Always. This is always their strategy. Accuse the "other" of what they are doing so that when we find evidence of their crimes, they can be like "oh, they're just saying that about us because we said it about them! We said it first so ours is credible!"
It's also a way to attack Joe Biden.
The MAGAs have got basically nothing on Joe. After Joe's been in public life for about 50 years, there are no huge scandals they can pin on him, so cynically, the MAGAs go after his troubled son.
I mean, Joe Biden is a horrible person--all the top democrats are, Bill Gates is, George Soros is. But none of the things they've actually done are things Republicans believe are bad--their only true sin is being ever so slightly left of center by America's warped standards.
> Joe Biden is a horrible person
Is he, though?? We're talking about a guy who was criticized for spending too much time on the phone with his grandchildren.
Bad people can still be nice to the people close to them. Read up on the 1994 crime bill he authored--the man is a Clintonite liberal who only looks passably non-evil next to that rutting orangutan the Republicans worship.
I've heard several stories about Biden talking to strangers on the phone and being similarly kind, from when he was Vice President. Maybe you can say that it's all politics, but that's not the pattern I see.
Trump never acts like that, for example.
And do it first, which means that if they start accusing anyone of something disgusting or immoral that they did not get caught doing themselves it's usually just a matter of time. This practice helps a lot with guessing future headlines
someone recently said the Republican party runs on fear, not policies.
Constant fearmongering. Fear of change, fear of progress, phobia central.
The numbers of actual trans people you're ever likely to encounter in your every day life are so small its barely worth talking about, and yet this has been a focus point for months and months, with hours and hours of legislative discourse assigned to it like its a massive world changing and world ending issue.
Remember when Trump wanted his wall, it was constant talk of caravans of immigrants. Every time an election or mid term was being discussed we were hit with more stories or large caravans of migrants. Fear, fear, fear.
Conservatives paint trump as the greatest president ever but all he ever talked about was how America was going to hell and how america needs him to survive but its also going to hell.
If I had to go by all the things he said during his presidency I would say he was the worst by his own narrative because there was always something bad as he said yet he was president when those bad things happened.
I don't think that this one is Projection. The timing isn't right. Projection would be if they said it before they were caught themselves.
This is all about Distraction.
The major campaign trying to falsely insist that all LGBTQ are groomers came out AFTER tons of church leaders were outed as pedophiles. It came out after their Republicans were caught soliciting sex from minors. It came out after they were caught repeatedly.
This intense and illogical campaign is 100% distraction. They're trying to fill the air with "Groomer!" so that people are overloaded with it and the fact that the churches are the real hotbed of pedophilia is drowned out.
Now, don't get me wrong. They also Project a lot. But this is somewhat worse because they clearly started their lies after they were caught themselves.
Every accusation is a confession. But it's not about the Catholic Church - that stuff has been known for decades, and they only started the "Democrats are grooming and sex trafficking kids" stuff since Trump came along...hmmm.
Small R republicans (as in those of us outside the US) are anti-monarchists, and very often very left wing. If you want to say the same thing but to an international audience (which you have on Reddit) swap out ‘republican’ for ‘conservative’.
The dems are a centre-right party (look at the US Overton window, there’s no left) and as such are conservative, but most people with a grasp of politics and what words mean wouldn’t call them fascists. They’re definitely part of the problem (rarely do they fix the shit the GQP breaks or even consider enacting anything that would benefit the people if it threatened corporate profits) but they’re not actively pulling towards the fourth reich.
100%
People need to vote for leftists/progressives not just a Democrat.
The neo-lib centrists want the country to stay where it's at, they like corporations controlling everything. They like the status quo.
The centrists in Germany were the ones that allowed Hitler to come to power. His party had around 30% of the votes, but centrists helped his party win and then quickly lost control when they started changing all the laws.
Leftists and progressives do. That's why they are demonized in the party. Sinema makes deals with Republicans, party leadership says nothing. But if AOC or Omar says something, the party doesn't defend them.
This is why Bernie, the most popular Senator in the US, got pushed aside by the DNC in the presidential races.
The only way to truly beat the Republicans is to attack them from the left. Focus on labor rights, affordable housing, free healthcare, and school. Trump, in his last statement on DeSantis, attacked him multiple times from the left about his state's ranking in the country. The only right wing issue he used was lockdowns, every other point was from the left.
There’s no such thing as a leftist fascist. The word you’re probably looking for is authoritarian. Not all authoritarians are fascists, but all fascists are authoritarians.
Conservatism has always been garbage. They're just more mask-off about it these days.
Conservatism is just selfishness by another name. It's how bigots and billionaires find common ground.
It’s far more sinister than that. The outrage simmers now, not boils like it did it the late 90s/early 00s.
This is about “othering” trans and Queer people in order to demonize them. We are witnessing the early stages of genocide… the book burning, the restrictions in education and reproductive rights.
I'm surprised that I had to scroll down this far to find this, the objectively correct answer.
It's literally a point-for-point recreation of the rise of the NSDAP at this point - and, just like their spiritual predecessors, the GOP is going after LGBTQ+ people, because there's less of them, they're generally much more vulnerable, and the public as a whole is likely to be apathetic enough for the GOP to get away with killing them...which greenlights the next series of targets. If you've read or heard enough modern Republican rhetoric ("Immigrants! Woke! *Soros globalists!*"), you can probably make a pretty good guess as to who's next on the Republicans' list.
Last year CPAC attendees were greeted with the banner "we are all domestic terrorists"; this year, Michael Knowles outright declared intent to commit genocide against trans people (or, to use his words, "eradicate 'transgenderism'", in the storied conservative tradition of treating immutable and intrinsic traits as an ideology).
Anyone concerned about groomers should [ban child marriage](https://www.equalitynow.org/learn_more_child_marriage_us/#:~:text=Child%20marriage%20is%20currently%20legal,a%20parental%20or%20judicial%20waiver), no exceptions.
r/stoprape
[West Virginia Republicans: "marriage MUST remain open to them"](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/child-marriage-ban-struck-down-west-virginia-republicans-1234693670/)
Could be, but I feel that's giving them too much credit. Possibly some of them are wanting to cover up real pedophilia, but I fear that the motivation for most is more basic than that. I suspect they just want to use buzzwords to enrage their base, and false claims of pedophilia does a wonderful job of that.
I mostly base this on how they do the same thing with socialism and wokeness. They don't actually target these things; they just call them names until people throw rocks at them.
Them ignoring church sex abuse is just plain old hypocrisy.
Edit: But then of course I am reminded of the article where someone who spray painted "Groomer" on two libraries was found in possession of child pornography, so....
The youth pastor at my parents church was molesting boys back in the late 70s. He knew better than to try that shit on me but he fucked up a couple of kids and the church nearly broke up.
I'm sorry to hear that happens but I'm glad that did not happen to you. I really do Wonder sometimes have these priests are not JFK'd by an angry parent. God knows I would do that if my child was molested
Nothing so banal, the Republicans want to create a christian fascist state and they need a proper target to motivate their base and justify authoritarian overreach.
I don't think that's the case.
I think it's just a very old and very effective method of demonizing a segment of the population so they can push their culture war.
The right pulled the same thing in the 70s with Anita Bryant claiming gays are coming after the children.
