No, it's not nice to smear people with accusations of pedophilia
Rod Dreher, and the lesson he probably won't learn.
I’ve talked about this before, so bear with me. The conservative writer Rod Dreher has been a leading proponent of the “groomer” smear this last year — unsurprising, because for years he’s shrill about the growing visibility of LGBT people in American society, increasingly suggesting this is all part of some “end times” situation that will see the Apocalypse.
Dreher last spring justified his fast-and-loose use of the word “groomer” in a post titled “Democrats: Party of Groomers”:
About the term “groomers”: it’s usually used to describe pedophiles who are preparing innocent kids for sexual exploitation. I think it is coming to have a somewhat broader meaning: an adult who wants to separate children from a normative sexual and gender identity, to inspire confusion in them, and to turn them against their parents and all the normative traditions and institutions in society. It may not specifically be to groom them for sexual activity, but it is certainly to groom them to take on a sexual/gender identity at odds with the norm.
While most people use the word “groomer” to mean sexual predation, Rod decided it was fine to use the word to mean, basically, LGBT people who weren’t circumspect enough for his tastes. (Read through his blog posts if you think I’m exaggerating.)
Anyway, his most recent post at The American Conservative is about his recent meeting with Cardinal George Pell, who was convicted of sexual abuse, then had the conviction overturned.
Still, I assumed it was common knowledge that Pell had been exonerated, cleared of the abuse charges.
I was wrong. A number of commenters -- always anonymous, of course -- used my Twitter thread to denounce Pell in grotesque terms as a pedophile. Some of them accused me of being a pedophile too. Some posted links to media reports announcing Pell's conviction -- but not to his subsequent exoneration. The raw hatred for this poor man, George Pell, shocked me -- and yes, it is still possible to shock me. I quickly realized how devastating child sex abuse charges are to a man, even if the charges are eventually proven to have been false, or at least not established in fact. There will always be people who refuse to believe in the innocence of the accused. A cloud of doubt will forever hang over Cardinal Pell's head. This is why it is so, so important not to rush to judgment on these cases. There is almost no more effective way to destroy a priest's name than to accuse him of sexually abusing children. It's a nuclear weapon in the hands of a malicious enemy.
You know what? He’s right to be angry that people baselessly smeared him with pedophile accusations. It’s wrong to do that: It’s a “nuclear weapon” that can destroy lives and reputations, a potent allegation that can stick in the public mind even when there’s no evidence of a crime.
I’m being absolutely serious about this.
Will Rod Dreher reconsider his “groomer”-slinging ways? I doubt it. But I’d like to hope that maybe a tiny bit of introspection will happen here — that the forces you unleash can be turned against you to devastating effect. But even if no such reconsideration happens, it’s still wrong to loosely, baselessly throw the mean names at him. Wrong is wrong.
I’ve seen “groomer” used 3 times in 2 days here at stack, as a response to pleas for reason surrounding the trans issue.
It’s inevitable I suppose, given that anyone who opposed defunding police has been regularly tagged fascist or racist.
Joel - I read your article on California considering reparations. In 1994, the Florida legislature awarded $2.1 million to the seven living survivors and assorted direct relatives of the victims of the 1923 Rosewood massacre. To this day, descendents receive free education at Florida state universities. I have not seen this precedent mentioned, especially in the slew of TV programs on the3 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa massacre, the worst race attack in American history. The late John Singleton directed a movie "Rosewood" in 1994 with Jon Voigt, Don Cheadle and Ving Rhames. It does give you an idea of the horrible lynchings and destruction of Rosewood by a white mob based on the all-too-usual accusations of rape by a white woman against a black man. I teach a course - America's Forgotten Tragedies (Tulsa 1921, Rosewood 1923, Bisbee 1917) in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Yavapai College in Preescott, AZ. There are OLLI programs - aimed at adulteducation - in more than 125 colleges and universities across the country.