grooming

 

Political parties have long used wedge issues to encourage their members to turn out to vote.  Sometimes these issues are inflammatory, employing demonization, occasionally to the point of being dangerous.  I fear that this year, we are witnessing such an issue: the accusations of pedophilia.

  I realize that the Q-Anon conspiracy theorists have made this an issue for a couple of years now, but there is a new, and much more dangerous twist, that is surfacing that may turn out to be far more insidious.  Rather than merely accusing all Democrats and liberals of being child-trafficking pedophiles who drink children’s blood, they have broadened out the accusation to include grooming children for pedophiles.

  A bit of background:  you may remember the ardent believer who took a gun into a New York pizza parlor where he was told children were being kept in the basement by a cabal of pedophiles led by Hillary Clinton among others.  Fortunately, when he arrived, he was persuaded that no children were being abused, in fact there was no basement, and he surrendered to police without injuring anyone.

  But the “grooming” twist to the conspiracy theory is, to me, much more unsettling, because the scope of accusations can include anyone.  The theory is that pedophiles groom children, sometimes for years, before molesting them.  Moreover, they occasionally have accessories who help with the grooming without engaging in the molestation.  Grooming can include any acts to gain the trust of the child.

  Here’s the insidious nature of this theory:  anyone can be accused of grooming a child simply by being a good neighbor or friend.  If you babysit for a relative or neighbor, if you help a student with their homework, if you give them a Christmas present, any normal act of kindness can be twisted into an act of grooming.  The more acts of kindness you perform, i.e., the nicer you are, the more you may be vilified.

  It’s a brilliant and evil way to demonize the most loving people in one’s community.  I hope I’m wrong about the danger this may manifest.