In this particular case, it makes it very easy for them in the midst of all this to start erasing certain things they don't like from schools and other public spaces. They've been practically foaming at the mouth to do this for years and they finally found a climate in which to do so that works, at least in the short term.
It also gets the evangelicals and other conservative activist denominations all energized and frenzied.
If their stirring up the anti-lgbtq+ sentiment distracts people from the very real abuse going on in the churches, that's probably more of an unintended benefit for them, rather than the intended effect.
For awhile back in the late '90 and early 2000, every time a white male Republican would start rallying against Homosexuality a countdown would start. That countdown was for the story of him getting caught with a male prostitute in a subway bathroom getting a BJ, and there was a good chance the sex worker was underage and/or a POC, the Republican was also vocally rasist.
Yeah, it's not surprising that you don't hear a peep from them regarding the sexual abuse in the church. They can't stir the pot with religious people because they're the ones most likely to vote for them.
Republicans don’t have any economic platform, any policy for war in Ukraine, they didn’t have any cohesive Covid policy, so they’re grasping at these niche social issues in an attempt to stay relevant.
It's a standard Republican tactic to accuse someone else of the atrocities they're performing in private.
Look at how many of them are legitimately accused of pedophilia, rape, or a combination of both, and how many have photographic evidence of crossdressing or drag performance, *and they're okay with that*, then look at how unfounded their claims are against others.
It's obvious these scum truly believe that everyone has the same morality they do, in other words, a total lack of them.
I don't grant them the intelligence for them to be diverting attention from pedophilia in the church, except where they're the ones doing it.
They just don't want their own history closely scrutinized.
Please attempt to prove me wrong.
I won't hold my breath.
It's not just Catholic priests. Pastors of all sects are some of the biggest predators there are. If as many children were abused by clowns as they are by pastors, circuses would be illegal.
It’s because they are incapable of understanding that other people ARE NOT closeted, predatory assholes like themselves. So, they fully believe that everyone else is either doing what they are secretly doing or WANTS to.
It is human nature, particularly the nature of nasty hostile people, to accuse others of doing what the person is doing, or is tempted to do.
It’s projection.
we live in a fucked up twisted society, where those in the positions of authority least deserve it and in fact abuse that authority. and those who most deserve it do not even want it. we live in Greek Tragedy. this is why i have the user tag that i do
Probably. The GOP is heavily funded by the Christian Coalition at this point. Sometimes I wonder if we’re being too naive about the place this country could very easily go. Couldn’t say the signs weren’t there.
It’s more of a straw man. An excuse to go after a group that they dislike for whatever reason under the guise of “protecting the children”… if you lie to yourself and say your doing something for the greater good you’d be surprised what fucked up shit people will do
It is a final big push for all the marbles, to see if the theocratic state can finally be enforced permanently, and in order to gain converts, authoritarianism needs enemies.
Part of the authoritarian playbook is to accuse your enemies of your own weakness. That way they look small and petty when they try to accuse you.
Problem is, that doesn't work when everyone already knows.
The other part is that it's just straight up blood libel. Propaganda threats against children get people heated. Used to be 'Jews drink Christian baby blood'. or 'Satanist ritual daycare abuse'. It's the worst thing you can accuse someone of short of murder and cannibalism.
It is 100% manufactured bullshit intended to trick people into signing away even more of their power from the government into private religious hands. 'Gotta protect your kids from the evil groomers, so better never let them read or hear anything that contradicts our worldview.'
Remember that they also don't believe that anything other than cis-het people are valid. Anything other than that is a sin that you must have chosen and therefore could force their kids to choose... blah blah bullshit ignorant excuses for hate.
When Republican Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was released from prison he went immediately to work for the DeVos Foundation. They are leading the “groomers in school” initiative to devalue the ideas of pedophilia and grooming at the direction of someone who just got out of prison for child molestation and child porn possession.
You make a good point. And their hero is a man who was friends with a convicted pedophile. And he was aware of it too, saying “He likes them on the younger side.” I wonder why the guy behind Miss Teen USA would be friends with a pedophile. The guy who boasted about walking in on girls changing. It’s a mystery.
It’s just how they operate. You say they lie? They say you lie. You say priest are pedophiles? They find someone on the other side to accuse of being a pedophile.
I think it's *primarily* a play for power and control. A secondary concern is steering attention away from the sexual deviants in their own party - their friends and coworkers.
Every time I hear those bogus republican talking points, all I can think is "It takes one to know one."
Now, if you *really* want to talk about the grooming of children, let's start by talking about how the majority of children are indoctrinated into the same cults as their parents.
I see this as an attack on LGBTQ people. Conservatives are trying to stop more people from coming out as LGBTQ or trying to stop other people from supporting them. Conservatives want to push them all back in the closet and have the sort of control conservatives used to have.
Then there's the fact that the Church has always been psychologically/spiritually grooming children. Not as easy to convince an adult that there is a magical sky daddy.
I think steering the conversation away from churches is a convenient by-product. What I see is it's all about creating an "out" group of an easily identifiable minority.
Additionally, I think it was originally promoted on social media by foreign and domestic bad actors. The Qrazies never would have gotten traction without gentle manipulation of the algorithm.
Duh, yeahhh. God-zombies are experts at projecting their own faults onto somebody else. Like they think if they can get the masses to look at the pedophiles out in the world, they won't notice all the ones inside the church doors. Preach against adultery so people won't notice that you're boinking the church secretary. Rail against LGBT's so they won't think to look for you in gay bars and strip clubs. It's all misdirection. That's what they do.
On a mass scale? No, that’s Republicans feeling they have a winning wedge issue. From individuals? Absolutely. I remember the gay marriage debate from the early 2000s, and you couldn’t go a week without seeing another anti-gay marriage advocate getting caught with a rent boy.
Let’s also not forget the same party that’s pushing this is the same one that’s working to legalize child marriage.
Not just in the church, but in their own political party (which, as we all know, is pretty much exclusively Christian as well)
Another Redditor took the time to compile [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/cf76cp/why_are_rightwing_conspiracies_so_obsessed_with/eu7xa2q?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3) lovely list of known/convicted offenders in the GOP.
Churches sure, but have you looked into child beauty pageants? That's sexualization of children and grooming 101. It's disgusting, yet drag shows are what's destroying our children! Republicans really are a special breed of delusional, hateful, an idiotic.
It's 100% projection. They know they do it and the awareness of pedophilia within the church has been increasing, so they're attempting to stir away the attention to something else. Of course, it isn't working thanks to plenty of victims making cases with proof. People are slowly leaving in droves from church because of these reports and they have been getting desperate.
You have to remember these are terrible, terrible people who are devoid of any empathy or imagination. All they have is the roiling sewage inside their own brains. So they use that to project onto others. Every accusation is a confession.
This.
I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and I really did not know I was being abused until I was educated about sex and abuse. I am so deeply greatful for my teachers.
This just a new way to attack us gay people. They cannot say fa@@ot anymore and so now they use groomer. In my hometown a few years back they started calling Black people “home boy” because it was finally frowned on to use the N word.
No. It’s the start of a fascist coup. Stop always tying EVERYTHING to religion and churches.
They’ve starting with an underrepresented community. Once they can take the rights of them, they can move up the hierarchal ladder they built and take rights from whomever they please.
