There's a lot of self-righteous patronizing going on.
"We have to protect these helpless innocent teens, as they are too stupid to understand. They are so vulnerable. We MUST take away all their rights and freedoms, and criminalize their sex lives."
"We have to protect these helpless innocent teens, as they are too stupid to understand. They are so vulnerable. We MUST take away all their rights and freedoms, and criminalize their sex lives."
America has never abandoned its bizarre, stupid, and destructive puritan roots. The hysterical overreaction to Janet Jackson's boob is an example. Nobody ever stops to ask "Who was actually hurt?" So there is no reasoned discussion. There is only taboo and insanity.
the term "groomer" is ridiculous fear-mongering bullshit, just like "predator" it's totally detached from reality and serves only to gin up hysteria.
It's amazing how total strangers can now just declare people victims whenever they want regardless of what the alleged "victim" says. "Believe victims. Unless they contradict my narrative. In which case ignore the fuckers.
School uniform fetishes have nothing to do with pedophilia. Just like leopard print undies have nothing to do with zoophilia. I wish people would be honest about that.
Modern culture infantilizes young adults. Concepts like "minor" are used to quietly throw everyone under 18 into a group with small children. This tendency is very harmful.
If anybody really thought 16 year old brains were deficient we wouldn't let them drive cars, quit school, work full time in dangerous environments, or even babysit. We know perfectly well that 16 year old brains work perfectly well.
Look into the family histories of a few people near you. You'll find that the majority of 1920s-1980s married couples met when one of them was under 18. It was totally normal, and totally harmless. Currently the US is having a massive moral panic about a giant nothing burger.
American teens today are infantilized to a degree never before seen in human history.
It's amazing to me that guys like Derek Thompson seem oblivious to this central fact. We treat our youth in a bizarre, unprecedented way. How is that not part of their thought process?
It is abhorrent to only believe victims when the victim says what you want them to say
Young people have agency. Their choices should be respected.
Puberty exists to prepare the organism for adult life. It would make absolutely no sense for nature to develop the body, get it ready to choose a mate and reproduce, but leave out the brain "Oh, we'll develop that 10 or 15 years later"
In the 1980s "young adult" was just another term for "teenager"
today everyone says, and believes that young adulthood starts AFTER you stop being a teenager.
In the minds of the American public teens stopped being young adults and started being old children.
It is much easier to justify the infantilization of, or putting legal restrictions on 16 year old children than on 16 year old adults.
Words matter.
Some video game players showed addictive behavior. So the general public, as always, thinks A causes B. Therefore video games are addictive, right?
Wrong. Scientists know that correlation is not causation.
They looked into it, and found the players who were addicted to the games were also addicted to other stuff. They had addictive personalities. The games were a symptom, not a cause.
Why bring this up?
Many Cons wave around some Utah Mormon University research which shows that virgins tend to stay married more. This does *not* show causation.
It's exactly like the video game players. A minority have a propensity to X which manifests in multiple ways.
That is to say, the personality traits that lead one to stay a virgin also lead one to refuse to divorce. These people prefer blind obedience to rebellion and freedom. Read More »
Statistically poverty, substance abuse, and dysfunctional families often correlate. Domestic abuse is in the mix too. No one can isolate one single cause, because the world doesn't work in the oversimplified way we'd like it to.
Imagine you're a girl in a poor abusive household. There's really not much you can do but pray for a better future. Then you hit puberty, and you become sexually attractive to the men in town. This may be the first power you have ever had.
Some peeps are endowed with the power to physically or psychologically dominate their peers with implied threats of violence. Others are gifted with natural leadership abilities. But not all. Then there's a group that is simply pretty and sexy.
If you are this poor young woman from an abusive family, and by chance, nature gives you a sexy body that men like, why wouldn't you start flirting with a man who treats you nicely and makes you feel loved? And wouldn't it be even better if the man had a job and a car? Read More »