This going to be long and for this, I apologize in advance. Also, we should start with knowing who we're really talking about there, making laws for the good people of Tokyo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shintar%C5%8D_Ishihara

 

Not the word of God, but still good info.

Now. From the reactions I got, I think I have to clarify one thing: what I was trying to express here, is that instrumentalization of an evil can be as harmful as that evil, if in a different way. My feeling is that Ishihara is doing just that. A couple examples:

In USA, under Bush Jr, if you wanted to pass a law that would limit citizen's freedom of actio, expression or of any other kind, after 9/11, all you had to say was "This is against terrorists. It's to protect our homeland against evil."

Regardless of political opinions you or I might have, let's face it: the Patriot Act allows the State to do pretty much anything to anyone in the name of the fight against terrorism.

Only, in some fields, terrorists don't really work as a scapegoat. You can hardly ban mainstream porn or gay innuendos by waving a photo of Bin Laden under the people's nose to justify that kind of censorship, unless of course you can prove that all porn stars and gay pride participants have secret connections with Al Qaeda.

When it comes to sex, there is an obvious and inacceptable evil, child pornography. We don't need to think, we don't need to debate, we know it's evil, period. Nobody questions that. Trouble is, anything that cannot be discussed, or debated, is also a powerful weapon.

In France, a law has been put in motion called LOPPSI 2. This project aims to allow the State to spy on any french internet user at any time and also to filter the access to any website the government see fit to put down. The scapegoat they used? Pedophiles. How convenient.The law is made in such a way that the government won't even have to justify why a given site must be blocked. Technically, you can shut down political blogs, spy on social networks to find out where protestants might gather and whe, etc. The pervs are then long forgotten. They have served their designed purpose in this matter.

In Mr Ishihara's case, the bill he passed waves the photo of "kids being exposed to harmful material" and "socialy unacceptable attitude depicted in comic books" under the people's nose.  What should tick off anyone reading his bill is the very wide spectrum of action of the law he's created. Same as for the anti terrorist acts in USA or the LOPPSI in France, it's said to be aimed at one problem but when it comes to the letter of the law, it's terribly vague.

You can put about anything in that bag he knitted. Anything the Governor's office will deem "socially unacceptable" from now oncan be banned from the medias.And we're not just talking about harming kids or raping innocent bystanders there.

This is where the "homophobia" issue comes in.

Ishihara's bawwwwwing about "harmful material" is not that old. There was a time when he would even write novels with lots of "socially unacceptable" sex in them. Back then he would certainly not have been censored, nor wanted to be. On the other hand, with time, he developped a strong anti-gay tendency which he expressed in many occasions, sometimes in presence of the media. He went as far as saying that gay people "lack something. It must be something in their genes". Also, this is the tamest thing he said about homosexual people.

I don't know if any of you three is gay, bi, straight, if you're unconcerned by the concept of homosexuality, pro-gay or homophobic, and my own opinons on gay don't even matter at all either. It's not about liking gay people or hating them.

I think that now, all we need to see exactly where he wants to go wit this whole thing is time. He's a rather impatient man and his current term is almost expired. He will want to move fast to bring forth his views.

I can very well accept that our societies need to fight actual evil. I feel very nauseous though when I see someone using the people's good will and their fears in order to serve their own ends and enact their hates.

Oh and, FightingWolf: the old issue of "you never know who's going to read this/view this and how they will react after that" is a somewhat worn-out concept. I have played countless first person shooters and have never shot anyone. Millions of people have played Super Mario games and we have yet to confirm that any italian plumber was found dead in the woods after consuming poisonous mushrooms. As for the pus stains called pedophiles, many of them started out of nothing, simply praying on someone obviously smaller and weaker than them, or simply repeating the horrors they were submitted to as children, the same way beaten up kids sometimes end up beating their own children when they grow up. There is no Necronomicon of kidporn out there that turns people into molesters. David Berkowitz used to claim that his neighbor's dog was the vessel of a demon who commanded him to kill people. Somehow, I don't buy it. Do you?

People don't need an excuse to be evil. All they need is circumstances, low values and very little intelligence can help too. I doubt the people I saw butchering their neighbors in Ambon at the end of the nineties, with my own eyes, had watched "violent movies". Many of them were so poor they couldn't even afford to pay the power bill to watch TV.

Crazy people like power, and too much power makes them even more crazy. I'm happy with letting people who do not demonstrate craziness or rampant hates making sensible laws. I can't say the same about revisionnists and fascists in the fashion of Mr Ishihara and his like.

Always be weary of Greeks bearing gifts. I know I'd be a bit suspiscious about the trapdoor in that giant wooden horse's belly. I doubt it's for putting batteries in.