Washington Post Uses 'Pedophiles' and 'Brilliant' in Same Headline for Sick Review of Play
You can’t make this up.
Please take a moment to take in this tweet, which, after triple-checking, I can say is not from a parody account:
Review: “Downstate” is a play about pedophiles. It’s also brilliant. https://t.co/rIdGqf6GlN
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 27, 2022
“Review: ‘Downstate’ is a play about pedophiles. It’s also brilliant,” The Washington Post proudly declared.
Again, this is not a parody account. The Post legitimately used the word “brilliant” to describe an off-Broadway play about pedophiles.
Look, art can understandably take many forms. Avant-garde art is never appreciated in its own time. That’s fair.
But to normalize pedophilia? The sexual exploitation of children? If art is meant to contribute something positive to society, “Downstate” is quite possibly the furthest thing from art possible.
Full disclosure: I haven’t seen “Downstate,” nor do I ever plan to. I can’t speak to the acting, set pieces or anything technical that might have been “brilliant.”
What I can speak to is the subject matter — and the Post’s creepy fawning over it.
Here is chief theater critic Peter Marks’s opening salvo in this review:
“Take a deep breath and try to ruminate calmly on the position playwright Bruce Norris takes in his scintillating new play, ‘Downstate’: that the punishments inflicted on some pedophiles are so harsh and unrelenting as to be inhumane.
“Are you still reading? It’s almost impossible to broad-brush the perspective at the heart of this impeccably acted drama without sounding as if one is advocating some extraordinary level of consideration for individuals who have committed unspeakable crimes. And yet Norris proposes a variation on this proposition at off-Broadway’s Playwrights Horizons: He is questioning what degree of compassion should society fairly hold out to those who have served their time for sexual abuse, assault or rape.”
That is actually rather easy to answer: There should be no degree of compassion for those who have served their time for sexual abuse, assault or rape, especially when the victims are children.
There’s a reason pedophiles are on the bottom of the totem pole even among hardened criminals. Murderers and thieves look down on them, and for good reason.
And yet playwright Bruce Norris and director Pam MacKinnon apparently think these monsters deserve sympathy.
“[Norris has] loaded the dice to some degree in ‘Downstate,’ as the predators who’ve completed their prison terms are depicted not as monsters but rather as complicated, troubled souls,” Marks wrote.
He noted the play isn’t for everyone (understatement of the century) but posits it in a way to make it seem as if people who are unequivocally against pedophilia are somehow being close-minded (emphasis mine):
“Some theatergoers no doubt will resent that Norris chose to illuminate this delicate subject in a nuanced way that doesn’t jibe with their own undiluted revulsion. If you suspect you are one of these people, ‘Downstate’ is not for you. For many others, it will be a stunning demonstration of the power of narrative art to tackle a taboo, to compel us to look at a controversial topic from novel perspectives.”
Looking at controversial topics from novel perspectives can help a society to grow and develop. But how does the normalization of one of the most heinous crimes — sexually assaulting and exploiting children — help society?
Much in the same way that underage gender transitioning does, this attempt to normalize pedophilia spells out the left’s game plan. Both presuppose that children should be given the autonomy of adults.
That’s inherently flawed logic. Children simply cannot make long-term medical decisions about themselves or give sexual consent. It’s the same reason they can’t legally drink alcohol or buy cigarettes.
The left knows this, but that’s sort of its whole plan: push the idea that people who aren’t equipped to make sound judgments are functional “adults,” then fill their easily influenced brains with garbage like “Downstate” — or worse.
It’s an easily identifiable ploy, but sadly, it appears to be working across much of society.
And The Washington Post is helping to fuel the fire.
It’s sickening and needs to be called out — not unlike pedophilia itself.
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