Although the article by Reason is linked in the above article, I include it here.
Laws that mandate pretending fictional characters have human rights cannot be justified. We all know that political blackmailing is the primary method of passing such laws.
Fiction, by its very nature, offers an escape from reality. Mandates for fiction to mimic reality imprison fantasy.
Well, at least, the comments on the Reason site seem fairly reasonable, at least when I read them.
The political blackmailing is obvious. It’s strange that cartoons are associated with either of the crimes.
Author John Grisham was practically pilloried as a child rapist for wondering if our child porn possession sentences are too high—a thought bubble he felt forced to deny ever having had. (See Radley Balko’s “In Defense of John Grisham” for a gimlet-eyed look at how dangerous it is to even suggest there might be some overkill in our child porn laws, even though guys with a small stash of the stuff can end up with much longer sentences than men who actually raped a child.)