This is more of a 2 part question. Should child porn that does not include a real child be illegal? If so, who is being harmed by it?
The other question is; does giving a pedophile access to “imitation” children give them an outlet for their desire, so they won’t try to engage with real children, or does it just reinforce their desire, thus helping them to rationalize their behavior and lead to them being more encouraged to harm real children?
I’ve heard psychologists discuss both sides, but I don’t think we have any real life studies to go off of because the technology is so new.
I’m just curious what the other thought out there are from people who are more liberty minded.
Do normal adults who watch porn have difficulty controlling themselves around people? Maybe. I don’t. Not raping anyone isn’t difficult, no matter how attractive someone is to me. And no matter how much porn I consume, my ability to respect the concept of consent isn’t going anywhere, either.
There is no treatment of paedophilia which cures it. Unfortunately, research has shown that’s not possible. What modern therapies actually consist of, is moral rehabilitation, and self control training. Stuff that any normal person already knows. For a paedophile to actually act on their urges, they have to lack the things that stop any given person from raping, in addition to being a paedophile.
I’m nowhere near as convinced of the “no, allow none of it, ever” as you. I can’t imagine life without any outlet for my libido, be that porn or actual sex. I think most people with paedophilia, live their lives fully capable of never raping a child, no therapy necessary. No clear-minded person needs to be told they shouldn’t rape, and nothing about the condition itself means the person afflicted cant be clear-minded. A paedophile with the self-awareness to seek help isn’t doing it because they are attracted to kids, but because they are attracted to kids, and also aren’t sure they can stop themselves. If that was how humans worked by default, we’d all need “don’t rape” therapy.
Nothing about the condition means it would always be paired with an inability for moral thought or self control. If it did, the therapies we do have couldn’t work without curing the actual condition. And they do work. Just not the way most people probably think they do.
I’m not sure where the line should be, but due to the intense evil done by offending paedophiles, there is a well deserved stigma around the condition. The general public knows almost nothing about it except the damage it can do to those they care about. And yes, that means we should start with a line drawn as safely as possible, but we should also do the work and the actual research, to figure out how much can be done for these people, without harm.
And for the reasons above, I don’t think “nothing”, and “make it all forbidden” is that.
Please do not talk to me about science’s powerlessness to help “the poor”. For starters, it’s far from powerless. And I’d like to remind you that it’s not 1980, but 2023 year. Sex change therapies, hormone blockers, antidepressants and more aids to change not only one’s mental, but also physical self are available.
Providing one wants to search for them.
With that out of mind…
Listen now, and listen well, dude… The likes of you enjoy to take pity on “broken, twisted, wretched, weak” and think it’s humane to accept them into society. But you lot never entertain the idea of living door to door with the ones you’d want to defend. In your heads it all sounds nice, and logical, and honorable. But you want it to become other people’s burden, other people’s responsibility, other people’s struggle.
You say “I, me, mine, myself” as examples of how things are or might be, but you don’t put yourself in the scenarios that your ideas lead to. You won’t put the money where your mouth is, you won’t stain your hands with dirty job, you won’t strain your back with the weight that your ideas bring with them. You want for others to get the job done. You want to dictate to others what to do, what to think, how to act.
Want to make a point? Want to prove a thing? Go, befriend a convicted pedophile. Go, invite a guy known of masturbating to pictures of children like Madeleine to your home, to talk, play and touch your child. You may also want to tell everything you wrote to the people who suffered because of pedophiles.
Then we talk.
Right. Because if I knew someone who was one, they’d openly admit that to me. For all you know, I am one. But no. That’s not how this works. If you’re a paedophile with a clear head in modern society, you’d take that fact to the grave. Only if you didn’t trust yourself to never touch a child, is there any reason to out yourself and expose your life to the downsides of being known, in order to get help. But if you’re 100% sure you’ll never act, like you and I can be about never raping someone, why admit to it? With how hated you’d instantly become, there are only downsides.
And why the fuck would I befriend someone convicted? That’s like saying that to be ok with people who would like to have sex (everyone), I need to be ok with befriending and having around actual known rapists (criminals). People who want to have sex, are not automatically people who can’t stop themselves from taking it.
As for the option of eliminating one’s libido, thats a really good one. But which part of my comment made you think I believe science can’t help? I said it can’t be cured, I said the therapies we have, work. If eliminating one’s libido helps a person live their life, they should opt for it, paedophile or not. But choosing not to harm others isn’t difficult, unless there’s a lot more wrong with you than your sex drive being directed at children. You and me have no trouble respecting adults of whatever gender were attracted to, why should being a paedophile mean you’re any different?
You accuse me of not thinking this through… I laugh at you. Your last three paragraphs only work if you assume the condition automatically also makes a person evil and immoral. Yes, those people exist, and they should be locked away and never allowed into society. (again, WTF, a convicted pedo??? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?)
But the condition itself, that one is attracted to children, has nothing to do with a person’s capacity for moral action. One’s mind, does not need to obey one’s biology. You can choose to not eat, even when hungry, because you can understand that eating more than is healthy, is bad. A normal person would stay virgin all their life, if they didn’t find a willing partner, because not raping isn’t difficult.
