Even though it doesn't sound like it at first, this article is about everyone's favorite borderline topic: the legality of loli and it relation to the freedom of speech.
I am in favor of slaughtering horses. There are many good reasons for this practice in terms of animal husbandry and livestock management, but instead I’ll focus on the worst reason of all: I hate horses. They’re big, stupid, and dangerous. People are being killed by these animals every year and yet they have fan clubs and are being portrayed sympathetically in our media. Somewhere right now, a little girl is getting a pony for her birthday. Why not just hand her a lit stick of dynamite, jackass?
There are plenty of reasons I can think of to slaughter every single horse in America. Did anyone ever consider that horses are starving children in the third world? How much grain every year is wasted on what amounts to a lawn ornament for rich people? If you own a horse, you are a murderer.
Now, I haven’t told you these things simply because I hate horses and want you to know this. It’s not just because every dealing I’ve ever had with these awful beasts has been a terrifying near-death experience. It’s not just to remind you that horses a terrible investment and that you should never buy one. No, this is to set up something I like to call the Horse Slaughter Method for Getting Your Way.
The point of this article is to provide a key example of how our freedom of speech is undermined by appealing to base emotions. This is happening throughout the English-speaking world, Europe, and Japan.
Between 2006 and late 2011 it was illegal to slaughter horses in the United States due to a federal law1). The major backers of this law included several “animal rights” groups that weren’t so much concerned with treating animals humanely as people completely opposed to killing animals for any reason at all and eating meat (see also PETA). If your agenda is too hard to swallow at the moment (say universal and legally enfoced veganism), then you have to start somewhere.
Step One: Pick a sympathetic target to get your foot in the door.
Out there, brain damaged or otherwise mentally retarded individuals believe that horses are likeable, graceful, and elegant creatures that we should care for. I don’t know how or why they see this in what amounts to a human stomping machine, but hey, to each their own. OH, except they didn’t believe in to each their own themselves, because they fell in line with radicals and outlawed the slaughter of horses. Right now, several nations have stringent laws on the books or in the works that outlaw comic books and art that portrays children in adult situations (naked, engaging in sex, doing taxes I guess, since I've definitely spent more time on taxes than sex in my adult life).
Step Two: Fall in line with the radicals lest you appear sympathetic to the unsympathetic.
No one much cares for the thought of animals being slaughtered in general. It’s not a pretty process particularly if you believe the animal involved is beautiful or whatever. Slaughterhouses are easy targets because they’re disgusting and so are lolicons. Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way condoning actual child pornography because that harms actual people. All I’m talking about here are comic books. Few care for the notion of a comic book portraying children involved in sex, reading the fine print on appliance warranties, and other nasty aspects of adulthood. On the other hand, why should it be illegal? Who is being harmed? Then again, the mainstream does not worry because they are not personally affected. Or are they?
Step three: Await the inevitable unintended consequences.
If slaughtering horses is illegal, what are we to do with unwanted horses? In the end, for horses, it turned out to be numerous cases of neglect and being shipped abroad alive to foreign slaughter houses that were not as rigorously regulated as their former American counterparts. In the end, there was much cruelty (not that I give a fuck about horses, but no sense in being mean about it). Back in the world of people, it seems now that loli is being actively searched for as contraband in airports and border crossings. People are being sent to prison for owning comic books. In some countries, owning a comic book or producing one that portrays unsavory material is in fact subject to a greater punishment than other sex crimes, say bestiality (no joke)2)3). Isn't this kind of law enforcement expensive? Isn't all this distracting from real crimes against actual people? Why was this done? To protect children? What children? These productions are crimes against paper and pixels (and storytelling, (seriously, try reading one)), not children.
Step four: ?????
In the case of slaughtering horses, the law was eventually changed and the management of livestock went back to normal. As for the laws against loli that are taking over throughout the world, the authorities are continuing to waste resources against a completely manufactured crime. My suggestion is to find out who is behind these laws and expose them for what they are. The very same groups that claim to be fighting for the rights of children are usually completely opposed to pornography of all kinds right down to tasteful nudity in fine art. Oh, and I guess you could vote for whoever opposes them but few are willing to take a stand for the freedom of speech when it comes to this issue in particular. The thing is that the movement stands behind a paper shield, holding it like a human hostage before all that oppose them. You’re allowed to call their bluff because that’s not a person they’re holding…
By the way, we tend to find both sides of the aisle claiming that these laws somehow “protect children”, yet I fail to see how. It's a waste of resources better spent on things that might actually help children like education and health care. To a politician, this is just a cost-effective way of paying lip service to what turns out is a non-issue.
Concluding notes:
I suppose this argument can work in favor of several other issues near and dear to my heart including “hate speech”, profanity, sex/nudity on television, and any other instance where the law is brought in to control thoughts rather than actually protect anyone.
If you haven’t noticed, I’m very much in favor of the freedom of speech and suggest the usual bullshit: join like-minded organizations (particularly the EFF), write letters to your politicians, and VOTE even if it’s for a crazy minority party. If you can’t vote in your country, revolutions are pretty popular these days!
This article is part of a series on philosophy.