Two new animated series about heroic drag queens were recently announced. Check out the trailers below for, respectively, “Super Drags” (from Netflix) and “Drag Tots” (on WOW Presents, a streaming network):

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERQ9wN8uXWw]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECkkoZyggH4]

Note well: “Super Drags” is on Netflix. Can’t get more mainstream than that. The streaming service is affiliated with RuPaul.

Remember a couple of weeks ago, when we were upset about the kids movie “Show Dogs” grooming children for sexual abuse? Remember Lactatia from a couple of weeks back, the nine year old drag queen that Teen Vogue says “inspires us to live colorfully”?:

9 year old drag superstar Lactatia at @RuPaulsDragCon with a message for her haters!! wearing her infamous sequin onesie from @TheHouseofMann!! pic.twitter.com/iaKmsI0jSc — Brandon Hilton (@BRANDONHILTON) May 15, 2018

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Now, normalizing drag queens for children is the big woke thing. We’ve had Drag Queen Story Hours in libraries nationwide. Now Netflix is turning drag queens into animated superheroes, and RuPaul’s streaming service is turning drag queens into child superheroes.

Note well that Lactatia was photographed above at beloved drag queen RuPaul’s recent drag convention.

Can’t you see what’s happening?

You might think — I certainly hope you think — that your child will not be exposed to this filth. The thing is, your child, and all of us, have to live in a world in which this is normal, and in which the popular culture thinks that dressing little boys up like sexually provocative women is not only permissible, but a sign of cultural progress.

Law and politics cannot possibly be enough to keep sanity alive as Weimar America descends further into decadence. (Did you see this yesterday? “A baby could become the first person without a legal mother if a transgender man wins a historic court battle.”) Yeah, I know, ha-ha, the right-wing Christian is freaking out again. Fine, laugh. Doesn’t bother me. What does bother me are conservative Christians (and other religious and social conservatives) who work hard to maintain their denial over the weimarization of America. And what bothers me is … my own increasingly threadbare stance of trying to figure out how to be tolerant in a culture where the people pushing this stuff are crushing people like us and brainwash our children.

The first reader who sent in the “Super Drags” clip said the sexualization of children is one thing he believes could provoke the right to violence. He wasn’t suggesting this, mind you, but saying that Netflix and the pop-culture decadents who are crusading for Lactatializing the culture are provoking forces they don’t understand. It reminded me of this blog’s hard-right commenter Raskolnik’s line from yesterday: “If you don’t want the Third Reich, don’t welcome the Weimar Republic.”

From St. Gregory’s the Great’s Dialogues, this from the life of St. Benedict:

He was born in the province of Nursia, of honorable parentage, and brought up at Rome in the study of humanity. As much as he saw many by reason of such learning fall to dissolute and lewd life, he drew back his foot, which he had as it were now set forth into the world, lest, entering too far in acquaintance with it, he likewise might have fallen into that dangerous and godless gulf. Therefore, giving over his book, and forsaking his father’s house and wealth, with a resolute mind only to serve God, he sought for some place, where he might attain to the desire of his holy purpose. In this way he departed, instructed with learned ignorance, and furnished with unlearned wisdom.

Read that again, until you grasp what it’s telling you. St. Gregory the Great says that young Benedict, born four years after the Western Empire fell, observed that the culture of the city of Rome itself was so decadent that learning its ways would drag one into a “dangerous and godless gulf.” He saw that he had to get out of there.

Benedict took up residence in a cave in Subiaco, where he lived as a hermit, praying and fasting. Only after he had built himself up spiritually, and overcome a fierce temptation, did he go out into the world to minister. Even then, he did not plunge back into the world he had left behind. He was despised by some who had initially welcomed him, because, as Gregory says, “the life of virtuous men is always grievous to those that be of wicked conditions.” Here, Gregory (who was the Pope), tells his dialogue partner that the spiritually wise person knows when to stay present as a witness in a particular place, and when to leave it:

In my opinion, Peter, evil men may with good conscience be tolerated in that community, where there be some good that may be helped, and reap spiritual profit. Where there is none good at all that receive spiritual profit, often times all labor is lost. Those that would be perfect carry always this mind: that when they perceive their labor to be fruitless in one place, to remove immediately to another, where more good may be done. For this cause, Paul, that notable preacher of the word, who was desirous to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, to whom to live is Christ, and to die is gain [Phil. 1:21], not only desired himself to suffer persecution, but also animated and encouraged others to suffer the same. Yet being himself in persecution at Damascus, he got a rope and a basket to pass over the wall, and was privately let down. [Acts 9:25] What then? shall we say that Paul was afraid of death, when as himself said, that he desired it for Christ’s sake? not so: but when he perceived that in that place little good was to be done by great labor, he reserved himself for further labor, where more fruit and better success might be expected. Therefore the valiant soldier of Christ would not be kept within walls, but sought for a larger field where he might more freely labor for his master. And so, in like manner, you shall quickly perceive, if you mark well, that venerable Benedict forsook not so many in one place, that were unwilling to be taught, as he in sundry other places raised up from the death of soul many more, that were willing to be instructed.

After some time, Gregory reports:

As God’s servant daily increased in virtue and became continually more famous for miracles, many were led by him to the service of almighty God in the same place. By Christ’s assistance he built there twelve Abbeys; over which he appointed governors, and in each of them placed twelve monks. A few he kept with himself; namely, those he thought would gain more profit and be better instructed by his own presence. At that time also many noble and religious men of Rome came to him, and committed their children to be brought up under him for the service of God.

This is what I’m trying to convey in The Benedict Option. Withdraw from this decadent culture, build ourselves up, teach those who are willing to be taught, and then build our versions of abbeys, to which Christians struggling in the world can rely on to form their own children.

If not now, you conservative Christian readers, then when? What’s it going to take for you to get serious?

UPDATE: This little boy is 10 years old.

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UPDATE.2: I can see from the comments already that some literalists are completely missing Raskolnik’s point about Weimar, and wanting to have a throwdown over historical details. Raskolnik’s point is that the Nazis arose out of the economic and social chaos and decadence of the Weimar Republic. To take a more contemporary example, Vladimir Putin is certainly no Nazi, but his authoritarian rule came about popularly, from the economic and social chaos of the Yeltsin years. Raskolnik’s point is that advanced social breakdown opens the door to authoritarianism.

This is not a radical observation. If commenters want to argue that point, fine. But don’t waste your time nitpicking over whether or not the Weimar/Third Reich analogy is precise. I’m not going to post those comments, because they will derail the thread. Again: Raskolnik’s trying to make a point about the kind of conditions that bring about authoritarianism.

UPDATE.3: A reader suggests quite rightly that we should go back and read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Harvard commencement address from June 8, 1978. Excerpt: