Pedophilia is ok in the united states and we all just collectively agreed to pretend it isn't. It's clearly not a crime or we'd make more of a deal out of prosecution. It's certainly not a deal breaker when your favorite politician or famous person does it. I used to think it was a coincidence that everyone I know was molested as a child, that maybe we gravitate to each other as an unspoken solidarity. The Epstein situation has made that hard to believe.
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It's not about any one crime, although the one you mention is a pretty hot topic. The real problem is that all crimes are null and void if you have enough money. Sometimes that money is from someone who thinks it's beneficial to them to save your bacon, but nonetheless, it's legalised bribery that nullifies the crime.
Sure it's not "bribe a cop on the street" levels of corruption that you (allegedly) get in some other countries, but it's corruption all the same.
That's the thing, I already accepted that crimes are legal of you pay for them, that's something I learned in elementary school, but when you start opening up about sexual abuse, you find that more people have experience than not. It's not just the famous or powerful, it's older cousins, uncles, aunts, babysitters, friends or their families, grand parents, teachers, strangers at the park, neighbors, and every other possible connection.
There's 27 people I can think of that have candidly told me about the abuse they experienced and only one of them lead to legal reprocussions. We're taught to keep it secret either because we don't truely understand it until it's far later or when we bring it up we're told that it didn't happen. When we hear about those arrested for it, they were often victims in their own time.
CPS investigates about 300,000 child sexual assault cases annually and experts suggest that as few as 10% actually get reported to begin with. If those numbers are accurate then around 37% of children in the us will be molested in their lifetime. 1 in 13 Americans is a molested child.
In comparison, Jews are 1 in 42, muslims are 1 in 91, Pacific islanders are 1 in 333, transgender adults are 1 in 167. In a general dispersal, for every 11 Mexicans you've met, you've likely met 8 children that have been sexually assaulted. It's not money that lets you molest children, it's the culture. It's fine as long as no one else has to know about it. So the crime isn't the act, it's being bad at doing it.
Also, that'd only using the 2025 data for active cases so that's just children currently being molested. Adults that were molested as children aren't even factored in. Even more, only 24.5% of cases are actionable, 2-5% are false, and the remaining fail because they investigation is self assessment at best. So of those 8 molested kids, maybe 2 of them will get justice. The rest get to live with it.
It’s clearly not a crime
If you are rich. Just as with most other crimes.
Mandatory homework needs to be done away with for students. Studying after school is one thing, but assignments that can't be finished during school hours shouldn't be given out. Give them 1 free hour a day at school to work on assignments if you need to.
Not every student has a home environment set up for being able to concentrate. Plus it's just training kids to work off the clock and having no separation of home and work life, something people already struggle with. We should be teaching them boundaries about these things.
I hated school but I would have preferred to stay one extra mandatory hour at school instead of ever having homework.
I actually think that "schools of the future" will do this. Especially when mathematics are concerned. It does no good to get feedback a week after you have done the homework and already moved on to the next topic. Feedback should be immediate so that any errors in understanding can be corrected. The exception would probably be writing a paper, which can occur over at least several days.
I think cars should be outlawed in population centers with exceptions for product deliveries, mobility scooters and e-bikes. If you want your ikea furniture into your apartment you need to either fit it into a cargo bike setup or get it delivered by a company with a delivery license.
I hate cars
I hold that view quite publicly and have recieved minimal disagreement.
Political violence is acceptable.
When the actions of a dictator or party directly worsen the lives of citizens, I believe it should be a legal right for the citizenry to execute those in power.
hot in general but definitely not on lemmy
Oh I have a good one for this
I am an introverted loner who enjoys time spent solitary.
But I do have a social life, date, work. So I am aware that there are other people who spend every day doing something social with others and get frustrated if they have to spend any amount of time by themselves just in their own company.
I believe(d) that time spent alone with yourself and your thoughts is psychologically healthy, helps you figure out who you really are and lets you sort out your beliefs and desires.
So I thought society should change in such a way that there was a mandatory month out of every year where we all spent the entire time locked away in our homes getting essentials delivered.
Now imagine my surprise in 2020 when I actually got what I wanted and it drove a significant chunk of the population absolutely insane.