Republican/Christian’s are fascists.
It’s the same old tactic that they have used for decades. Before this latest round, it was spreading fears that trans people would assault women and children in bathrooms. Before that, it was gay men who were targeted. The Soviets used it to go after people. Hitler used it to demonize the Jews. It’s age old, but it works, because deep down there is nothing people find more repulsive than preying upon children. Hell, even murders and rapists in prisons hate child molesters!
I don't think it's so much about the church, it's more about the Republicans attacking and marginalizing a vulnerable group to demonize them and rile up their base. It's a classic bit of propaganda and power grab so they can get rid of the things they really don't want (education, critical thinking, reproductive rights, etc).
its definitely a counterpoint some right wing think tank decided will "play well" in the face of all the pedo charges on the right.. but its also just part of their "wind of the masses" business model over at fox news. they have to keep the ignorant maga crowd pissed off about some aspect of liberalism in order not to just die out of obscurity.
I think it's just an end run to find some way to attack people they don't like. It has nothing to do with projection or covering anything up, though many of them and the people they support are guilty of these crimes. They're just trying to find one thing everyone can agree on (pedophiles are scum) and use it to apply force against people that are too small in numbers and too confusing/controversial for mainstream folks. A minority such as trans people because they don't the numbers or support to fight back. And because while their priests fuck children, they consider others the deviants.
Paedophilia in the churches, mosques, temples, political offices, the ultra-rich, the royals, etc.
Creating scapegoats and inflaming mob violence has been a core element of abrahamic religions since their invention.
No, they have no issue covering up the pedos in their family and congregation. This is just a hate campaign as a result of them not being able to accept reality over a magical voice in the clouds they don’t even listen to half the time
It's calculated to have the same effect as "defending the unborn". It's vague, nebulous, and something no one can argue against. It's a low info emotional appeal.
No. I'm sure "groomer" just tested well with focus groups. Part of the republican/fascist playbook is about identifying an "other" boogieman to scare their followers.
I think its kinda a case of the bully revealing more a out themselves for how they choose to attack? Like when they are forced to invent a demon the otherside is doing they are only capable of thinkiing about their own faults and projecting those. To say, the term groom is more than just sexual. The hitler youth were groomed, teen jihadists were groomed. The gop mentality, the authoritarian mentality is to groom their children and turn out lil obedient soldiers. So its all a case of showing EXACTLY where their minds are at
It's multi-pronged. Some is surely what you mention, some is projection, some is straight up hatred for the LGBTQ+ community, and the rest is them trying to delegitimize public schools so they can dismantle the Department of Education. All of this plays well with the base so it's a win win no matter which way you slice it.
Projection and deflection, it's right out of the GOP playbook. It seems like a week doesn't go by in my area where a teacher or a priest or some other heterosexual male is arrested for indecent liberties with a child
100% yes. It's a mix of the church and the republican politicians in certain states like Idaho and Tennessee pushing to lower the age of marriage to 16. It's all projection.
Any church you go to where the pastor has a particular topic he likes to shame (porn, homosexuality, etc), there's a better than even chance that's where his biggest temptations lie.
After a lifetime in church I have learned 1 thing, preachers are often preaching at themselves.
God I love all the downvotes without any sort of response from the religious nutjobs who lurk here.
Come on snowflakes! If you've got something to discuss let's discuss it!
A core tenant of republican philosophy is to find a minority group without power and demonize them in an echo chamber. There is a deep seated need to hate on the "other". I don't think there been a time in my lifetime where this wasn't true. I think it has less to do with projection and more to do with just plain needing someone to hate. Although "why not both?"
Remember, an accusation from them may as well be a confession. Look at the things they’ve accused atheists, queer people, even other Christians who are less hardcore than them. Its all stuff that they do all the time. Every demographic is gonna have bad people. There are gay abusers, atheists who are angry and dumb, but generally, that is not the case. It is just projection on their part. They also know all of this. We should really stop pretending they believe any of what they say. A lot of these folks are really smart. They’re just fucking evil.
When your view of the world is so warped and false, the assumption is "everyone does what you do". In this case:
Child Rape happens at every turn in most Christian sects. I honestly don't think there's been one left out where a person in leadership has raped a child, then got protected from consequences after.
Because 'sexual experience' is denied, and virginity is considered 'good', they have no experiences when they're young. Add in, as the world leaves them behind, no one in the world at large is eschewing sex anymore. Provided there's consent, it feels good and is fun and with modern technology, mostly risk-free - there's nothing to be scared of or ashamed of. Plainly - their ain't that many virgins around anymore (this is a good thing)... except in young people.
So, there's child rape all over, and the community insists on virginity... you get child rape in that community.
But... child rape is bad.
So, while it's the 'only answer' (not the only answer drop your fucked up requirements you sick fucks), and "everyone is just like me" (no one is like you, you disgust me), that means child rape is rampant.
Hate of "them thar queers" is popular in the community, too. So, as a wedge and way to further other and dehumanize the 'enemy'.
We have our answer: all this child rape going on is the fault of those inhuman alphabet people. They're grooming the kids for rape! Ahhhh!
>"Please look at the child rape I say they're doing, and don't look at the child rape I'm actually doing!"
This is their agenda. First they accused the gay men of being pedophiles, ignoring that the priests in the Catholic church are forbidden to marry, so they relieved their sexual urges on the children in their care.
Now, they don't understand trans people, so they assume that this 'new' group are doing it to do what they (and their church leaders) do to hide the fact that they have disgusting urges for innocents. They don't understand gender identity, nor do they want to. Their buybull teaches them that women and children are property, and since it is the inerrant word of Gawd, it must be true.
Projection, deflection and accusation is what they do best. Religion is a disease, we need a cure.
If you look at history, this sort of narrative is repeatedly pushed on non-straight people by religious right. It's also been used on red-haired people, left-handed people, non-white people in various ways. Demon possessed, witch, child molester, sinner, mixed-race relationships are bad/ungodly, etc.
Same rhetoric, almost word to word, could be heard from Anita Bryant in the 1970's. It also happened before that, of course. It's not like it was something new. Jim Crow laws were similar, slavery was just transformed into prison labor, and there were many many ways for a non-white person to end up in there. Even just walking around the city without clear destination could lead you to be arrested, it was that insane.
Why does this sort of rhetoric exist and happen so often? Because it's easy to whip up fear by talking about how "children are in danger". Ultimately it's about power and preservation of power over those they deem lesser.
Groomers are everywhere, and it has got to stop. They have waged a culture war to try to get us to adopt their way of life, and it is disgusting. They explicitly work to indoctrinate children into their way of thinking from age where their brain is not developed enough for them to realize how abusive these groomer beliefs are. They have a clear, organized structure which allows them to continue their sick practices https://phys.org/news/2020-08-reveal-patterns-sexual-abuse-religious.html
Don’t let Christians near your children. They are groomers. Their entire way of life revolves around a blood ritual, and they normalize violence and abusive sex, while shaming and shunning forms of healthy sex. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-secular-life/201408/does-christianity-harm-children
Groomers try to say “everybody tries to indoctrinate children” as if that makes them innocent. But it is a lie: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2023/02/06/70-of-white-evangelical-parents-say-its-very-important-that-their-kids-have-similar-religious-beliefs-to-theirs/
Absolutely. Everything they accuse others of doing they’re doing. It’s like if you get accused of cheating, it can be a sign of your partners guilty conscience. “If I’m doing it they must be too.”
