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Video case reflects generations' great divide (musician faces 20 year sentence for youtube prank)
Mlive.com ^ | 02/20/11 | Cindy Fairfield

Posted on 02/21/2011 10:29:38 AM PST by Gena Bukin

Regardless of whether a judge or jury finds Evan Emory guilty of a sex offense for creating a lewd video with schoolchildren in the background, the case has highlighted a cultural divide between the so-called Millennial Generation and pretty much everyone else.

Many of the Millennials — mostly young adults without children — wonder what all the fuss is about. So Emory made a video with Ravenna elementary children in the background looking surprised and smiling a lot. They say since Emory sang a harmless “Lunch Lady Land” song to the children during his actual performance and subbed in lyrics with sexually graphic references afterward, before posting the video to YouTube, that no harm was done.

These Millennials see the video as a joke and comedy, and even if some admit the video was in bad taste, they believe no crime was committed. This kind of thing is on comedy shows and MTV all the time, they reason. And it’s certainly on YouTube, the social networking site that allows anyone to post a video of almost any kind for the entire world to see.

They are outraged that Emory, who was a good student himself at Ravenna and never got into any trouble, is facing a 20-year felony charge of manufacturing child sexually abusive material. They can’t fathom that Emory, if convicted, is facing the possibility of having to be on the sex offender registry the rest of his life when he didn’t actually “expose” the children to anything.

Then there is the opposite spectrum — those who are horrified that someone would find humor in using children as a backdrop for a sexually explicit song. Whether the children actually heard the lyrics or not is beside the point, they reason, because it was the children’s innocent faces that were shown smiling and giggling when Emory’s nasty words were heard by hundreds and perhaps thousands of people before the video was removed from YouTube.

The parents of the children on the video are especially horrified, and as a parent, I can’t blame them. It would make me sick to my stomach to see one of my children placed in a situation like that. Many of them think the charges fit the crime, though it’s pretty clear that a 20-year felony for something like this is way over the top.

Still, the Muskegon County Prosecutor’s office wants to make an example out of Emory so they went after the “big” charge. And Ravenna Superintendent John VanLoon probably echoed the sentiments of many folks when he said: “If you think that’s something funny, you really need to review and look at your personal values.”

Which brings up a bigger challenge in this age of technology. There was a time when you could limit the kind of garbage kids are exposed to — a time when TV programming didn’t allow even partial nudity and there weren’t hundreds of cable channels from which to choose, smart phones, the Internet and social media. Today there is no place to hide and despite the best efforts of parents, kids are influenced by all these contraptions they can access almost anywhere, anytime.

According to Wikipedia, the Millennials have been shaped by the rise of instant communication technologies and are “peer-oriented.” Reality TV, MTV, YouTube and the like have helped to desensitize teens and young adults to the difference between right and wrong.

Many young folks seek the instant gratification and star quality so prevalent in society today. And they seek it without considering the consequences.

Which, at least, might explain the cultural divide this case has highlighted — even if it doesn’t provide a good way to fix it.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: babyrapist; chestermolester; childsexvideo; evanemory; monster; moralabsolutes; pedophile; pervert; youtube
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To: truthfreedom
Those laws would be on the state level, not the federal level.

You said you supported States Rights. So why are you whining that no crime was committed? You want to be the king of that state and nullify what the citizens and legislators of that state decided?

281 posted on 02/21/2011 6:40:15 PM PST by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: little jeremiah
If nothing else, this thread is showing the moral pit that is Libertarianism.
Someone earlier mentioned "bug zapper threads".
282 posted on 02/21/2011 6:40:57 PM PST by samtheman
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To: truthfreedom
There are people here who are entirely unfamiliar with popular culture.

Which has exactly NOTHING to do with law. A car chase on TV doesn't mean you can speed and get away with it by telling a cop you saw it on TV. Lay off TV comparisons. This is REALITY.

283 posted on 02/21/2011 6:44:06 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are at your door! How will you answer the knock?)
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To: samtheman

Only one so far, Jazz something or other.


284 posted on 02/21/2011 6:45:01 PM PST by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: truthfreedom
And states rights, and wanting to limit the power of fedgov is not the same as libertarianism.

Oh, I misunderstood you. I misread and thought you were in favor of States Rights. But it seems that all you want is depraved immoral anarchy. I was under the impression that Libertarians at least in theory respected States Rights, guess I am wrong.

If Libertarianism isn't about States Rights or wanting to limit the power of the federal government, what is it about other than legalized drugs, porn, prostitution and homo-rights?

285 posted on 02/21/2011 6:45:14 PM PST by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: samtheman; darkwing104; 50mm

I’ll alert a couple of them!

A departed troll needs some graphics.

Jazz1968


286 posted on 02/21/2011 6:49:03 PM PST by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: Politicalmom

I’m comparing the relative weight of a single youtube clip with a single tv show.

Most youtube clips are seen my almost no one. Any TV show that got ratings as bad as most youtube clips would be immediately cancelled.

Most youtube clips are minor.
A good percentage, probably most, of the top youtube videos are from massmedia. the 3 top this week are lady gaga britney spears justin bieber.


