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.
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?
If nothing else, this thread is showing the moral pit that is Libertarianism.Someone earlier mentioned "bug zapper threads".
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.
Only one so far, Jazz something or other.
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?
I’ll alert a couple of them!
A departed troll needs some graphics.
Jazz1968
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.
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.
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.
This is one of the most eye-opening threads I’ve ever seen on FR. Thanks for your input.
I frequently save videos that I’ve watched on You Tube. Anyone who watched this piece of trash could have done the same.
Where did I ever defend a child predator?
I’ve been following darkwing’s posts for months now. Very entertaining. Thanks for pinging him on this.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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