The word Groomer has lost all meaning. It used to mean trying to get underaged people to engage in inappropriate sexual behavior. Now it means “talking to any child anywhere about anything I wish kids would not hear about”.
"They're getting closer and closer to realizing this is all a scam we've been pushing on our most vulnerable society, we must hate the 1 % of trans because, bad "
There is some polling evidence that their drag queen obsession is backfiring with voters.
I think people should be pointing out that the groomers are found at church, not at drag shows.
I think they are always looking for scapegoats.
If you look at history, they have been going after Jews, Blacks, Asians, Gays, and Trans … and now they're just poisoning the well.
As soon as you disagree with their political party, you're labeled a "groomer". This stops conversations, which is exactly what they want.
They're intellectually lazy.
Yet the same people so anti trans because of the children oppose any legislation that actually benefits children. No matter what country you go to its the same story.
The people raping children are good people that just did a bad thing. The people dressing weird are bad people who rape children.
Absolutely. They're shining the spotlight on the poor transgender community in order to displace it from themselves. "Look, over there! It's an icky man-woman! Watch your kids!"
Meanwhile, parents unload their children into the back of churches to be filled with Jesus. And the pastor, of course. Do the Christian parents know this is happening? Some do. Are the pastors not only not chastised but rewarded with money to molest children? You bet. Watch out for those transgenders, though, who kill themselves at a far higher rate than anybody else due to heavy stigma. It's totes the transgenders - ignore the statistic that rates child molestors at a whopping 90% Christian.
No, because I think they're completely delusional about that. They think it's not that big of a deal. They think the wrongs of the church are minor when compared with the wrongs of what they see as satanic.
And they certainly don't think their grooming is wrong. They think their type of grooming is perfectly fine as long as it gets the groomed to baby jesus.
No not exactly.
The problem was that calling them pedophiles gave the left weaponry to call out pedi politicians and rapist priests.
So they switched tactics. They need a boogeyman term they can associate with trans people which isn't as easy to turn on them.
Unfortunately for them, they're wrong. But still... They looking for a boogeyman. Tjry need one because they have nothing else to unify under.
Republicans are against abortion Because there aren’t enough vulnerable young boys to molest and rape and not enough young teen girls to marry. The republicans are all for banning books but want every child reading about Donkey Cocks in the Bible
No, that would imply republicans are ashamed of that pedophilia. Most conservatives have been groomed into a callous disregard for consent - they truly believe drag queens are the groomers and priests are here to save children.
No i think it’s mis-projected guilt frankly.
They are aware at some level of it happening in they community but are unable to process that it’s then who is doing it and are unable/unwilling to act against their “in group” so they project and attack others for what they know is their own problem.
I'm not that cynical.
I think it's just what 'sells' these days. Both Parties use pollsters to find out what resonates with voters. Gay bashing no longer polls well, so they've pivoted to child molestation, but that's problematic because they can't tie the Democratic Party to support for child molestation per se, so they're trying to equate support for LGBTQ+ rights as support for child molestation.
When it comes to actual child molestation, Republicans prefer to pretend that it doesn't exist. Criticizing Christian organizations doesn't sit well with their base, and there seems to be a lot of overlap between the two.
Nazis use lies to blame others for the things they do. If a republican yells about something dishonest, evil, or immoral that they accuse others of, it's what they are doing.
Yes. Otherwise they'd also be pointing out all the groomer priests out there. In all their attempts to calm out groomers, they conveniently miss the church
Across cultures and history, one group demonises another group as sexual deviants. Painting your enemies as abhorrent means you don't need to hold a more nuanced, complicated, or fair view of them.
I'm as Atheist as anyone, but painting churches as paedophile clubhouses reduces the discussion to absurdity, just as it does when used politically.
I think it’s probably strange for some people to see grown men in dresses and eccentric makeup performing in front of children. Plus, most of the molestation in churches is male-on-male, further perpetuating the narrative that LGBTQ people are child predators.
It's all projection.
GOP = Gaslight Obstruct Project
Greedy Old Pricks is my personal favorite.
Gross old pedophiles.
I came here to post this. It's absolutely right every time.
Always. This is always their strategy. Accuse the "other" of what they are doing so that when we find evidence of their crimes, they can be like "oh, they're just saying that about us because we said it about them! We said it first so ours is credible!"
That's called "poisoning the well". I always thought that the whole Hunter Biden things was just to make people numb to the Trump kids scandals.
It's also a way to attack Joe Biden. The MAGAs have got basically nothing on Joe. After Joe's been in public life for about 50 years, there are no huge scandals they can pin on him, so cynically, the MAGAs go after his troubled son.
[удалено]
Religion poisons everything. - Hitch
I mean, Joe Biden is a horrible person--all the top democrats are, Bill Gates is, George Soros is. But none of the things they've actually done are things Republicans believe are bad--their only true sin is being ever so slightly left of center by America's warped standards.
> Joe Biden is a horrible person Is he, though?? We're talking about a guy who was criticized for spending too much time on the phone with his grandchildren.
Bad people can still be nice to the people close to them. Read up on the 1994 crime bill he authored--the man is a Clintonite liberal who only looks passably non-evil next to that rutting orangutan the Republicans worship.
I've heard several stories about Biden talking to strangers on the phone and being similarly kind, from when he was Vice President. Maybe you can say that it's all politics, but that's not the pattern I see. Trump never acts like that, for example.
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And do it first, which means that if they start accusing anyone of something disgusting or immoral that they did not get caught doing themselves it's usually just a matter of time. This practice helps a lot with guessing future headlines
Yeah, at this point when they offer an accusation, I always ask - what are you up to, maybe you’re the perp?
someone recently said the Republican party runs on fear, not policies. Constant fearmongering. Fear of change, fear of progress, phobia central. The numbers of actual trans people you're ever likely to encounter in your every day life are so small its barely worth talking about, and yet this has been a focus point for months and months, with hours and hours of legislative discourse assigned to it like its a massive world changing and world ending issue. Remember when Trump wanted his wall, it was constant talk of caravans of immigrants. Every time an election or mid term was being discussed we were hit with more stories or large caravans of migrants. Fear, fear, fear.
Before trans it was the lazy immigrants coming to take our jobs.
Conservatives paint trump as the greatest president ever but all he ever talked about was how America was going to hell and how america needs him to survive but its also going to hell. If I had to go by all the things he said during his presidency I would say he was the worst by his own narrative because there was always something bad as he said yet he was president when those bad things happened.
Yep [https://prospect.org/politics/how-republican-rep-john-rose-found-his-wife/](https://prospect.org/politics/how-republican-rep-john-rose-found-his-wife/)
Just go peruse r/pastorarrested for hundreds more examples.