Should we shun people who have done evil? ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY! I don’t know which part of my comment made you think I believe otherwise. As for telling people who have suffered because of child rapists, that not all pedos are also rapists… Duh, but that’s also like telling a woman who was raped by a man, that not all men are rapists. She likely wont want to hear it, and should be helped through the trauma in whatever way is best for her. It would also be true. If you left a kid alone with a pedo who has the same moral compass as you and me, you’d never know they were a pedo, because they wouldn’t rape the kid.
This likely won’t get through to you, because you can’t separate the desires from the person. You can’t imagine someone desiring to do evil, not also being evil. That you can be hungry, without wanting to eat.
Just a heads up - I’ve stopped replying to the person you are debating with. They lack any concept of critical thinking, viewing from two sides, and resort to personal attacks when you don’t agree with them.
Strongly suspect they were either raised in a strict family values household, and/or were a victim of it themselves.
I could already sense that in their reply to me, those final three paragraphs were basically a character assassination attempt based on unfounded assumptions.
But that’s fine. Even when someone denies hearing what you have to say, only the truly stupid wont replay it in their minds at least a few times. I wont waste my efforts too much, but I’ll make my contribution towards hopefully one day getting this person to think.
Prisons are full of these.
Send a letter. Interact with one. Invite him over to your house once he gets released.
Go on. Walk the walk.
Prove that you’re more than a cowardly wannabe-dictator who enjoys listening to his own voice more than to common reason.
Do it.
You didn’t read my comment. I want nothing to do with fucking criminals. Stop suggesting otherwise, you lunatic.
Stop trying to put words in my mouth. It’s not gonna work, especially if you won’t even read and understand what I am actually trying to say.
Responding like this, anyone who reads our exchange is gonna look at your responses, and determine you’re the crazy one, because what you are saying makes no fucking sense in response to me if you actually read and understand what I’m saying. Is that what you want?
You didn’t read mine. No wonder, given how self-absorbed you are…
Ah, so everything’s fine and dandy with ya, if they aren’t caught and sentenced? Brilliant strategy, milord!
Now, I give you simple challenge: prove that you’re willing to set an example and coexist with those loathsome deviants you want for the society to embrace.
If you can’t, if you don’t want to - admit that your ideas aren’t that good.
I did read yours. What makes you think otherwise?
If someone who wants to kill, never does it, they shouldn’t be put in prison. They shouldn’t even be hated or feared.
Someone who gets away with it, should be in prison. Someone who did kill, should be hated and feared.
I will admit only one thing, that you refuse to understand what I’m actually trying to say.
I wouldn’t need to prove shit, if you had the capacity to think clearly enough to understand, or even fucking read.
The fact that you constantly avoid the challenge of proving your convictions true and correct.
The other explanation is that you’re simply scared of it, or trolling, but I preferred to think you were simply too preoccupied with writing yet another comment. I don’t anymore.
Uh-huh. You absolutely has to do, since “burden of proof…” and all that.
But you won’t. Because you realize how weak, irresponsible and “let this be other people’s problem” your train of logic is.
Fgures.
Except what you’re asking me to prove I believe, isn’t actually what I believe, because you refuse to even think about what I am actually saying.
You’ve made assumptions, and because those assumptions are so heinously evil, you won’t even consider what I have to say.
Because you’re acting based on assumptions, you keep missing when trying to dismantle my argument, because its not my argument you’re attacking, but your imagined idea of what I’m saying.
So here we are, going in circles, me trying to get through to you, you accusing me of avoiding the point, because I keep trying to force you to see my actual point, instead of the imagined one that you’ve fixated on.
Like seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you? You accuse me of not thinking through how these things should be handled, then you suggest… That.
What the fucking fuck. You’re the one not thinking this through. Clearly you’re not even reading my comments past the first sentence.
What is wrong with you, that you’re defending the worst that mankind has ever spawned and proceed to screams and insults once you’re asked to prove the worthiness of your own philosophy?
Ditto.
But it’s typical for the likes of you - you always explode once asked to actually “be the change you wanna see in the world”.
Hey, you exploded first by spouting shit that made no sense if you had actually bothered reading what I had to say.
I’m just coming down to your level so we can continue to slug it out.
And what makes you so sure I’m not being the change I want to see? I already explained that if I were, admitting to it is not an option due to the stigma around the condition.
And the change you’re suggesting I need to engage in to prove myself, is fucking stupid. You’re attacking opinions I don’t even hold, it makes you look the fool.
Multiplication of comments is the prime proof of emotional approach. Too emotional.
DO NOT do that.
Oh, it’s one of my favorite tactics against people who won’t read past the first paragraph.
By splitting up my arguments into multiple smaller comments, I can circumvent the thick skulls of these people and force more of what I’m saying to get through.
There’s nothing emotional about it, though I did use that as an excuse to open up a second front. We can close it if you like.