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.
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
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