The titular host of "The Joe Rogan Experience" recently spoke with Manhattan Institute fellow Christopher Rufo about the ongoing culture wars over race and gender that have transformed American homes, schools, and HR departments into battlefields.

While Rufo and Rogan touched on various issues in Tuesday's episode, including the perniciousness of DEI practices and the left's tactical mischaracterization of Florida's Parental Rights in Education Act, the host's most biting commentary concerned recent efforts by Democrats and other leftists to normalize evil, particularly the kind animated by a desire to prey on children and destroy innocence.

Early in the podcast, the duo discussed the importance of moral structure and well-enforced rules in a society.

Rogan suggested that it "all goes out the window" when deviant behavior is left unchecked. This prompted Rufo to reflect on his time living in Seattle.

The conservative activist noted that when walking his son to kindergarten in the Democrat-run city, they would "have to be avoiding schizophrenics, avoiding tents, avoiding people shooting up, avoiding people just s***ting in the street."

Rufo noted that when he raised his concerns with city administrators, he was told, "Oh, well, you know, we have to be compassionate to our houseless neighbors," to which his reply was apparently, "No we don't. This is a danger to kids."

Although Rogan agreed with Rufo that there must be "reasonable limits" on compassion as well as on tolerance for bad behavior, he seized upon the word "houseless."

"I love when these terms like 'the houseless' — like, you already have a word for it. Yeah, stop trying to dress it up with a new word," said Rogan.

Rogan then highlighted another euphemism he had come across that has similarly been used to disguise a grim reality.

"This one's been driving me f**king crazy lately: 'minor-attracted person,'" said Rogan. "I saw two politicians in two different speeches talk about protecting 'minor-attracted persons.' You're talking about pedophiles."

"That's what we're talking about," Rufo confirmed.

Karen Berg, a Democratic state senator in Kentucky, employed the term last week during a committee hearing concerning legislation that would make it a felony to possess a sex doll fashioned to resemble a child.

Berg appears to say in one video of the hearing, "There are what they call 'MAPS,' minor-attracted persons, and the limited amount of research that's done on these dolls, guys, suggest that they actually — for people who are attracted to minors — that these dolls actually decrease their proclivity to go out and attack children."

This might be the most disturbing thing you see today. Watch KY Democratic Senator Karen Berg propose Child Sex Dolls for Pedophiles. This type of disturbing proposition has no place in the Commonwealth.

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The term has entered circulation in some leftist circles, but there has been resistance in the alphabet community.

Center Square indicated in 2020 that the then-new movement to use the terms "minor-attracted persons" or "non-offending minor attracted persons" was ultimately an effort to normalize pedophilia. It apparently had caused concern among elements of the gay community who wanted to make sure that the so-called MAPS flag wouldn't be flown at LGBT parades.

There appears to be continued support for the term and the corresponding effort on university campuses.

Sociology professor Allyn Walker penned a book normalizing pedophilia called "A Long, Dark Shadow: Minor-Attracted People and Their Pursuit of Dignity," which was published by University of California Press. Facing significant backlash over the book and related research, Walker was ultimately squeezed out of Old Dominion University in Virginia in 2021.

However, the ouster revealed an ideological infection in the academy. Newsweek revealed that 60 professors in mental health, human sexuality, and other fields defended Walker's activism, calling it "important and ground-breaking" scholarship.

"It must be that these people have no children," Rogan told Rufo. "It must be. I don't know. If they do, they're monsters. This idea that you're going to minimize the harm caused by evil criminals who steal children's lives, ruin their lives forever. And you're just going to call them a 'minor-attracted person' and try to say that it's an identity. ... For what reason?"

Rufo noted that efforts to normalize perversity targeting children appear to be coupled with efforts to shut down criticism.

"You look at even something that has been propagandized at length: drag queen story hour. Let's just break it down to the basic facts. These are adult men dressing up in women's clothing ... dancing and performing for other people's children," said Rufo. "That should be a red flag for people but ... they've couched it in this language like you're talking about — euphemisms. Very, very soft-sounding words [like] tolerance, inclusion."

"But you're concealing from people the fact that it's like, actually, no, this is kind of uncomfortable," continued the conservative activist.

Rufo noted that while most people understand that what's going on is wrong, many have been cowed into silence by the threat of being branded a "bigot."

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