The Eyes of Argus: Or Why I Took a Moral Stand Against Allowing An Article On Netflix's "Cuties" On All The Tropes

 One of my loves is the study of history, and George Washington, keenly aware of the responsibility he held as the first American President, remarked in regards to that responsibility that "the eyes of Argus are upon me", referring to the Grecian myth of a being with a hundred eyes.

It was being aware of this prompted me to make a decision around September 11, 2020, to preemptively prevent the page "Cuties" from being created on All The Tropes. It was argued this was poorly considered, I should have asked for a vote on this, my fears were overblown, the substance of my fears was not a legal concern, and so on.

I shall address those points and why I took the actions I did.

1. I won't lie, this was a decision made with a fair bit of moral indignation, but in my defense, if you AREN'T morally repulsed by child pornography, you are someone I don't want near the children in my family or anyone else's for that matter. That said, emotions aside, it was a safety measure against anyone posting images or linking clips of the movie with any of the scenes of child sexualization in any area where it appeared to be deliberately endorsed, at least until the legal issue of whether it would be banned in the US (which ATT is aimed at due to primarily being written in American English), one I felt could not admit delay.

2. As to whether I should have put this to a vote, fine, maybe I should have if only to adhere to the policy I myself agreed to since day one on collegial consensus for potentially controversial decisions so as to avoid accusations of knee-jerk power abuse. At the same time, feeling that the legal status of such a thing was too dangerous to ignore and I sure as hell did not want to look like I'd encourage people to trope a movie, that, if later declared illegal, would provide proof people watched child pornography and provided commentary on and proved they watched it. In this case, I sought to provide cover for not only myself legally but to prevent anyone else from getting put on a watchlist later.

3. When it comes to drawn images and cartoons, there is no question, at least under US law, there is no prohibition of those, no matter how vile they may be, so long as they do not resemble real children. Lolicon and shotacon are beyond vile morally, but are thus inarguably legal to discuss under US law because no real children are harmed by clearly fictional drawings or models, and describing that for the purposes of critiquing any artistic, political, or literary merit passes the obscenity test on those grounds. Real children being sexualized, even if they don't get naked, is still considered child pornography thanks to the legal decision known as the Dost Test, and given the descriptions I read of the content on IMDB (I went out of my way to avoid watching it just to be safe), I decided I would not legally risk anyone commenting on something said descriptions admitted straight up would qualify as child pornography. 

Did I jump the gun? Possibly. Was I willing to risk being wrong? Given the evidence, I was of the contention it was better to ask forgiveness than permission and be safe than sorry.

4. In an earlier time than when I made the decision to push the panic button, I'd be comforted by the common carrier provisions of Section 230 of the US communications law provisions that insulate carriers of content from legal liability, but given how that has become a political hot potato and still is at this point, I was quite leery of giving it's removal a test case, if only by proxy, especially if the Netflix movie in question was banned in the US and our coverage of it had evidence US citizens watched the banned content. While the United States has no allowance of ex post facto laws, the servers of the wiki service we use are in other countries where that is not the case, and I'm not crazy enough to risk letting that ride under the "free speech" excuse.

Now, I want it said under any other circumstance, I am a fierce advocate of all speech being free insofar as it is not inherently criminal, like shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater. I ran the Miraheze branch of the All The Tropes site under the proviso that so long as I had an ironclad legal justification for something being considered media we could talk about, I would defend the right of people to do that, no matter how morally vile and sickening it might be. However, that always came, at least for me, with the knowledge I had so much legal land to run across before I hit the waters of illegality, and if something was approaching the water's edge, erring on the side of caution was always the smarter decision.

I'm not going to belabor the circumstances of the fallout from this, the Kiwi Farms I left awhile back caught wind of what happened recently and have a pretty good summarized breakdown of what happened.

As a result of the above, I now have no legal, moral, or ethical stake in the Miraheze branch of All The Tropes, by my own request. I continue to run our Wikia branch, being its sole founder, and I will continue to deny any potential coverage of that Netflix Movie there until it's legal status is defined by a court of law one way or the other. However, whatever happens to the Miraheze branch until the dust is settled legally is no longer my concern or under my authority to worry about, and that suits me fine.

This is not the first time I have surrendered power over ATT in some way or taken a moral and legal stand that may cost me respect and friends in certain circles, and it likely will not be the last time it happens. I'm the one who wanted since day one to make sure my conscience and rap sheet would always remain clean, and I don't apologize for the motives that led to the decisions I described above and would likely do them again with little change if I got a chance to go back in time. 

Despite some heated words and frankly unsettling conflict this caused with my former fellow mods on ATT, I bear them no ill will, they want to run the legal and moral risks I was convinced were worth such drastic actions that I took to prevent them. I do not, and I elected to hand over any powers I had and leave because it was the only honorable way to prevent further conflict and leave with my honor, dignity, and integrity intact.

I shall merely pray their confidence is justified and the legal status of that film is settled one way or another before I ever consider asking to return to the Miraheze branch, should that still be available in the future

Why I facepalm at sectarian squabbles within Christianity

 I write this because I have some friends who disagree on doctrine, theology, and so forth concerning Christianity. Some are Protestant, some are Catholic, some don't identify as anything in particular, but you can't swing a Bible without hitting half a dozen different Christians who all have a different perspective on the contents of the book in question.

