Russian lawmaker targeting deviant cultural content (like Game of Thrones)
Game of Thrones has been frequently criticized for its violent content since the show began. This, after all, is a show that begins with a grown man shoving a 10-year-old kid out of a tower window in order to cover up his incestuous affair. But now the show has caught the eye of a very dangerous man.
Vitaly Milonov is a Russian politician who regularly makes headlines because of his anti-gay sentiments. He supported a 2013 law that prohibits promoting so-called “gay propaganda” to minors, and went on record as saying that gay athletes could be subject to arrest at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Now, according to The Moscow Times, Milonov is targeting cultural content that doesn’t conform to “traditional values,” citing Game of Thrones as a primary example.
Milonov’s proposed plan would give the Ministry of Culture the power to determine what kind of content is deemed “appropriate for mass consumption.” Based on Milonov’s comments in the article, Game of Thrones would certainly not be given a mark of approval. “Every tenth character in it is a sexual deviant,” he says, bizarrely echoing the sentiments of the Sparrows in King’s Landing.
Milonov is kind of like Russia’s own Jack Thompson. Thompson is a disbarred lawyer here in the States who became infamous for his crusade against obscenity in American pop culture, particularly in video games. Milonov and Thompson share a desire to control media through legislation out of an alleged desire to protect the children of their respective countries. Both of them have a particular subject that is their primary focus: Thompson railed against obscenity for years, but became most known for his criticism of the video game industry. Similarly, Milonov’s “sexual deviancy” argument is just a euphemism for what he perceives as “homosexual behavior,” which may as well read “anything Milonov finds discomforting to him.”
One thing Jack Thompson didn’t have: the backing of a powerful organization like the Russian Orthodox Church. We’ll be on the lookout to see if Milonov’s plan gets put into effect.
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