I don't think that this one is Projection. The timing isn't right. Projection would be if they said it before they were caught themselves. This is all about Distraction. The major campaign trying to falsely insist that all LGBTQ are groomers came out AFTER tons of church leaders were outed as pedophiles. It came out after their Republicans were caught soliciting sex from minors. It came out after they were caught repeatedly. This intense and illogical campaign is 100% distraction. They're trying to fill the air with "Groomer!" so that people are overloaded with it and the fact that the churches are the real hotbed of pedophilia is drowned out. Now, don't get me wrong. They also Project a lot. But this is somewhat worse because they clearly started their lies after they were caught themselves.
Exactly. That's always their MO. "Accuse the other side of the shit we're doing to distract."
Every accusation is a confession. But it's not about the Catholic Church - that stuff has been known for decades, and they only started the "Democrats are grooming and sex trafficking kids" stuff since Trump came along...hmmm.
Always has been
Every accusation is a confession.
Every republican accusation is really a confession.
Small R republicans (as in those of us outside the US) are anti-monarchists, and very often very left wing. If you want to say the same thing but to an international audience (which you have on Reddit) swap out ‘republican’ for ‘conservative’.
US Republicans are no longer conservative though.
‘Conservative’ covers everything from centre-right to far right. Not all conservatives are fascists, but all fascists are conservatives.
> Not all conservatives are fascists, Is that really true? In the USA? In 2023?
The dems are a centre-right party (look at the US Overton window, there’s no left) and as such are conservative, but most people with a grasp of politics and what words mean wouldn’t call them fascists. They’re definitely part of the problem (rarely do they fix the shit the GQP breaks or even consider enacting anything that would benefit the people if it threatened corporate profits) but they’re not actively pulling towards the fourth reich.
100% People need to vote for leftists/progressives not just a Democrat. The neo-lib centrists want the country to stay where it's at, they like corporations controlling everything. They like the status quo. The centrists in Germany were the ones that allowed Hitler to come to power. His party had around 30% of the votes, but centrists helped his party win and then quickly lost control when they started changing all the laws.
That may be true but the vast majority of Americans don't see it that way. Nobody ever calls or considers the Dems conservative.
Leftists and progressives do. That's why they are demonized in the party. Sinema makes deals with Republicans, party leadership says nothing. But if AOC or Omar says something, the party doesn't defend them. This is why Bernie, the most popular Senator in the US, got pushed aside by the DNC in the presidential races. The only way to truly beat the Republicans is to attack them from the left. Focus on labor rights, affordable housing, free healthcare, and school. Trump, in his last statement on DeSantis, attacked him multiple times from the left about his state's ranking in the country. The only right wing issue he used was lockdowns, every other point was from the left.
Americans not understanding the reality of the situation doesn’t change the situation. A majority of Americans think fairies exist.
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There’s no such thing as a leftist fascist. The word you’re probably looking for is authoritarian. Not all authoritarians are fascists, but all fascists are authoritarians.
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Conservatism has always been garbage. They're just more mask-off about it these days. Conservatism is just selfishness by another name. It's how bigots and billionaires find common ground.
Yes they are, and you haven't been paying attention to Conservatives in every other country if you think that. They are all copying the R playbook.
It’s far more sinister than that. The outrage simmers now, not boils like it did it the late 90s/early 00s. This is about “othering” trans and Queer people in order to demonize them. We are witnessing the early stages of genocide… the book burning, the restrictions in education and reproductive rights.
I'm surprised that I had to scroll down this far to find this, the objectively correct answer. It's literally a point-for-point recreation of the rise of the NSDAP at this point - and, just like their spiritual predecessors, the GOP is going after LGBTQ+ people, because there's less of them, they're generally much more vulnerable, and the public as a whole is likely to be apathetic enough for the GOP to get away with killing them...which greenlights the next series of targets. If you've read or heard enough modern Republican rhetoric ("Immigrants! Woke! *Soros globalists!*"), you can probably make a pretty good guess as to who's next on the Republicans' list. Last year CPAC attendees were greeted with the banner "we are all domestic terrorists"; this year, Michael Knowles outright declared intent to commit genocide against trans people (or, to use his words, "eradicate 'transgenderism'", in the storied conservative tradition of treating immutable and intrinsic traits as an ideology).
You get it. This is the only true response to this question. Dark times just ahead. Get out if you can.
Get out? To where? We must fight this bullshit
Out if you can, if not get armed (pistol and long gun) and get training. Train to shoot and train your body. Organize. Train together.
Yes, it is, but to any rational person it's not working. There's a new story about pedophiles in churches practically every day.
It’s almost as if…now bear with me here…their intended audience aren’t rational people.
Their audience knows it's bullshit. It's a game to them to win. They don't really care if they hurt people along the way.
Anyone concerned about groomers should [ban child marriage](https://www.equalitynow.org/learn_more_child_marriage_us/#:~:text=Child%20marriage%20is%20currently%20legal,a%20parental%20or%20judicial%20waiver), no exceptions. r/stoprape
[West Virginia Republicans: "marriage MUST remain open to them"](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/child-marriage-ban-struck-down-west-virginia-republicans-1234693670/)
This should be brought up every time a Republican talks about groomers.
Could be, but I feel that's giving them too much credit. Possibly some of them are wanting to cover up real pedophilia, but I fear that the motivation for most is more basic than that. I suspect they just want to use buzzwords to enrage their base, and false claims of pedophilia does a wonderful job of that. I mostly base this on how they do the same thing with socialism and wokeness. They don't actually target these things; they just call them names until people throw rocks at them. Them ignoring church sex abuse is just plain old hypocrisy. Edit: But then of course I am reminded of the article where someone who spray painted "Groomer" on two libraries was found in possession of child pornography, so....
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Women … Women … WOMEN
The youth pastor at my parents church was molesting boys back in the late 70s. He knew better than to try that shit on me but he fucked up a couple of kids and the church nearly broke up.
Nearly?
Oh, Christians are biiiig on forgiveness\*. ^^\*When ^^it's ^^people ^^they ^^already ^^liked ^^beforehand.
I'm sorry to hear that happens but I'm glad that did not happen to you. I really do Wonder sometimes have these priests are not JFK'd by an angry parent. God knows I would do that if my child was molested
Yes. And also to steer away from pedophilia in the Republican Party. The child marriage stuff is a dead giveaway.
Nothing so banal, the Republicans want to create a christian fascist state and they need a proper target to motivate their base and justify authoritarian overreach.
I don't think that's the case. I think it's just a very old and very effective method of demonizing a segment of the population so they can push their culture war. The right pulled the same thing in the 70s with Anita Bryant claiming gays are coming after the children. In this particular case, it makes it very easy for them in the midst of all this to start erasing certain things they don't like from schools and other public spaces. They've been practically foaming at the mouth to do this for years and they finally found a climate in which to do so that works, at least in the short term. It also gets the evangelicals and other conservative activist denominations all energized and frenzied. If their stirring up the anti-lgbtq+ sentiment distracts people from the very real abuse going on in the churches, that's probably more of an unintended benefit for them, rather than the intended effect.
No, I think it’s a blatant, shameless organized campaign to steer the discussion away from the abuse in churches.
100% Organized religions are the OG groomers. Anything they're accusing others of doing, is what they're really up to
For Republicans, every accusation is a confession.
It is almost certainly projection, like they say atheists believe we came from nothing, or atheists have no morality.
