Are the Terms 'Groomer' & 'Pedophile' Banned From Reddit?
The following is from my Culture War Encyclopedia.
While the term groomer traditionally refers to one who grooms horses or what-not, an other, more contemporary meaning of the term is…
someone who builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them.
In March of 2022, it was reported by Salty Cracker that the word groomer was banned from Reddit citing Patriots.win, that the term groomer was banned from Reddit. But if one looks at the source, one sees that it is based on nothing more than a supposed screenshot of what is supposedly a Reddit rule.
At any rate, the image appears to be a post by a moderator “speaking officially” and not actually part of Reddit’s rules which do not ban the terms “groomer” or “pedophile”.
Salty Cracker also stated that “OK groomer” was banned. “OK groomer” is a take on “OK boomer” which is a dismissal of and insult towards people of the baby-boomer generation. It is a way of telling someone that they are spoiled with a false sense of self-entitlement and clueless.
In July of 2022, it was again reported by, for example, Pink News on the 15th, Styxhexenhammer666 and Vee on the 17th, the Post Millennial on the 18th and Breitbart also on the 18th that Reddit banned the use of the term groomer on their platform. Styxhexenhammer666 cited Pink News who claimed…
Reddit has banned the anti-LGBTQ+ slur “groomer” under its hate speech policy, as well as any other reference to LGBTQ+ people as “paedophiles”.
They cite this tweet from July 14th by blue-check-marked writer for Wired and Slate Alejandra Caraballo…
The tweet does not link to anything to prove that this is in fact a Reddit rule. The tweet contains what appears to be a screenshot of a post by Love_In_My_Heart that claims that in a subreddit (a subsection of Reddit) called PCM, the “operators” of that subreddit posted some rules for that subreddit that, this supposed post claims, includes
No portraying LGBT people as a whole as “groomers” or “pedophiles”
…and (no use of the term)…
“Groomer” to refer to LGBT
There is in fact a subreddit called PCM (which stands for Political Compass Memes) and on July 13, 2022, in the PCM subreddit, user theotherotherhand (who is apparently the moderator or one of the moderators of PCM) posted PCM rules announcement which includes…
No portraying LGBT people as a whole as “groomers” or “pedophiles”, calling them a slur, or deadnaming them
That is a far stretch from the banning of the terms “groomer” and “pedophile” from Reddit.
Breitbart wrote that the word groomer was banned from Reddit and that…
the site also banned the claim, which until recently was a matter of mainstream psychology, that being transgender is a mental illness.
They seem to be referring to one of the rules announced in and for the PCM subreddit that reads…
No portraying being transgender as a mental illness, and no more saying that “trans men will never be real men” or “trans women will never be real women”, or intentionally misgendering them
Breitbart cites the tweet from Alejandra Caraballo we saw above and the following from Reddit Lies.
The Post Millennial’s headline for their piece on this for July 18th is Reddit bans the word 'groomer', claiming it's an 'anti-LGBTQ+ slur'. In the body, however, they immediately refer to the PCM rules announcement which, as we saw, does not amount to Reddit banning the word groomer. This Post Millennial piece cite the following statement from Gay’s Against Groomers…
I note that they are correct that…
equating the word ‘groomer’ as an inherently anti-LGBTQ+ slur asserts that ‘LGBTQ+’ automatically implies ‘groomer,’ which is an insult to millions…within the community who strongly oppose sexualization and ideological indoctrination of children.
…but to be fair, they are not describing a Reddit’s rule. If Reddit actually were banning that term entirely, Gays Against Groomers would be right to state…
By banning this word from their platform in such terms, Reddit is not only inadvertently expressing their support for the grooming and abuse of children, but also paints our community as a whole as those who support and engage in it. We find that reprehensible and offensive.
In their report on this, Pink News asserts that the term groomer is an “anti-LGBTQ+” “slur”. It certainly would be an anti-LGBTQ+ term if one includes groomers in the + part of the term LGBTQ+ but it doesn’t seem fair to do so. Most LGBTQ people would find it revolting to be grouped with groomers.
Note that a rule against…
portraying LGBT people as a whole as “groomers” or “pedophiles”
…is not a rule against using the terms groomer or pedophile at all (if that rule is taken at face value by people with sufficient reading comprehension skills).
Whether this rule in the PCM subreddit will be enforced accurately in accordance with the actual rule is debatable.
In their headline, Pink News claims that the term groomer is “banned on Reddit”. In the body of the article, however, they write…
Reddit has banned the anti-LGBTQ+ slur “groomer” under its hate speech policy, as well as any other reference to LGBTQ+ people as “paedophiles”.
The vile slur, which conflates LGBTQ+ identities with paedophilia, has been increasing in use online, and has now been banned by Reddit as hate speech.
To support their claim that the use of the term groomer “conflates LGBTQ+ identities with paedophilia”, this Pink News piece cites an other Pink News piece that conflates “LGBT-inclusive teachers and parents” and “queer folk in general” with “groomers”. You see, they claim that…
there has been a recent surge in Republicans and religious conservatives using “grooming” language to describe LGBT-inclusive education, or just queer folk in general.
…when, in reality, the concern is regarding grooming of young children in schools and by those who take them to see strip shows or expose them to sexual acts in parades. The absurd implication here is that to oppose the grooming of children is to oppose non-heterosexuality in general. Also, it is insulting to claim that only “Republicans and religious conservatives” oppose this grooming. That would mean that everyone else is ok with grooming, Pink News.
At any rate, Pink News utterly fails to establish their assertion that the use of the term groomer “conflates LGBTQ+ identities with paedophilia”. Nevertheless, they use this unfounded assertion to argue that the term groomer should be banned. Wittingly or not, by arguing that the term groomer should be banned and by conflating grooming with homosexuality, bisexuality and etc., Pink News is serving groomers. You see, when something can not be identified, named, discussed, exposed and remedied, it festers and spreads.
Of course, if the term groomer were to be banned from Reddit or other platforms, people will simply use other terminology. Here’s one suggestion…
That same meme was tweeted along with this use of the term ‘predditor’ in this meme…
While such censorship in a subreddit is vile, it seems that Reddit has not banned the use of the terms groomer or pedophile. However, we shan’t be surprised if such a rule were in fact announced for Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and so on.
Thank you, ~ Justin Trouble Liberty my right ∴ Truth my sword Laughter my shield ∴ Knowledge my steed Love my solace ∴ Honor my reward Please see all my writings, my videos, and consider donating. Also, please share and subscribe...
✓
Thanks for reading Justin Trouble! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.