Climate of hate and fear (News of the World)

Member Name: stmatth

Product:	News of the World
Date:	14/08/00 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Destroys society

Not paedophiles, but children and society are the ones who suffer from the naming and shaming campaign. No, I'm not thinking of the danger that paedophiles go underground. I'm thinking of the reaction of ordinary citizens. When I see a child who is lost in a shopping centre, say, a few months ago I would have taken it and gone looking for the parents or tried to help in other ways. Now I would rather look away - if I (as an adult) get too close to a child, I might be seen as a paedophile, and fire set to my car or my house at the next occasion, a risk that I'm not willing to take.
Furthermore, children grow up in a hate of climate and fear in which they are trained to distrust every adult and see everybody as a potential dangerous paedophile. A normal childhood? Never, because part of a normal childhood is to have relaxed contact to neighbours, teachers, friends - impossible where everybody is seen as the deadly enemy.
Why paedophiles? An objective look shows that far more children are harmed by speeding cars or drink driving. So should the News of the World name and shame everybody who got a ticket for speeding? No, speeding is acceptable behaviour for the majority of readers, so the News of the World could not risk alienating their readers. Paedophiles are so easy targets.
On a more fundamental level, a civilised society should never accept mob rule and lynching, even if the victims are "only" paedophiles. It is unacceptable that there are so few politicians, journalists, celebrities and ordinary people who stand up and state clearly and unambiguously that mob violence can never be tolerated, and that there can be no excuse for igniting hate. If this is not clear, then society has not learned anything from Germany 1933.

Summary: