Libertarian Punk. Keep your filthy hands off!

Look upon this face.  This is the face that will steal your liberty every single time.  Do you know why?  I’ll tell you.

Your freedom is harmful to children, therefore it must be curtailed.  The ideal nanny state would reduce us all to this crying child, helpless to do anything without government help or better yet, permission.

About a year and a half ago, Colorado passed a law barring discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in such areas as employment, housing, credit, public accommodations, and so on.  While I am opposed to anti-discrimination laws on principle and believe them to be relics, the response from the social conservatives on the right was to try and scare people by saying that their children would be preyed upon by cross-dressers in public bathrooms.  Listen to this ad by Focus on the Family.  Try not to laugh, because although it is comical and absurd, a lot of people fall for shit like this.

Here’s another spot by the lovely kooks at the National Organization for Marriage, the lovely bunch who brought you the hysterical “Gathering Storm” ads.

Notice how they use children to make parents afraid, scared that they will learn that gay people exist, that they’re even your neighbors and relatives, with the underlying, unstated threat being that acceptance of same-sex marriage will make your kids gay.

Lest you think I am a one-trick pony with this gay issue, look to other nanny-state laws that were put into effect initially to protect children, but were soon extended to all of us.  Seat belt laws are a prime example.  Used to be that if someone under 12 was in a car they had to be buckled in, but now we all have to wear them regardless.  It doesn’t matter that seat belts can kill by trapping someone in a burning car, strangling a motorist or passenger in a wreck, or holding them firmly to a seat that careens into a tree whereas an impact without a seat belt may have knocked them aside, the government is going to force you for your alleged own good to wear a seat belt, and it all started with the grand, noble idea of protecting the children.

Video games are a favorite target of censors who claim that they make children violent, or turn them into lethargic slugs who shun fresh air and grow obese.  Yes, it’s the video game, not the lack of parenting, that makes a child stay indoors on beautiful days.  It’s Grand Theft Auto that makes a kid steal a car or shoot someone.  Has to be, because the parents in these cases are all in utter denial that their special little zygote would do something so terrible.  It’s the same kind of denial that allowed Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to stockpile guns and grenades and pipe bombs and pull off the Columbine Massacre.  Not my kids, not my fault, must be Marilyn Manson’s fault.

The most damaging instance, however, came following the halftime performance at the 2004 Super Bowl, when Justin Timberlake grabbed Janet Jackson’s blouse and tugged, exposing for a mere half a second, one saggy, flappy brown breast that had a gold star over the nipple.  You would have thought that she was masturbating with a crucifix in front of Catholic school kindergartners by the outrage, but in reality it was so fast that few people even saw it.  Cameras cut away and Janet quickly covered up her, ah, “wardrobe malfunction”.  If I remember correctly, this was tame compared to some of the other performances where raunchy bump and grinds were being performed by Nelly and the suggestive lyrics coming from him and Sean Combs (I have no idea what the fuck he calls himself these days).  In the aftermath of this event, the FCC increased their fines for indecency tenfold and began going after broadcasters in television and radio for things that wouldn’t have merited a second listen or look.  Howard Stern was chased off of terrestrial radio, and many morning “shock jocks” either lost their gigs or were forced to water down their shows to the point where they weren’t funny or engaging anymore.  The panic also had a chill factor on what networks and stations were willing to allow, and many programming decisions were now put in the hands of worrywart lawyers and middle management whose job was to insulate the company from fines and possible lawsuits.  The television networks are dying dinosaurs, giant carcasses being strangled by regulation, while cable thrives.  Terrestrial radio is a dead medium for all but political talk on the AM waves, satellite radio is ascendant.  The internet is blowing them all away, it’s truly the last frontier of free speech.

If you think the government and the FCC don’t want to stick their noses into cable, satellite, and internet, think again.  Bet you dollars to donuts the rationale they will use is “protecting the children”, because apparently, being a parent is hard and we need our government to help us out.

Think long and hard before you offer up everyone’s liberty as a sacrifice to protect your children.  Those of us who are over 30 grew up with very little of these restrictions and protections and we’re just fine.  You’re simply being groomed to accept more and more government intrusion into your everyday life, and they’re getting at you by preying on the fear that parents naturally have for their offspring.  Don’t fall for it, whether it comes from a liberal or a conservative, the government does not have your best interests at heart.  The leviathan is only after power and can never have enough.

~Matti Frost