Sometimes I look around and browse through my favorite news outlets and I do my best to convince myself that the world really isn't going to hell in a handbasket the way it so often seems to be. Some days that works and I sit down to work with a bit of a brighter, more positive attitude. And then there are days like today. I was browsing through the headlines at our sister site, Townhall when I came across this article from our colleague Madeline Leesman. It informs us that one country has now voted to decriminalize the possession of child pornography. That had to be a typo, right? I mean no civilized people would do that. But alas, it's apparently true. That country is Germany, and the pedophiles over there must be popping champagne corks tonight.
Germany’s Parliament, known as the Bundestag, received enough votes last week to remove a section of the country’s Criminal Code to reduce the minimum penalties for “dissemination, acquisition and possession of child pornographic content.”
According to the Bundestag, the bill specifies that “possession and acquisition should be punishable with a minimum penalty of three months’ imprisonment, and distribution with a minimum penalty of six months’ imprisonment, and distribution with a minimum penalty of six months’ imprisonment. The offenses regulated in Section 184b of the Criminal Code are therefore classified as misdemeanors and not as crimes.”
In 2021, the possession of child sexual abuse materials was first classified as a crime. At that time, the Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) introduced a minimum sentence of one year for the offense.
I thought I was being at least a bit facetious when I suggested that pedophiles would be celebrating, but that turned out to be true as well. There are groups in Europe that openly support pedophilia and they are apparently quite open about it. One of them freely describes itself as a "pedophile rights" activist group and they are indeed celebrating already.
🚨Germany's Parliament has officially voted to decriminalize the possession of child pornography.
— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) May 21, 2024
The move is being celebrated by a "pedophile rights" activist group which has also called for the age of consent to be dropped to 12.https://t.co/JtUNA4wgZg
These people want the age of consent to be lowered to 12. Seriously? I will admit that the lines can get a bit blurry when you're talking about young people around the age of 17 or possibly even 16. That's why we need Romeo & Juliet laws. But a 12-year-old is a child. Kids of that age are barely out of elementary school. What sort of freak finds the body of a child of that age attractive? And even if you did, why on earth would you admit to it in public?
Something is going seriously wrong in Germany these days and, if we're being honest, most of western Europe. Governments there have been drifting slowly further and further to the left. This sort of legislative activity is what you get when that happens. By contrast, in the United States, the possession, creation, transportation, or sale of pornographic material involving minors is a federal crime under U.S.C. - 252. Convictions bring steep fines and prison sentences of up to twenty years. Many individual states have their own laws protecting children in this fashion. Under Florida Statute Section 827.071(5)(a), even comparatively "minor" instances of possessing child porn can lead to sentences as harsh as the federal codes, if not more so.
Historical texts unfortunately reveal that pedophilia has been around for most of man's recorded history. This is widely believed to stem from the fact that earlier cultures did not assign rights to children, viewing them more as property than people. The same could also be said of women in many groups. But evolution applies to culture every bit as much as physical appearance. We were supposed to have evolved past these types of behavior and developed the ability to recognize certain actions as obviously being wrong if not flatly evil.
Clearly, some of us have grossly overestimated the progression of our fellow humans. Even here in the United States, we have long been hearing from a group going by the name of the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA). In the 90s, some groups in Colorado attempted to challenge convictions and laws involving pedophile behavior based on the case of Romer v. Evans, which held that laws protecting the equal rights of gay and lesbian adults were acceptable. But that only applied to adult sexual behavior, not that involving children.
The United States still seems to be largely (though not entirely) ahead of the curve when it comes to protecting children from sexual abuse. That's not to say that it never happens, but at least we go after the culprits and prosecute them when we find them. Sadly, the same can't be said for much of Europe today. Child pornography is treated as a serious offense even in Canada, where those convicted can receive prison sentences nearly as long as those in America. People should probably consider not taking their children to Europe at this point. If mankind is descending once again toward hedonism, it's a very bad sign indeed.
