The paper the Guardian has become Britain’s newest champion for a minority of sorts. In a January 3 article, the UK paper has taken up the cause of pedophiles who claim they are just “ordinary members of society” that only need a little understanding.
The paper seriously presented pedophiles as but a misunderstood minority that do no real harm. As Telegraph writer Damian Thompson points out, “this is not some sick send-up” on his part. The UK Guardian is wholly serious.
Guardian feature columnist Jon Henley uncritically quotes convicted pedophiles like Tom O’Carroll, who said that children enter into such “relationships” voluntarily. “If there’s no bullying, no coercion, no abuse of power, if the child enters into the relationship voluntarily … the evidence shows there need be no harm.”
Henley then trots out a few “experts” that present “proof” that kids are not harmed by the predators that abuse them.
Thompson points out that this is the same sort of absurdly permissive attitude that caused Catholic Churches across the world to “adopt a mild, nuanced approach to suspicions of clerical pedophilia.”
This isn’t a new phenomenon, though. Only last year, America’s Gawker website also published a story that gave pedophiles the benefit of being treated as abused minorities.
As in the Guardian article, throughout the Gawker piece passive language was used to soft peddle child rape. The Gawker piece also constantly claimed that sex between adults and children is just a “choice.” The pedophile quoted in the Gawker piece even maintained that the sex he had with his seven-year-old niece was consensual. Gawker simply takes his word for it without protest.
Gawker also trotted out “experts” claiming that child rape is no big deal.
This attitude about adults that predate on children is a growing discussion and is the next horizon for defining criminal behavior downward.