".joerogan accuses teachers of 'grooming' kids, expresses support for 'Don't Say Gay' legislation" [followed by a screencap from The Blaze quoting Joe Rogan's comment] -- Judd Legum (
JuddLegum), 2022-03-22
"This 'grooming' language is dangerous and an escalation. If you paint everyone who is not hostile to LGBT as a 'groomer', it's a short leap to accusing them of pedophilia. From there, a short leap to violence." -- Thor's Son (NoNazisValhalla), 2022-03-22
[It's not just Joe Rogan -- I started seeing dismissive "Ok, groomer" responses from trolls to anyone opposing hate speech several weeks ago, and a few weeks ago I started seeing less-flippant, more directed accusations of 'grooming' (in the pedophilia sense) aimed at LTGBQIA+ people and our allies all over Twitter. There's been a change in tone from "let's see if I can piss you off easily on my way out of this conversation," to folks arguing (with varying degrees of effort) that queer folk are actually a danger to children. I read this as stochastic terrorism (i.e. repeat loudly and often enough that members of a group are a threat that must be stopped, and wait for a "lone wolf" to decide to take matters into his own hands and start killing people) though it may also be intended as a silencing tactic, hoping to make LGQTBIA+ allies hesitate to speak out for fear of being accused, even just by a social media rando, of being a pedophile. I started reporting these to Twitter as both hate speech and attempts to incite violence, but so far Twitter hasn't deigned to act.]