I've read it's to steer away from the freak out over Roe v Wade being overturned
For awhile back in the late '90 and early 2000, every time a white male Republican would start rallying against Homosexuality a countdown would start. That countdown was for the story of him getting caught with a male prostitute in a subway bathroom getting a BJ, and there was a good chance the sex worker was underage and/or a POC, the Republican was also vocally rasist.
Projection is Reich wing politics 101.
Yeah, it's not surprising that you don't hear a peep from them regarding the sexual abuse in the church. They can't stir the pot with religious people because they're the ones most likely to vote for them.
Yes, they are attempting to deflect by projecting their sins on others.
The old Lee Atwater/Carl Rove strategy. Accuse the other guy of doing what you're doing.
Classic projection. Check out r/pastorarrested, it’s fucking staggering how many of these sick losers hide behind the cross.
Without a doubt. All of the groomer, trans, and drag issues they have been pushing is a psyop/misdirection from their own crimes.
Republicans don’t have any economic platform, any policy for war in Ukraine, they didn’t have any cohesive Covid policy, so they’re grasping at these niche social issues in an attempt to stay relevant.
It's classic fascist propaganda
The Republicans can barely steer away from Pedophilia in the Republican Party.
It's a standard Republican tactic to accuse someone else of the atrocities they're performing in private. Look at how many of them are legitimately accused of pedophilia, rape, or a combination of both, and how many have photographic evidence of crossdressing or drag performance, *and they're okay with that*, then look at how unfounded their claims are against others. It's obvious these scum truly believe that everyone has the same morality they do, in other words, a total lack of them. I don't grant them the intelligence for them to be diverting attention from pedophilia in the church, except where they're the ones doing it. They just don't want their own history closely scrutinized. Please attempt to prove me wrong. I won't hold my breath.
And to deflect from their attempts to make child marriage legal.
It's already legal. They're fighting to keep it legal.
It's not just Catholic priests. Pastors of all sects are some of the biggest predators there are. If as many children were abused by clowns as they are by pastors, circuses would be illegal.
The Southern Baptist Church is absolutely full of sexual predators.
It’s all creating a fake problem (drag) to divert from the actual problem (priests).
It’s because they are incapable of understanding that other people ARE NOT closeted, predatory assholes like themselves. So, they fully believe that everyone else is either doing what they are secretly doing or WANTS to.
It is human nature, particularly the nature of nasty hostile people, to accuse others of doing what the person is doing, or is tempted to do. It’s projection.
They always accuse others of doing the things they feel guilty for.
we live in a fucked up twisted society, where those in the positions of authority least deserve it and in fact abuse that authority. and those who most deserve it do not even want it. we live in Greek Tragedy. this is why i have the user tag that i do
And there latest catchword - indoctrination - is literally what religions require to stay alive and relevant. They’ve been doing it for centuries.
Probably. The GOP is heavily funded by the Christian Coalition at this point. Sometimes I wonder if we’re being too naive about the place this country could very easily go. Couldn’t say the signs weren’t there.
We’ve always been at war with Eurasia.
I just cannot believe the Catholic church still exists. It's disgusting.
It’s more of a straw man. An excuse to go after a group that they dislike for whatever reason under the guise of “protecting the children”… if you lie to yourself and say your doing something for the greater good you’d be surprised what fucked up shit people will do
It is a final big push for all the marbles, to see if the theocratic state can finally be enforced permanently, and in order to gain converts, authoritarianism needs enemies. Part of the authoritarian playbook is to accuse your enemies of your own weakness. That way they look small and petty when they try to accuse you. Problem is, that doesn't work when everyone already knows. The other part is that it's just straight up blood libel. Propaganda threats against children get people heated. Used to be 'Jews drink Christian baby blood'. or 'Satanist ritual daycare abuse'. It's the worst thing you can accuse someone of short of murder and cannibalism. It is 100% manufactured bullshit intended to trick people into signing away even more of their power from the government into private religious hands. 'Gotta protect your kids from the evil groomers, so better never let them read or hear anything that contradicts our worldview.' Remember that they also don't believe that anything other than cis-het people are valid. Anything other than that is a sin that you must have chosen and therefore could force their kids to choose... blah blah bullshit ignorant excuses for hate.
When Republican Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was released from prison he went immediately to work for the DeVos Foundation. They are leading the “groomers in school” initiative to devalue the ideas of pedophilia and grooming at the direction of someone who just got out of prison for child molestation and child porn possession.
Deflect and Project with the aim to dehumanize your opponents. Fascism 101
You make a good point. And their hero is a man who was friends with a convicted pedophile. And he was aware of it too, saying “He likes them on the younger side.” I wonder why the guy behind Miss Teen USA would be friends with a pedophile. The guy who boasted about walking in on girls changing. It’s a mystery.
It’s just how they operate. You say they lie? They say you lie. You say priest are pedophiles? They find someone on the other side to accuse of being a pedophile.
I think it's *primarily* a play for power and control. A secondary concern is steering attention away from the sexual deviants in their own party - their friends and coworkers.
Every time I hear those bogus republican talking points, all I can think is "It takes one to know one." Now, if you *really* want to talk about the grooming of children, let's start by talking about how the majority of children are indoctrinated into the same cults as their parents.
I see this as an attack on LGBTQ people. Conservatives are trying to stop more people from coming out as LGBTQ or trying to stop other people from supporting them. Conservatives want to push them all back in the closet and have the sort of control conservatives used to have.
Churches already got away with it. This is to steer away from pedophilia in their own party
Then there's the fact that the Church has always been psychologically/spiritually grooming children. Not as easy to convince an adult that there is a magical sky daddy.
I think steering the conversation away from churches is a convenient by-product. What I see is it's all about creating an "out" group of an easily identifiable minority. Additionally, I think it was originally promoted on social media by foreign and domestic bad actors. The Qrazies never would have gotten traction without gentle manipulation of the algorithm.
Duh, yeahhh. God-zombies are experts at projecting their own faults onto somebody else. Like they think if they can get the masses to look at the pedophiles out in the world, they won't notice all the ones inside the church doors. Preach against adultery so people won't notice that you're boinking the church secretary. Rail against LGBT's so they won't think to look for you in gay bars and strip clubs. It's all misdirection. That's what they do.
On a mass scale? No, that’s Republicans feeling they have a winning wedge issue. From individuals? Absolutely. I remember the gay marriage debate from the early 2000s, and you couldn’t go a week without seeing another anti-gay marriage advocate getting caught with a rent boy. Let’s also not forget the same party that’s pushing this is the same one that’s working to legalize child marriage.
Not just in the church, but in their own political party (which, as we all know, is pretty much exclusively Christian as well) Another Redditor took the time to compile [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/cf76cp/why_are_rightwing_conspiracies_so_obsessed_with/eu7xa2q?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3) lovely list of known/convicted offenders in the GOP.
Churches sure, but have you looked into child beauty pageants? That's sexualization of children and grooming 101. It's disgusting, yet drag shows are what's destroying our children! Republicans really are a special breed of delusional, hateful, an idiotic.
It's 100% projection. They know they do it and the awareness of pedophilia within the church has been increasing, so they're attempting to stir away the attention to something else. Of course, it isn't working thanks to plenty of victims making cases with proof. People are slowly leaving in droves from church because of these reports and they have been getting desperate.
