Stranger Dangers: The Right's History of Turning Child Abuse Into a Political Weapon
ALI BRELAND
At some point between the 80s and now, leaving children unattended in public became unthinkable. To let children as old as, say, 10 walk by themselves became grounds to investigate parents for neglect. As a child of the late 90s and early 2000s, I knew latchkey kids existed, but nearly exclusively from the aging 1980s childrens paperbacks in my elementary schools library. My friends whose parents worked too late to pick them up from school stayed in the building for a child care program or took a bus to the nearby Boys & Girls Club.
Statistics confirm the decline of the latchkey kid that I witnessed and that continues today. A primary reason for the change was the fear that children were constantly on the cusp of being kidnapped, abused, or taken advantage of, and thus could never be left alone.
Paul Renfro, an assistant professor of history at Florida State University, chronicled in his 2020 book Stranger Danger: Family Values, Childhood, and the American Carceral State, how such a notion became widespread in the 80s and 90s. Pictures of missing and abducted children were plastered on milk cartons, as media ramped up coverage of random, isolated incidents of children being abducted in ways that it hadnt beforeeven as the number of children who were abducted did not substantially increase.
Critics of this moment often blame the media, who did play a part in elevating these concernsbut theres more to the story. Their coverage played right into the hands of, and was exacerbated by, a reactionary right-wing movement that was eager to notch culture war wins by conflating the so-called stranger danger threat to children with pornography, underage drinking, drugs, teen pregnancy, and the like. Ancillary battles on similar moral fronts hastened a harsher war on drugs, and the corresponding mass incarceration policies that disproportionately hurt Black America.
Today, the leveraging of unfounded fears that children are in unprecedented danger toward political ends is animated by QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy theories. While these are generally too absurd for elected politicians to directly endorsethe few that have, like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) have walked backSen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and most recently Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) have tried to tap into the same fear and energy QAnon has harnessed. They want to use it to push a reactionary political projectbut without having to say QAnon out loud.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/03/ketanji-brown-jackson-pedophila-josh-hawley/
DBoon
(22,414 posts)Why isn't mom home to supervise the kids? She's out working - blame the "women libbers".
keithbvadu2
(37,011 posts)Here is a partial list of republican child molesters and other GOP moral 'heroes'.
Republican Sexual Predators, Abusers, and Enablers Pt. 26
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/8/26/2048394/-Republican-Sexual-Predators-Abusers-and-Enablers-Pt-26
LetMyPeopleVote
(145,800 posts)Paxton and Abbott are attacking and threatening trans children for political points
Link to tweet
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/03/11/texas-transgender-politics/?utm_campaign=trib-social-buttons&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
That health care is legal under Texas law, but this is election season. Cynics who think politicians will say anything to get reelected have a new, sparkling piece of evidence......
But most of those arent sexy election issues. Paxton is in a runoff. Abbott faces a well-known, well-financed Democrat in November. And as The Texas Tribunes Patrick Svitek has reported, they think theyve got a hot item to entice Republican voters.
This is a winning issue, Abbotts top political strategist, Dave Carney, told reporters last week. Texans have common sense.....
How is that considered child abuse to accept them and love them? one mother told them. How can they overstep their power and try to come and tell me how I should love my child?