I love introverts and I personally enjoy my time alone once in a while. But it has to be voluntary. There's a reason being locked up and alone is society's standard go-to punishment, and solitary confinement, even in lush and luxurious conditions, can be considered torture.
Dogs are incredibly annoying and a not insignificant number of people that want them actually subconsciously want children, but either can't afford them, or don't have a partner to have them with so they adopt a permanent child.
I think it's rather coincidental that 90%+ of women's dating profiles in my area (very high cost of living) all mention some form of "I'll steal your dog. I love your dog more than you. Dogs are life. Live love dog" etc etc...
The proper way to eat salad is with chopsticks. Ever tried to pick up a flat piece of lettuce with a fork? A chopped carrot? A crispy crouton??
Chopsticks are the perfect snack food implement to keep your fingers snack-dust/grease free. Chips? Chopsticks are perfect. Popcorn? Chopsticks even help you eat it slower. Fries? You guess it. Chopsticks.
My brother started eating salads with bamboo chopsticks because it bothered him that a vinaigrette dressing brings out the metallic flavour in a fork. Then he realized they are much more practical for the reasons you mention and has become a huge advocate. They have become my preferred implement as well.
I had a Vietnamese student some years ago teach me this and I never looked back.
I think many dv situations (definitely not all) amount to kidnapping and you should legally be allowed to kill the person holding you against your will in order to escape.
Dv?
domestic violence
The Abrahamic Religions (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) aren't "religions of peace".
Socialist economic systems are also easily corruptible.
People are perfectly fine with letting strangers suffer so long as it doesn't inconvenience them.
No religion is all about peace and more importantly, no religion is real. Gods don't exist, they're all human made.
I always expect something intense from these threads like "blind people should be culled" but it's always boring trite stuff that 80% of gen pop already believes in. No one is going to get executed for saying homework sucks.
I don't have a stance on blind people, but I do think deaf people shouldn't be allowed to drive.
Part of that belief is the obvious practicality: not being able to hear sirens or honks mean they're likely slower to react in an emergency situation.
But I lived near a deaf college for a few years, where I learned the real terror: deaf people will talk to their passengers while driving. In a language that is entirely visual and mostly dexterous. So drivers are taking both hands off the wheel to gesture, then taking both eyes off the road to get a response. The number of near-misses I've had with deaf drivers is harrowing.
Robert A. Heinlein like to throw out different ideas to improve politics.
Two of my favorites. "Starship Troopers." In order to vote you have to do two years of service. In the book it's explicitly stated that most people are physically/mentally unsuited for actual combat and that they spend their time cleaning streets while being harassed by tough bosses. If a blind person in a wheelchair wants to serve they'll find them a job commensurate with their abilities.
In "Double Star" all representatives are elected by self identified groups. Instead of representing New York or London, they represent 'farmers' or 'small business owners' or 'gamers' or whatever group has enough members to qualify. And the same way you can move from California to Idaho you can change your group.
He was a good writer and a solid philosopher. Less focused than Clarke or Asimov, less wacky than Dick, and less manipulative than Hubbard. He presented ideas in a clear way.
some countries already have the second one, they're called non-geographical constituencies
This is bait. I'm tired of these bait posts.
They're bait posts because they're preying on people to drop some really spicy unpopular opinion that nobody, even including the OP, will handle. It'll create a scuffle, arguments and there will be calling for post removals and report wars will happen.
Also, it reeks of Reddit too, including to the last line.
Most single people are single for a reason
Plenty are unlucky (they live somewhere full of backwards hicks, like 'Murica) or some other misfortune, but there are so many people who deserve to die alone and lonely, and they're blind to the fact that they're single because they're just shitty people
Some people understand why they're single, and accept it.
You guys are wimps. (Dog guy gets partial points though, people are psychotic about their dogs). Here's an actual hot take:
Sex drive, while a strong biological impulse in most people, is nowhere NEAR as powerful or persuasive as we are conditioned to believe. Its almost entirely cultural and formed from Movies, Porn, Advertising and just about every other media artificially elevating it.