Fine, fair enough, we all have our own minds, expecting uniformity of opinion without mutual consensus is just not happening. However, where I facepalm to the point my hand has permanently creased my face are the types who are all "my way is the only way to properly honor God".

Now, looking through the Bible, it seems there were many ways to glorify God, all of them praised by the Man Himself as valid. A craftsman was given approval by God for making the articles for the Tabernacle mentioned in the Books of the Law. God was immortalized in song and poetry by David, who, his faults aside, God was pleased with. David even at one point went full hippie and started cutting a rug in the streets, dancing his tail off, just to show his joy of being blessed by the Lord, and God was pleased by this, Some healed the sick, some preached, some merely gave shelter and food to the destitute, they too were praised by God for their actions, which he said honored Him.

My point is that, so long as whatever you do squares with God's Word on being pleasing in his eyes (and all the above are but a few examples of things he was pleased with), then there is NO wrong way to honor God, so long as whatever is done will bring glory to Him.

Now, I understand Catholics and Protestants differ sharply on many aspects of the faith, the role of the Church, what sacraments and practices are needed, and so on. Me, at the end of the day, and I will die being willing to explain it to God if need be, believe a devout Christian, either Protestant or Catholic, so long as their actions are done to glorify God, both will enter unto the Kingdom of Heaven.

The process, role, ritual, sacrament, procedure, protocol, or whatever else you want to call it is immaterial. What matters is the intent of your heart.

One can donate to all sorts of charity, do all sorts of things for the poor and sick, and otherwise be uplifted in the eyes of Men, but if it's done for your own glory and not for God, it is WORTHLESS in His eyes.

Ergo, it doesn't matter what denomination of Christian you may be, if you don't worship regardless of your denomination (or lack thereof) in order that your actions bring glory to God, it will be worth nothing at the time of the judgment of what we did to honor HIM, not ourselves.

So with that in mind, I just want to reiterate I do not slag off on any Christian sect. I'm a non-denominational Protestant, but the devout Catholic, the Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, or whatever other labels your flavor of Christianity is called, none of them are viewed, as far as I'm aware, as any less valid as those who honor God as any other believer, so long as all that they do is in HIS name.

In closing, if you want to argue about the fine print, fine, so be it, we're human and that's fine by me, I'm happy to engage a good debate like anyone else. But regardless who is RIGHT about the fine print of honoring God, I remain assured, based on the reading of His Word, that no act or deed on our part has any meaning to God so long as our hearts do not reflect our intention to devote whatever we say or do to His Glory.

Approaching the latter end of 2020, my take on the still ongoing USA riots

 It's been a while since I've written anything, and the still ongoing riots are still tearing up various cities where useless, incompetent, and often outright corrupt political figures are simping for the lawless.

Given how long they've been going on and how they now exist to simply give people an excuse to keep burning, looting, and in some cases even murdering (I could care less about BLM's alleged legitimate stances, they don't care about the lives of blacks from where I'm sitting, all they do is burn, loot, and murder while cynically claiming black lives matter)

That said, it's quite obvious any legitimate, moderate, civil, and most of all actually honestly interested in seeking civil redress individuals are NOT part of BLM and their joined at the hip lunatic brethren in ANTIFA. Not at this point, assuming they did exist originally. All that's left are the dregs of society, scum who want an excuse to be savages, and worst of all, the politicians and other people in the law, commerce, and the media who want to use the first two for their own twisted gain.

At this point, it should be obvious, even to the most deluded of the third group mentioned above, that they created a monster. Worse, social media has proven these animals are shameless attention whores so long as they can shut down any lawful dissent against their arson, their assaults, their thefts, and their murders. Otherwise, they keep parading civil disorder and felonies against the law-abiding and law enforcement as if they want to be praised for breaking laws, destroying people's livelihoods, and proving they are no better than rabid dogs.

That said, I want these criminals and agitators dealt with by the very law they show such contempt. Aside from legally ironclad and proven in court of law cases of self-defense, I do not want their lawlessness met with lawlessness, no matter how frustrated they may make others. I hold everyone who has taken part in an unlawful assembly in utter contempt, but I want to see them punished for it in the courts they spit at and apprehended by the police they consider pond scum.

And I can only hope this lawlessness eventually comes to an end. It's mostly concentrated in a few states now and those have proven disturbingly friendly to these lawless agitators, but it's still a disgrace to a civil society that they are still able to menace people, and even though I don't live near most of these places, the damage they do to innocents still galls me because I consider myself a proud patriot of the United States, and those who show the laws of my native soil contempt show the country I love, warts and all, contempt. And I consider that an insult to me and every other US citizen who wishes to live peacefully.

And as a devout believer in God, I can only pray those who evade the justice of Men for their crimes have to answer before the ultimate judge as to why they defied the law, as that court cannot be evaded and has no appeal.

In the meantime, I'm simply going to continue praying for the safety of friends and family in harm's way, and also pray that danger passes them by.