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Christ, that's horrible. How can you be so right about complex issues, when you're so wrong about the widely held belief that under 18s are morons and it's expl
by seamyb88 7y ago
Christ, that's horrible. How can you be so right about complex issues, when you're so wrong about the widely held belief that under 18s are morons and it's exploitative to get your jollies from them, no matter how mature they appear to you.
- simonh 7y agoWhy do you think it’s widely believed that under 18s are morons? Depth of experience and intelligence are different things and I think most people understand that very well. Under 18s can be extremely smart, but due to lack of experience can sometimes be exploited or manipulated.
- seamyb88 7y agoI'm sorry to have offended you, but I actually used to be under 18. I think under 18s are inexperienced human beings who are undergoing some of the hardest years of anybody's life, their hormones are changing and their culture is often quite dangerous. I'm also frustrated that I couldn't have just left it at morons and for you to have got that.
- darawk 7y agoWhile that's true, the idea that there is some magical line at 18 that divides the moral from the immoral is absurd, and Stallman is simply pointing that out. We do have to have a line of some kind for legal purposes, but we shouldn't confuse that statutory line with the nuanced reality when discussing the abstract morality of behavior.
- seamyb88 7y agoThe concrete line has to be drawn somewhere. It's quite low given that (and this is a daring conjecture by which I firmly stand) the majority of 18 - 21 year olds are completely out of bounds for anybody who wants a stable mature relationship. They are culturally wild. Discovering drink, drugs, sex... So, the question is: why would anybody want a relationship with somebody under 18 if not for sexual exploitation of their lack of experience? EDIT: I was a wild 14-21 year old, it's perfectly natural that they are bonkers. Fair play to them!
- twic 7y agoI had the only stable romantic relationship in my life so far between the ages of 18 and 21.
- AstralStorm 7y agoEven around here, there are some overrides on the statutory line - allowed by judge or accepted by both families. They're not often used and cases that need them are carefully scrutinized, but they work. Some additional ones are drawn, allowing a minor (with unsuitable family or orphaned) to have extended civil powers. And employment is allowed, though highly scrutinized, allowing an out from certain terrible situations. (Typical rare example is parental alcoholism or abuse.)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- eecc 7y agoTBH 18+1day aren't any better off, yet that'd be a get out of jail card. For what I remember Italy has a law governing sex between individuals across legal age (18)... anything involving < 13yo is pedo and statutory rape (fair enough) while anything else where the delta is no more than 4 years is not illegal (might be cause to deploy social workers but that's not the point.) That's fair enough IMHO, but I'm a savage Italian... not a woke puritan
- amelius 7y agoYou don't understand how Stallman thinks. You should view his statement from the eyes of a researcher. He said he is skeptical, not that something is true or false. Obviously his formulation is pretty bad from a PR perspective, but it should be pretty clear by now that rms doesn't care much about that.
- seamyb88 7y agoGiven that I am a researcher, I reckon I have been. I'm also not a parent, so I don't have any sexy babies growing up. But given that the 'consensual child sex' argument has been used historically in courts against children as young as 6, statements like that in 2006 are distressing.
- mytailorisrich 7y agoAge of consent varies by country and the response to sex with someone below the age of consent also varies by country. It's very cultural.
- yawaramin 7y agoApparently he changed his mind https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20973792 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20973792