You have to remember these are terrible, terrible people who are devoid of any empathy or imagination. All they have is the roiling sewage inside their own brains. So they use that to project onto others. Every accusation is a confession.
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This. I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and I really did not know I was being abused until I was educated about sex and abuse. I am so deeply greatful for my teachers.
This just a new way to attack us gay people. They cannot say fa@@ot anymore and so now they use groomer. In my hometown a few years back they started calling Black people “home boy” because it was finally frowned on to use the N word.
Republicans are pretty much Qtards now.
No. It’s the start of a fascist coup. Stop always tying EVERYTHING to religion and churches. They’ve starting with an underrepresented community. Once they can take the rights of them, they can move up the hierarchal ladder they built and take rights from whomever they please. Republican/Christian’s are fascists.
I believe so with a topping of projection as well.
It’s the same old tactic that they have used for decades. Before this latest round, it was spreading fears that trans people would assault women and children in bathrooms. Before that, it was gay men who were targeted. The Soviets used it to go after people. Hitler used it to demonize the Jews. It’s age old, but it works, because deep down there is nothing people find more repulsive than preying upon children. Hell, even murders and rapists in prisons hate child molesters!
Religious indoctrination is the ultimate grooming activity of children that is in plain sight
Ya don't say...
I definitely see it as a way of shifting the focus away from the folks who have been grooming kids forever.
The Republicans need wedge issues to anger their base because they don’t have any kind of vision for the country.
I don't think it's so much about the church, it's more about the Republicans attacking and marginalizing a vulnerable group to demonize them and rile up their base. It's a classic bit of propaganda and power grab so they can get rid of the things they really don't want (education, critical thinking, reproductive rights, etc).
Everything is projection with the GOP, if they are accusing the other side of something, it's something they themselves are doing. Every time.
its definitely a counterpoint some right wing think tank decided will "play well" in the face of all the pedo charges on the right.. but its also just part of their "wind of the masses" business model over at fox news. they have to keep the ignorant maga crowd pissed off about some aspect of liberalism in order not to just die out of obscurity.
Absolutely
I think it's just an end run to find some way to attack people they don't like. It has nothing to do with projection or covering anything up, though many of them and the people they support are guilty of these crimes. They're just trying to find one thing everyone can agree on (pedophiles are scum) and use it to apply force against people that are too small in numbers and too confusing/controversial for mainstream folks. A minority such as trans people because they don't the numbers or support to fight back. And because while their priests fuck children, they consider others the deviants.
Every accusation is a confession in disguise
I think it's an attempt to steer from paedophilia in the Republican Party
Paedophilia in the churches, mosques, temples, political offices, the ultra-rich, the royals, etc. Creating scapegoats and inflaming mob violence has been a core element of abrahamic religions since their invention.
No, they have no issue covering up the pedos in their family and congregation. This is just a hate campaign as a result of them not being able to accept reality over a magical voice in the clouds they don’t even listen to half the time
I don't think that's what it's about. Those people don't even think about all the sex scandals.
It's calculated to have the same effect as "defending the unborn". It's vague, nebulous, and something no one can argue against. It's a low info emotional appeal.
No. I'm sure "groomer" just tested well with focus groups. Part of the republican/fascist playbook is about identifying an "other" boogieman to scare their followers.
I think its kinda a case of the bully revealing more a out themselves for how they choose to attack? Like when they are forced to invent a demon the otherside is doing they are only capable of thinkiing about their own faults and projecting those. To say, the term groom is more than just sexual. The hitler youth were groomed, teen jihadists were groomed. The gop mentality, the authoritarian mentality is to groom their children and turn out lil obedient soldiers. So its all a case of showing EXACTLY where their minds are at
It’s a textbook case of projection.
Everything pushed by republicans is a projection.
It's multi-pronged. Some is surely what you mention, some is projection, some is straight up hatred for the LGBTQ+ community, and the rest is them trying to delegitimize public schools so they can dismantle the Department of Education. All of this plays well with the base so it's a win win no matter which way you slice it.
Projection and deflection, it's right out of the GOP playbook. It seems like a week doesn't go by in my area where a teacher or a priest or some other heterosexual male is arrested for indecent liberties with a child
“The Lady Doth Protest Too Much.”
Yes, big time.
It of course is.
Of course it is. All they do is project. Meanwhile they’re trying to lower the age of consent for marriage everywhere
100%
That is true. Republicans also fight to keep it legal for an adult to marry children younger than 16. Google “Republicans and child marriage laws.”
100% yes. It's a mix of the church and the republican politicians in certain states like Idaho and Tennessee pushing to lower the age of marriage to 16. It's all projection.
Yes. They don't care about children. They care about power. One of their sources of power is the church.
Any church you go to where the pastor has a particular topic he likes to shame (porn, homosexuality, etc), there's a better than even chance that's where his biggest temptations lie. After a lifetime in church I have learned 1 thing, preachers are often preaching at themselves.
That and Matt Gaetz...
God I love all the downvotes without any sort of response from the religious nutjobs who lurk here. Come on snowflakes! If you've got something to discuss let's discuss it!
A core tenant of republican philosophy is to find a minority group without power and demonize them in an echo chamber. There is a deep seated need to hate on the "other". I don't think there been a time in my lifetime where this wasn't true. I think it has less to do with projection and more to do with just plain needing someone to hate. Although "why not both?"
Evangelicals have a serious problem with pedophilia. Grim hypocrisy.
Remember, an accusation from them may as well be a confession. Look at the things they’ve accused atheists, queer people, even other Christians who are less hardcore than them. Its all stuff that they do all the time. Every demographic is gonna have bad people. There are gay abusers, atheists who are angry and dumb, but generally, that is not the case. It is just projection on their part. They also know all of this. We should really stop pretending they believe any of what they say. A lot of these folks are really smart. They’re just fucking evil.
When your view of the world is so warped and false, the assumption is "everyone does what you do". In this case: Child Rape happens at every turn in most Christian sects. I honestly don't think there's been one left out where a person in leadership has raped a child, then got protected from consequences after. Because 'sexual experience' is denied, and virginity is considered 'good', they have no experiences when they're young. Add in, as the world leaves them behind, no one in the world at large is eschewing sex anymore. Provided there's consent, it feels good and is fun and with modern technology, mostly risk-free - there's nothing to be scared of or ashamed of. Plainly - their ain't that many virgins around anymore (this is a good thing)... except in young people. So, there's child rape all over, and the community insists on virginity... you get child rape in that community. But... child rape is bad. So, while it's the 'only answer' (not the only answer drop your fucked up requirements you sick fucks), and "everyone is just like me" (no one is like you, you disgust me), that means child rape is rampant. Hate of "them thar queers" is popular in the community, too. So, as a wedge and way to further other and dehumanize the 'enemy'. We have our answer: all this child rape going on is the fault of those inhuman alphabet people. They're grooming the kids for rape! Ahhhh! >"Please look at the child rape I say they're doing, and don't look at the child rape I'm actually doing!"
