A YouTuber with a checkered past, to include vocally admitting to being a pedophile and defending the mindset as a harmless “fetish”, showcased the twin boys he and his husband acquired via ambiguous means, with mainstream media outlets championing the occasion while completely avoiding the online personality’s controversial past admissions.
Shane Dawson, who is no stranger to controversy, recently debuted on social media the twin sons inherited by him and his husband earlier in December. While it is unclear the means by which the pair acquired the children, whether by surrogacy or adoption considering their respective orientation is not procreative by nature, the overall matter is concerning in light of the fact that Dawson has admitted to being a pedophile in the past.
Dawson, who is 35-years-old, had uttered a litany of controversial statements during a 2013 episode of his then-podcast “Shane and Friends” in which he proclaimed to have been aroused by a prepubescent girl he was conversing with online at the time and admitted to searching for images of nude infants online whilst laughing about how said images aroused him.
Shane Dawson is a celebrity who openly justified pedophilia, admitted that he searched for CP, and called it sexy.
Shane Dawson and his husband Ryland Adams just purchased 2 baby boys.
Legally. pic.twitter.com/rDzzb7zUxh
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 11, 2023
While internet backlash amid the early 2010s was a fragment of what it is currently, the arguably abhorrent remarks justifying pedophilia made by Dawson in 2013 did stir enough controversy for the YouTuber to render an apology.
However, similar online backlash against the creator would crop up again in the spring of 2019 after the original pedophilia comments resurfaced to an oblivious newer audience in tandem with additional comments Dawson made on the same podcast in 2015 where admitted to sexually abusing his pet cat.
Holy sh*t it gets worse.
In a 2015 podcast audio, Shane Dawson admitted to sexually assaulting his cat.
How the hell was this man allowed to purchase baby boys? https://t.co/ReUUtK8Z6X pic.twitter.com/wZ9sVH1I0D
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 11, 2023
Considering the internet personality has in years past openly admitted to being sexually aroused by prepubescent girls and even babies, while also having admitted to essentially an act of bestiality, the mainstream media’s celebration of his adoption of two baby boys is disturbing to many familiar with Dawson’s unsettling history.
Meanwhile, other news outlets like Indy100 are painting Dawson as some kind of a victim for the criticism he, and the topic of his parenthood, has received.
In a December 12th article penned by Ellie Abraham on the matter, the author framed the situation as Dawson and his husband being subjected “to abuse after the birth of their twins,” while only highlighting past controversies of Dawson’s around blackface allegations and mildly mentioning the bestiality comments. Yet, nowhere in the article did Abraham acknowledge Dawson’s past admissions to being a pedophile.
An article in Newsweek executed a similar omission of critical details regarding the mounting backlash against Dawson’s parenthood, with contributor Shannon Power writing, “people argued Dawson should not have children because of past actions and comments he made, including doing blackface and joking that he had sexual relations with his cat.”
Furthermore, outlets such as Your Tango do acknowledge Dawson’s past comments and admissions around molesting his cat and pedophilia but brushed off the aforementioned by claiming those admissions “were made nearly a decade ago for satire.”
Your Tango contributor, Megan Quinn, then went on to claim in the same article that contacting Child Protective Services about Dawson’s past concerning conduct is “more problematic” than Dawson’s admissions and justification of pedophilia and said that his critics “have likely cracked more than a few inappropriate jokes for laughs.”
Yet, there’s a sizeable difference between making a joke, even one based upon hypothetical controversial matters, and outright admitting to finding prepubescent girls “sexy,” graphically detailing the past sexual abuse of a household pet, claiming consumption of child pornography shouldn’t be illegal, and admitting to Googling “naked baby” and saying the returned images of exposed infants were “sexy.”
These comments and admissions Dawson made on his podcast roughly a decade earlier didn’t seem like any kind of joke, especially to his co-host at the time, Lauren Schipper, who alluded to Dawson having previously detailed “this justification for pedophilia and it’s so disturbing.”
Gregory Hoyt is a former contributor to outlets such as Law Enforcement Today and Red Voice Media, and current host of The Breakdown with Greg Hoyt. Based out of Sierra Vista, Arizona, Hoyt is a staunch and outspoken advocate of law enforcement and first responders, while also harboring the unique experience of having spent nearly 5 years in prison. Since then, he's used his unique perspective to offer support and commentary about the criminal justice system. When not working or combating bad ideas, Hoyt also leisurely studies economics, history, and law.