I don't know why I'm bothering but whatever, here goes, again...
The Drama was already there, bud. The only reason I involve myself is because, duh, I kinda have a personal investment in things I've been personally affected by or have been close with people who have. When you use a platform like a public comments section as a sort of pulpit for extremely controversial opinions, that's likely going to create drama. The question is, is it worth it? To you, it clearly is, as would be expected if it's an issue that important to you. You brought the drama, so if you're right, CONVINCE US it's WORTHY drama; the proverbial hill that's worth dying on. Look, I've created drama of my own on other forums in the past over issues that were personal and important to me, that others couldn't give a rat's ass about if their lives depended on it. I'm adopted, for example, and my experiences and research have given me some pretty controversial opinions that defy the narrative. And I'm not alone in those views, but damn if practically the entire forum isn't against me in those moments, trying to tell me I am alone. But mainly the reason I think I'm justified in my grievances a hell of a lot more than you is because in my case, I'm not about denying adults their rights, just protecting the rights of children as well as the adults those children will become later in life through their experiences, whereas people like you care more about the "right" of people with a serious problem to fulfill their needs at the expense of children, who will become adults irreparably damaged through their experiences.
Your claims of rationality are laughable. But I'm starting to wonder if your problem doesn't partly stem from a problem with language. So, here's a question that's both honest and relevant to the subject that might help answer that: Do you think that to rationalize an idea and to approach that idea rationally are indeed the same thing? I sincerely want to know what you think about that because that could actually say a lot about where you're coming from if I or anyone else is misreading you.
If you think I'm entirely unsympathetic to pedophiles, you'd be quite wrong. I've been well aware for a long time that there's people who claim to be pedophiles who never have and never would bring any actual harm to a child. And I believe at least some of them are probably telling the truth. For whatever the morality of the day or the conventional wisdom might say, it is indeed a sexual orientation as inseparable from that person's being as attraction to one's own gender is to homosexuality. And throughout history homosexuals have struggled to conform to society's ideas of normality, to the point they can not only marry someone of the opposite sex, but spawn and bear their children, which by all rights ought to be impossible (I'll never understand how one can orgasm for someone they're not even attracted to, but obviously, it happens). Of course, there's plenty of cases where a homosexual will essentially settle for abstinence. It seems at least a bit fallacious to assume there's something inherently different about pedophilia here. The problem is, that's where the similarities end. The critical difference is a matter of rights and consent.
I've lived in places where known pedophiles of some kind have lived. Just never at the same time as them. Because a group of well-intentioned but utterly irrational people wanted to be "compassionate". Oh, I've had them CRASH WITH US without me or the other tenants A) knowing they had charges and B) having the resulting ability to make an informed choice in the matter. And that too was out of "compassion". Of course, we found out, and our compassion suddenly vanished. Because this is also a place youth often frequent. What do you think might've happened if a teenager had been around when this guy was lurking about the place? Oh, right, we found out. He GRABBED AND FONDLED ONE. A 17 year old girl.
No go right the fuck ahead and try this argument on me again...
I don't know why I'm bothering but whatever, here goes, again...
The Drama was already there, bud. The only reason I involve myself is because, duh, I kinda have a personal investment in things I've been personally affected by or have been close with people who have. When you use a platform like a public comments section as a sort of pulpit for extremely controversial opinions, that's likely going to create drama. The question is, is it worth it? To you, it clearly is, as would be expected if it's an issue that important to you. You brought the drama, so if you're right, CONVINCE US it's WORTHY drama; the proverbial hill that's worth dying on. Look, I've created drama of my own on other forums in the past over issues that were personal and important to me, that others couldn't give a rat's ass about if their lives depended on it. I'm adopted, for example, and my experiences and research have given me some pretty controversial opinions that defy the narrative. And I'm not alone in those views, but damn if practically the entire forum isn't against me in those moments, trying to tell me I am alone. But mainly the reason I think I'm justified in my grievances a hell of a lot more than you is because in my case, I'm not about denying adults their rights, just protecting the rights of children as well as the adults those children will become later in life through their experiences, whereas people like you care more about the "right" of people with a serious problem to fulfill their needs at the expense of children, who will become adults irreparably damaged through their experiences.
Your claims of rationality are laughable. But I'm starting to wonder if your problem doesn't partly stem from a problem with language. So, here's a question that's both honest and relevant to the subject that might help answer that: Do you think that to rationalize an idea and to approach that idea rationally are indeed the same thing? I sincerely want to know what you think about that because that could actually say a lot about where you're coming from if I or anyone else is misreading you.
If you think I'm entirely unsympathetic to pedophiles, you'd be quite wrong. I've been well aware for a long time that there's people who claim to be pedophiles who never have and never would bring any actual harm to a child. And I believe at least some of them are probably telling the truth. For whatever the morality of the day or the conventional wisdom might say, it is indeed a sexual orientation as inseparable from that person's being as attraction to one's own gender is to homosexuality. And throughout history homosexuals have struggled to conform to society's ideas of normality, to the point they can not only marry someone of the opposite sex, but spawn and bear their children, which by all rights ought to be impossible (I'll never understand how one can orgasm for someone they're not even attracted to, but obviously, it happens). Of course, there's plenty of cases where a homosexual will essentially settle for abstinence. It seems at least a bit fallacious to assume there's something inherently different about pedophilia here. The problem is, that's where the similarities end. The critical difference is a matter of rights and consent.
I've lived in places where known pedophiles of some kind have lived. Just never at the same time as them. Because a group of well-intentioned but utterly irrational people wanted to be "compassionate". Oh, I've had them CRASH WITH US without me or the other tenants A) knowing they had charges and B) having the resulting ability to make an informed choice in the matter. And that too was out of "compassion". Of course, we found out, and our compassion suddenly vanished. Because this is also a place youth often frequent. What do you think might've happened if a teenager had been around when this guy was lurking about the place? Oh, right, we found out. He GRABBED AND FONDLED ONE. A 17 year old girl.
No go right the fuck ahead and try this argument on me again...