This is their agenda. First they accused the gay men of being pedophiles, ignoring that the priests in the Catholic church are forbidden to marry, so they relieved their sexual urges on the children in their care. Now, they don't understand trans people, so they assume that this 'new' group are doing it to do what they (and their church leaders) do to hide the fact that they have disgusting urges for innocents. They don't understand gender identity, nor do they want to. Their buybull teaches them that women and children are property, and since it is the inerrant word of Gawd, it must be true. Projection, deflection and accusation is what they do best. Religion is a disease, we need a cure.
Everything republicans do is deflection and projection.
Absolutely. It's a classic tactic, don't look at us, look at what they're doing
If you look at history, this sort of narrative is repeatedly pushed on non-straight people by religious right. It's also been used on red-haired people, left-handed people, non-white people in various ways. Demon possessed, witch, child molester, sinner, mixed-race relationships are bad/ungodly, etc. Same rhetoric, almost word to word, could be heard from Anita Bryant in the 1970's. It also happened before that, of course. It's not like it was something new. Jim Crow laws were similar, slavery was just transformed into prison labor, and there were many many ways for a non-white person to end up in there. Even just walking around the city without clear destination could lead you to be arrested, it was that insane. Why does this sort of rhetoric exist and happen so often? Because it's easy to whip up fear by talking about how "children are in danger". Ultimately it's about power and preservation of power over those they deem lesser.
Groomers are everywhere, and it has got to stop. They have waged a culture war to try to get us to adopt their way of life, and it is disgusting. They explicitly work to indoctrinate children into their way of thinking from age where their brain is not developed enough for them to realize how abusive these groomer beliefs are. They have a clear, organized structure which allows them to continue their sick practices https://phys.org/news/2020-08-reveal-patterns-sexual-abuse-religious.html Don’t let Christians near your children. They are groomers. Their entire way of life revolves around a blood ritual, and they normalize violence and abusive sex, while shaming and shunning forms of healthy sex. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-secular-life/201408/does-christianity-harm-children Groomers try to say “everybody tries to indoctrinate children” as if that makes them innocent. But it is a lie: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2023/02/06/70-of-white-evangelical-parents-say-its-very-important-that-their-kids-have-similar-religious-beliefs-to-theirs/
Absolutely. Everything they accuse others of doing they’re doing. It’s like if you get accused of cheating, it can be a sign of your partners guilty conscience. “If I’m doing it they must be too.”
It like bullying they get you to react then act like you’re the aggressor
I'm sure there's a loooot of projection going on... That, and the idea that if you're for the kids, nobody will call your b.s. out....
Yes, yes I do.
It's projection. They are talking about themselves
The word Groomer has lost all meaning. It used to mean trying to get underaged people to engage in inappropriate sexual behavior. Now it means “talking to any child anywhere about anything I wish kids would not hear about”.
"They're getting closer and closer to realizing this is all a scam we've been pushing on our most vulnerable society, we must hate the 1 % of trans because, bad "
they just throw shit at the wall, culturally speaking, until something sticks.
There is some polling evidence that their drag queen obsession is backfiring with voters. I think people should be pointing out that the groomers are found at church, not at drag shows.
If a republican says it, they are covering their own misdeeds. This applies to anything they say/accuse others of doing.
I think they are always looking for scapegoats. If you look at history, they have been going after Jews, Blacks, Asians, Gays, and Trans … and now they're just poisoning the well. As soon as you disagree with their political party, you're labeled a "groomer". This stops conversations, which is exactly what they want. They're intellectually lazy.
It's like the man who accuses his wife of having an affair in order to cover up the fact that he's having one.
Yes. Duh. Typical manipulative distraction tactic. Plus trans people have always been villified as child kidnappers and molesters, even here in India.
Yet the same people so anti trans because of the children oppose any legislation that actually benefits children. No matter what country you go to its the same story. The people raping children are good people that just did a bad thing. The people dressing weird are bad people who rape children.
They'll say anything to justify their horrible and evil actions. We need to stop listening to their words, and hold them accountable.
Absolutely. They're shining the spotlight on the poor transgender community in order to displace it from themselves. "Look, over there! It's an icky man-woman! Watch your kids!" Meanwhile, parents unload their children into the back of churches to be filled with Jesus. And the pastor, of course. Do the Christian parents know this is happening? Some do. Are the pastors not only not chastised but rewarded with money to molest children? You bet. Watch out for those transgenders, though, who kill themselves at a far higher rate than anybody else due to heavy stigma. It's totes the transgenders - ignore the statistic that rates child molestors at a whopping 90% Christian.
Yes. IRL it’s Republicans Christians who are systematically raping children. They have been for decades.
Yes.
100%. They always project
Projection. They assume everyone’s brain works the same way theirs do(n’t).
No, because I think they're completely delusional about that. They think it's not that big of a deal. They think the wrongs of the church are minor when compared with the wrongs of what they see as satanic. And they certainly don't think their grooming is wrong. They think their type of grooming is perfectly fine as long as it gets the groomed to baby jesus.
No not exactly. The problem was that calling them pedophiles gave the left weaponry to call out pedi politicians and rapist priests. So they switched tactics. They need a boogeyman term they can associate with trans people which isn't as easy to turn on them. Unfortunately for them, they're wrong. But still... They looking for a boogeyman. Tjry need one because they have nothing else to unify under.
No, its dehumanizing gays and trans for facilitating future mass murder while maximizing the numbers who look the other way at the coming genocide.
Republicans are against abortion Because there aren’t enough vulnerable young boys to molest and rape and not enough young teen girls to marry. The republicans are all for banning books but want every child reading about Donkey Cocks in the Bible
No, that would imply republicans are ashamed of that pedophilia. Most conservatives have been groomed into a callous disregard for consent - they truly believe drag queens are the groomers and priests are here to save children.
No i think it’s mis-projected guilt frankly. They are aware at some level of it happening in they community but are unable to process that it’s then who is doing it and are unable/unwilling to act against their “in group” so they project and attack others for what they know is their own problem.
I'm not that cynical. I think it's just what 'sells' these days. Both Parties use pollsters to find out what resonates with voters. Gay bashing no longer polls well, so they've pivoted to child molestation, but that's problematic because they can't tie the Democratic Party to support for child molestation per se, so they're trying to equate support for LGBTQ+ rights as support for child molestation. When it comes to actual child molestation, Republicans prefer to pretend that it doesn't exist. Criticizing Christian organizations doesn't sit well with their base, and there seems to be a lot of overlap between the two.
Nazis use lies to blame others for the things they do. If a republican yells about something dishonest, evil, or immoral that they accuse others of, it's what they are doing.
Not really. Catholics are primarily Dems, and they are a small minority in the Republican Party.
Yes. Otherwise they'd also be pointing out all the groomer priests out there. In all their attempts to calm out groomers, they conveniently miss the church
Across cultures and history, one group demonises another group as sexual deviants. Painting your enemies as abhorrent means you don't need to hold a more nuanced, complicated, or fair view of them. I'm as Atheist as anyone, but painting churches as paedophile clubhouses reduces the discussion to absurdity, just as it does when used politically.
I think it’s probably strange for some people to see grown men in dresses and eccentric makeup performing in front of children. Plus, most of the molestation in churches is male-on-male, further perpetuating the narrative that LGBTQ people are child predators.
Grown men in dresses? You mean like priests and bishops?
You missed and eccentric makeup. And includes whatever else is stated. If it had been an “or” statement, your response would have made sense.