287 posted on 02/21/2011 6:57:16 PM PST by truthfreedom
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To: little jeremiah

I did not say it was “fine and dandy”, I did not say it should be legal. I have no idea how you came to that conclusion, and your comment was insulting.

You could have asked for clarification, which would have been fine, but instead you accused me of approving of this sort of material.

My point was that if this person is to be prosecuted for putting that video on YouTube, then maybe that senator should be prosecuted as well for writing what he did.

But, as so often happens, the “little people” pay for what they do, and the “important people” get away with the same thing.


288 posted on 02/21/2011 6:59:12 PM PST by Fresh Wind (TOTUS knows how to give a speech. Obama knows how to read.)
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To: Politicalmom

show me evidence that this has happened. I’m not saying it didn’t. But the likelihood is that this guy wasn’t that popular, didn’t have too many fans, and the fans didn’t think to download it, because it was on youtube and people typically just stream from youtube. the files would not be saved on the computers of the people who watched them. if these were mpegs or wmv, they’d be out there, but this is youtube, and it seriously could be gone, or just on the computer of the guy who did the video editing.

I’d be in favor of taking on the Hollywood AntiChristians.


289 posted on 02/21/2011 7:02:46 PM PST by truthfreedom
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To: metmom

This is one of the most eye-opening threads I’ve ever seen on FR. Thanks for your input.


290 posted on 02/21/2011 7:06:14 PM PST by samtheman
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To: truthfreedom; Politicalmom

I frequently save videos that I’ve watched on You Tube. Anyone who watched this piece of trash could have done the same.


291 posted on 02/21/2011 7:07:59 PM PST by BykrBayb (Somewhere, my flower is there. ~ Þ)
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To: BykrBayb
Such foul language to be using in defense of a child predator.

Where did I ever defend a child predator?

292 posted on 02/21/2011 7:08:22 PM PST by Fresh Wind (TOTUS knows how to give a speech. Obama knows how to read.)
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To: little jeremiah

I’ve been following darkwing’s posts for months now. Very entertaining. Thanks for pinging him on this.


293 posted on 02/21/2011 7:09:17 PM PST by samtheman
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To: truthfreedom; Politicalmom
and it seriously could be gone

Newspapers have it as they have "transcripts". You can bet others saved it.

You are STILL defending this puke by trying to minimize the damage he did.

294 posted on 02/21/2011 7:09:20 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are at your door! How will you answer the knock?)
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To: little jeremiah

I think we’re in agreement here.

Standard tea party limited constitutional government isn’t the same as libertarianism.

You agree with that statement, right? Don’t draw anything further from it. Just that statement.

Some Libertarians like Roe v Wade. That was overruling the previous states rights position. It’s plenty complicated, etc., I just wanted to say that these 2 things are different.

I’m not a Libertarian. I don’t really know much about it. I’m more of a Constitutionalist, which is basically what Ron Paul and the tea party are. This differs from some Libertarians, who like Roe v Wade.


295 posted on 02/21/2011 7:10:16 PM PST by truthfreedom
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To: samtheman

It’s absolutely staggering the excuses and justifications which people will use to not condemn something like this.

And if you’re not for us, you’re against us.

If you don’t condemn it, you support it. It’s the ONLY reason for justifying not taking action on it.


296 posted on 02/21/2011 7:11:34 PM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: metmom

It seems like somebody is starting to feel remorse and trying to tone down his remarks. If that’s the case, I’m willing to say “good for him”. We’ll see though. It’s still quite shocking not to have a visceral and immediate hatred of what was done here. I mentioned this thread to my wife, who is the mother of our 2 year old, and she said, “20 years, good”.

Now I don’t really know if I would support such a long sentence for this but I understand my wife’s immediate and visceral reaction. It is the same as mine.

And the poster who repeated a couple of times on this thread that you better be armed if you try this with his kids... I agree with him COMPLETELY.


297 posted on 02/21/2011 7:17:16 PM PST by samtheman
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To: DJ MacWoW

I’m trying to determine what the likelihood of the damage was.

Obviously, going to the cops increased the likelihood that whoever might have the clip on their computer would save it.

And all this legal wrangling is going to traumatise the kids. It should just be dropped. It’s off youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AdClmPD6r4 - Trevor talks to kids. The Whitest Kids You know. On TV IFC . Most of you will not like this one bit. But it’s here to give you an idea of what we’re talking about. Back and forth. There are content issues with this. Think it’s in the same general ballpark as South Park but it is not cartoon. If you’re squeamish about anything, don’t watch. This is mostly political, and you will not like the political. Skip to 1:00 for the unpleasant stuff.


298 posted on 02/21/2011 7:27:09 PM PST by truthfreedom
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To: Fresh Wind; little jeremiah

Oops. My mistake. When you called little jeremiah an asshole for speaking out against the predator, I mistook you for one of the predator’s defenders.


299 posted on 02/21/2011 7:28:21 PM PST by BykrBayb (Somewhere, my flower is there. ~ Þ)
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To: Fresh Wind

Ah, I apologize for mistunderstanging your comment. And I think the senator deserves public beating, just as the video maker does. More for the senator since his offense was worse, more graphic, and a published book.


300 posted on 02/21/2011 7:31:53 PM PST by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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