can observe this phenomenon. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government arrested people who attempted to hold church services or sing hymns outside while practicing social distancing as a form of protest. When BLM decided to respond to the death of a black man in police custody by rioting and looting, however, they were more or less given free reign in many American cities across the country. During the protests on January 6th, 2021 in Washington DC, many disgruntled voters decided that they would enter the capital to demonstrate. They quickly learned that because their activism did not have the blessing of the media and the state, the new rules for protesting did not apply to them. The protesters paid a heavy price for not understanding that the sanction of elites confers this new right to a group, not the letter of the law.
Post hoc rationalizations also come fast and thick after such ostentatious displays. In the case of the BLM riots, media organizations famously declared them “mostly peaceful” while scientists made the ridiculous claim the protests reduced the spread of COVID-19. After the video of the trans-stripper parading a child around in Miami surfaced, many on Twitter asked what harm was actually being done to the child.
Many of the commenters under the original post asked why anyone was concerned at all if the parents were the ones bringing the child to the event. If a parent consents to expose their child to this how is it any of your business? It would seem that as long the sexualization of children is done in the name of tolerance and with the approval of their parents, the state should have no interest in protecting kids from abuse.
If any of these arguments were translated into the context of say, a church, the same people would lose their minds. They would instantly understand the role the state plays in protecting children from this type of predation. But Pride parades and drag shows are now the rituals that our society holds sacred and everyone knows that a different set of rules applies to these events. Any attempt to limit their gratuitous excesses, even if they are being visited on young children, will instantly brand you as a bigot. Anyone attempting to hold these groups to the same standard of law as the rest of the population will be destroyed on a personal and professional level. That is why law enforcement turns a blind eye and the media disappears these stories. They understand where power lies, and they have no interest in being ruined by attempting to apply the law equally. If a civilization does not believe, to its very core, that the sexualization of children is wrong in a very deep and non-negotiable sense, then no one is willing to stick their neck out to enforce the law as written. They will comply with power before any principle, and that is how you know when you are truly lost.