Progressives have spent decades building up their machines in local and regional educational systems, so it’s not something that can be undone overnight. Still it’s been encouraging to see the progress conservatives have made in recent years rolling back some of the worst of the progressive influence. Much of the late conservative galvanization has come as a response to the aggressive push from the Left in recent years to impose heavy sexualization and transgenderism ideology onto young children. Responsible parents don’t want that sort of thing foisted on their children, and even if they don’t have children in the district they don’t want other people’s children being corrupted by it; they don’t want to see the kind of chaotically disordered and unhealthy society that arises from teaching that sort of thing. So we’re seeing these efforts to remove pornographic, highly sexualized books from schools, many of them featuring extremist LGBT ideology, and there are some proactive efforts to stop teachers from talking about sexualized topics with young children, and right now it seems to be going gangbusters in a lot of districts, and that’s good.
Still, it’s not a sure thing. Conservatives are easily cowed. I get that conservatives are often portrayed fearsomely, the media use terms like “far-right” and “right-wing” and there are always reports about angry mobs of white moms and sputtering cable TV hosts spreading “rage” and “misinformation.” But the truth is the average conservative is usually pretty willing to back down if the going gets rough. That’s why the Left has had such success at taking over, well, pretty much every single major mainstream institution and industry in our society. There’s a lot of fury around these books, say, and these curricula, but one gets the feeling that it could collapse at any moment, that the conservative zeitgeist could die away if and when enough conservative activists get cold feet and decide it’s not worth it.
One way that this sort of thing often happens is when progressives style conservatives as extremists in their own right, branding their activist efforts as over-the-top and unwarranted. Conservatives are uniquely susceptible to this. None of them wants to be seen as an outlier, an overexcited and misinformed fanatic. If they feel like they’re getting painted in that light, they’ll often back off. Here’s a great example: Lots of conservative efforts have been focused on removing the book “Gender Queer” from school libraries and curriculums. This book contains extremely explicit sexual imagery; in one instance there’s a sympathetic depiction of a grown man fondling a boy’s genitals, and in another there’s a sequence where a young child imagines two grown men engaging in sexual behavior. There are sexual depictions elsewhere in the book as well. The author has said the book is meant to be consumed by high schoolers, which is to say children as young as 14. It’s very obviously meant to normalize this sort of thing, to make children more comfortable being sexual objects and to make adults more comfortable having children used as sexual objects. But many media outlets, for one, have tried to cover that up. ABC News, for instance, describes the book as “a coming-of-age memoir” that “discuss[es] LGBTQ identities, sexuality and gender.” The network makes no mention of the depictions of child-related sexual activity in the book. Huffington Post claimed the book’s source of controversy was “a passage on consent that contains a page about sex toys.” The New York Times wrote that the book “includes some sexually explicit scenes,” without mentioning that those scenes involve, you know, children.
Reporting like this is meant to cast criticism of the book in a negative light, to depict the people opposed to this book as deranged, overzealous extremists. It’s an effective tactic. But to the conservatives who might be swayed by such efforts, who might read this sort of thing and think, “Gee, I was wrong, I’d better back off,” I’d urge you: Don’t. You don’t have to worry. You don’t have to doubt yourself. What you see is what you get here. You don’t have to feel bad about throwing your weight against predatory material meant to victimize and abuse children. That’s never something you need to feel guilty about, or have second thoughts about, or be shamed into giving up. Proceed as normal. This is bad stuff and you should fight against it.
I think there’s often a sort of secondary impulse at play here to assume that this sort of thing might actually not be as bad as it outwardly seems. Hey, sure, these drawings are sort of shocking, but maybe you’re just being prudish or square in your reaction to them. Maybe this is actually just a harmless piece of literature and you shouldn’t be so fanatical about it, or go full Crucible on it.
This is, of course, wrong. Look, I don’t think I have to spell it out too boldly for you: People have been targeting children for sick and sadistic abuse for thousands of years. Children are pretty much the most vulnerable demographic in society. This isn’t rocket science. If you see someone trying to get a highly sexual book into school circulation—a book depicting sexual scenes and situations, some of them involving children, and one which the author admits is meant for children—you don’t have to really puzzle over that! There’s no real subtext here. This is a stomach-churning story as old as time itself. There are sick, dastardly people in the world who want to exploit and abuse children in awful ways. If they can figure out ways to make it easier to do that, they’re going to do it. And “show children graphic depictions of child-related sexual behavior and tell them it’s all okay” is pretty much a textbook example of making it easier. It’s just right there, right out in the open, it’s simplicity itself.
So don’t falter. Don’t give up. And don’t think you have to really mount a complex and philosophical argument when you’re fighting this stuff. You don’t have to get too into the weeds on this, especially not with people who want to push this book on children. Just explain it forthrightly: “This book contains graphic sexual depictions, some of them involving children. In no way at all is is appropriate for children to read. It should not be in school libraries and I am going to work to make sure it’s banned from them, permanently.” This is a self-justifying declaration. Don’t sweat it! Protecting children from this kind of depravity is one of the easiest, most correct, most inarguable stands you can take in your life. Don’t worry what other people say about you if you’re this much in the right. Carry on!
Well said, Zach. You understand the fight and the fear. I just subscribed. Thank you for writing the truth. God bless you.
Especially to my believers out there. Take the pain. Only through sacrificial love will we change the world. You will accomplish nothing without pain so get used to it. You have enough love, forgiveness, and strength because of Him. If you're afraid of your past, that you're not good enough for this fight, seek His forgiveness. Stand in His truth. God's children are not for sale.