Everything, from lighter fare like niche fetish communities, to dark shit like rape, sexual violence and, in some cases misogynistic violence aimed just at women in general, is escalated and enabled by a mass permission structure where we all are just told, and to some extent believe, that Sex is SO powerful. Men become easily manipulated puppets to demonic seductresses. Sexuality can damage reasoning ability. Without sexual release men inevitably become violent brutes. A million other stupid, widely believed things. They have a kernel of truth obviously but they are exaggerated in the extreme, usually to excuse poor behavior by men who are trained from a young age that they not only can, but should turn into a drooling gorilla at the sight of tits.
The internet isnt horny. Men aremt primarily sex-driven. Its all an artificial cultural construct designed to promote bad behavior.
there are some truly incredible works of art that would have been worse if not for the people in charge of them being abusers (see: crystle castles, stanley kubrick).
i don't say this as a matter of defense or to claim "the ends justify the means". just that if these people weren't monstrous pieces of shit, their creations would be less raw and emotionally moving.
per the examples above alice glass and shelley duvall gave incredible, gutwrenching performances and they were driven by their mistreatment and pain.
incredible, gutwrenching performances and they were driven by their mistreatment and pain.
I'm reminded of the supposed exchange between Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier on the set of Marathon Man. Supposedly Hoffman stayed up for three days straight to get into the physical and emotional space of his character, and Olivier criticized the choice by saying, "My dear boy, why don't you just try acting?"
Actors are trained to deliver performances. Their job is to believably convey emotions. If the director can only get the performance he wants by abusing his cast, he's a horrible communicator and has no business in the director's chair.
Alternatively, if we believe actors need real experience and emotional depth to draw on for a performance, we should get rid of stunt doubles and special effects. How can I believe Hayden Christensen's pain at the end of Revenge of the Sith if he actually still has all his limbs?
Gods very likely do not exist. For all we know, we could be a simulation and there is no way to know for sure beyond dying.
This makes every and all religions, sects, beliefs all fake, frauds, and human made.
Religions are for population control, nothing more nothing less and it pisses me off that we live in 2026, we can see other planets around other stars, we know mostly how the universe started, we understand DNA and evolution, we understand physics and yet the majority of Earth's population still believes in stone age fairytales used to control them.
Representative democracy was specifically designed to have oligarchs be in charge of society and it should be abolished in favor of smaller, direct democracies.
Nope
Do you know how to run a military? Do you know what environmental regulations should be needed for chemical plants?
I can go on for a while but you get the point
- I'd say I want a democracy where at the least it's a requirement that those who are temporarily in charge, actually studied the subject matter they're in charge of. I've seen too many ministers be in charge of areas they have no fucking clue about.
You're in charge of healthcare? Then at the very least you must be a doctor
You're the minister of justice? At least be a lawyer, or better yet, a judge.
- get rid of political parties, require each minister to be independent. Yes, we need to do more voting and yes, we need to read up on each minister but then lets make voting a holiday so that people can take their time with it. Require that ministers actually implement the things they claimed they would
Nah, the general public doesn't have the time or patience to properly research this stuff or consult the experts. They'll just vote on vibes and we'll just be trading one kind of bad for another.
Keep representatives, just don't elect them. Sortition is the best of both worlds; you still get a sample of the population, but with people who take the responsibility seriously and actually have the time to do the research/due diligence.
Alex Jones was partially correct, they are in fact turning the frogs gay, and this extends to people as well.
Specifically, endocrine disrupting chemicals, which are commonly used as plasticizers and flame retardants, disrupt your endocrine system. I.e. they fuck with your hormones.
Exposure to environmental stimuli, including such chemicals, can cause changes in sexual behavior and characteristics. This was the driving force of the plot of Jurassic Park.
This cannot be proven without seriously unethical human trials, but exposing a every other animal to EDCs during development can and does cause changes in sexual development.
Edit: other pollutants are causing societal effects as well, there was a study on crawfish out of NC a while back that found significant behavioral changes (less aggression, more foraging) among males that lived in a stream which was exposed to sewage, and therefore low level antidepressant medication.
Okay, here we go...
The term "larper", more often than not, makes discourse worse