Two things (or three)

My roommate told me there was a massacre in a gay bar recently. She also was complaining that people were like “Gun control! Gun control!” on the idea that, as she said, “Evil people can just steal guns.” She had a lot of trouble with the simple concept that if you stop selling guns legally, it makes it a lot harder for these people to get guns even illegally. I mean duh, it’s a simple concept, based on supply and demand. The demand can be as high as you please, but if you’ve destroyed the supply and aren’t making any more, then that makes it rather difficult since you can’t steal what doesn’t exist.

Another friend of mine would probably point out that guns are simple enough to make, now that the concept is out there. But honestly, the kind of people who use guns for these mass shootings aren’t bright enough to make a one-time use gun, let alone something sturdier.

So yeah, if anyone ever tells you that making guns illegal won’t do any good, they’re just spouting nonsense propaganda.

~

While I'm on the whole "shooting in a gay bar" thing, I'd just like to point out that I'm actually surprised this kind of thing doesn't happen more. What I mean specifically is such violence in gay spaces not being so common. Why? Well, because I recently saw this video from like, the early 60's, that quite excplicitly equated homosexuality to pedophilia, and it occurs to me that - just like racism and abortion - people tend to forget that these shitty old ideas about things don't just vanish. People who were raised thinking homosexuals are pedophiles are still alive and make up a large part of the population. So the fact that we've made as much progress as we have towards gay rights is fucking miraculous. But that fact can explain why there's still so much progress to make.

It's probably a safe assumption to assume that anyone who says "homosexuality is a sin" is still suffering from that delusion that homosexuality = pedophilia.

At the same time, a lot of how lesbians have had less trouble getting popular acceptance can also be explained by that 60's propaganda. Because the version of that film for females didn't even MENTION homosexuality; the female version focused on older men and older boys preying on young girls, and is still relevant today.

It also reveals an odd belief about pedophilia that persists to this day. In neither of those old films was there ever any mention or suggestion of the existence of female pedophiles. Strangely, people don't think women can be that way, but they can. Female child molesters do exist, but for some reason people don't seem to recognize that.

In one way, that's very dangerous. And in another way, it's kind of a good thing. (Bear with me here.) Because honestly, this whole anti-pedophilia thing is blown way out of proportion, and the aim is off as well. Society is going batshit over "protect the children" but the standard idea of a child molester is a creepy man in a panel van luring children with candy, which is absurd. Yes, people like that exist, but they're extremely rare. Most child molesters, though, are friends, family, and adults in positions of power over kids.

But maybe it's a good thing people don't seem to want to come to terms with that fact, given how much hysteria there is just in terms of "stranger danger." Add suspicion of family and friends to the mix, and our society might tear itself apart.

So how is it "kind of good" that society doesn't think women can be child molesters? Well, look at how fucking crazy we've been going lately in the name of keeping children "safe" from male child molesters: it's so bad that men can't even show any kind of affection for their own children without worrying about being branded a monster. This isn't good for the parents, and it isn't good for the children. It's not good for anyone; between people getting the shit beat out of them because idiots don't know enough English to differentiate between a pediatrician and a pedophile, people getting on the sex offender registry just for drunkenly pissing by a dumpster or for verbally chastising a child who ran into the street and almost got run over, to people being arrested for child endangerment for letting their kids play in the front yard while the parent is watching them from the front porch, this anti-pedophilia hysteria does nothing but harm in my opinion. Any good it might do is greatly eclipsed by the massive harm it does. (Those are all real examples; I didn’t just pull them out of my arse.)

Also, human beings need positive physical touch or they get very ill, and currently our society is so far in the grip of anti-pedophile hysteria that most people don't seem to be able to recognize the difference between good touch and bad touch.

Went a bit off track, but seriously, it is related. A lot of anti-homosexuality sentiment IS still firmly entwined with the anti-pedophilia hysteria gripping our society. A hysteria that is counter-productive.

If you really want to protect your kids and let them live a healthy, happy life, the best thing to do is first: drop the hysteria and teach the concept of consent to kids from a young age, which can be done by teaching them it's not right to touch one another (even hugs) without the other person's permission first. Teach them that, and they will be able to extend that idea to other kinds of touch.

The second step is to believe children when they say they've been violated. A large part of the problem is that when kids do report being molested, they aren't believed; or worse, they're victim blamed.

We do all that, we'll all be a lot better for it. And maybe we can finally weed out that nonsense about homosexuality being pedophilia. And while we're at it, maybe we can extend that to include other harmless kinks between consenting adults, stop nonsense like the idea that DDLG is somehow pedophilia.