So the question I have it this: Does Reddit have some sort of powerful magnetic attraction to the pedophiles and pedophile defenders of the world, or is pedophilia and/or pedophile defense simply endemic amongst the young male tech geek demographic that’s so heavily overrepresented on Reddit?
This is a question that naturally sprung to my mind after reading a couple of recent posts in ShitRedditSays, documenting Reddit’s strange sympathy with the child porn enthusiasts of the world. A woman stands up on Reddit and declares herself a feminist? She’s a “bad person,” a “female supremacist,” an “utter piece of shit.” A man is jailed for possession of child porn? He’s being unjustly persecuted for a “victimless crime.”
Fxexular on ShitRedditSays has assembled a roundup of some the most disturbing comments in a thread devoted to the aforementioned man jailed for possession of CP. Amongst his finds:
Heavily upvoted comments comparing viewing of child porn to smoking weed and playing Grand Theft Auto.
A comment with 15 upvotes suggesting that the perp should only get “a stiff fine and a few weeks of community service … for a crime the judge himself probably committed half a dozen times on any given weekend.”
A comment with nearly two dozen upvotes lamenting that the child porn possessor is going to have his “life ruined over socially non-normative pictures. … this is a predictable outcome of a corrupt government which is obsessed with its own power.”
But these are just the tip of the pedo-defense iceberg. Take a look at the thread itself, where you will also find heavily upvoted comments from Redditors comparing the “persecution” of pedophiles to past persecution of gays and witches; an unintentionally ironic comment lamenting the cruel treatment of a perp who is “only 26” years old; and a comment making perhaps the strangest argument I think I may have ever seen anywhere about anything:
My core problem here, as a computer scientist, is that any photo he had is really a bunch of zeros and ones… which for anyone who is at all familiar with binary, is a number. Basically, by outlawing the storage of some form of data, we have said that it is illegal be in possession of certain numbers. Yes, these might be huge numbers that you don’t encounter in your daily life, but they are still simply numbers.
In a different thread on the same case, another Redditor gets 75 upvotes for comparing child-porn-possessing pedophiles with African-Americans in the era of the Civil Rights movement. Here’s the comment itself; here’s the ShitRedditSays thread discussing it. And here, for good measure, is the same commenter offering a Redditor who’s confessed to molesting his sister advice on how best to avoid prosecution.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated thread in Reddit’s Videos subreddit, pedophile (sorry, ephebophile) Redditors mount an all-out attack on a girl who had the temerity to complain about skeevy Redditors masturbating to pictures of herself she put in a private album on the internet when she was 14.
In ShitRedditSays, jamie11 collects together some of the creepiest comments, including these:
“Fuck yea she is developed AND judging by her smug smile, she is loving every second of this. Sure she says “OMG, so creepy herp derp” but in reality it is kind of a big EGO boost. EDIT: in b4 misogyny accusations!” [+7]
“She is an attention whore. She is really dumb. She will probably ultimately profit from this in the model/porn/coors girl industry.”[+10]
“Shes much hotter when shes quiet.” [+32]
The numbers in brackets indicate the numbers of upvotes.
Again, tip of the iceberg.
EDITED TO ADD: I hadn’t noticed before, but r/mensrights has its own discussion of the child porn case. It’s pretty much what you’d expect: Possessing child porn is just a “thought crime” that doesn’t hurt anyone.
The creepiest fellow of the lot is probably logrusmage, who offers this defense of the child porn possessors of the world:
consider that a majority of “kiddy porn” are pictures of sexually mature females taken by said females for boyfriends that got leaked on the internet or via text, where the female happens to be under the age of consent.
When someone points out that, um, the fact that these pictures are “leaked” means that the subjects of said pictures didn’t consent to them being put online (and, also, they are below the age of consent), logrusmage offers this rebuttal:
Consent is not needed for something that does not directly effect someone. Like looking at them. … Looking at a picture of someone does not require their consent.
Presumably he’d be fine if someone secretly filmed him picking his nose while taking a crap and put it up on r/creepydudespickingnosesonthecrapper.
What the f*ck is “lolicon”. Won’t google it cause I’m afraid it’s child porn.
@ Magdelyn – It’s drawn/animated child porn.
thanx
I prefer my porn black on white
Under no circumstances should we attempt to break anonymity for anyone who isn’t directly, and I do mean *DIRECTLY*, causing harm, also. Seriously. I do not screw around with the thing that protects actual, real activists as well as assholes. It is your right online to be anonymous, provided you harm nobody, and threaten no one.
And I meant the pictures were up on page 1, where they were held in moderation hell. I have a new hat, but I haven’t taken a picture of it yet, or gotten to tailor it to match my outfit.
Wish I had a spacecraft, I do not want to share a planet with these people
Huh. I assumed that OSHIII’s comment was facetious because it was so over the top and absurd. Apparently my sarcasm meter needs adjustment.
Discussions like this tend to do that to me. The sad thing is that I’m so used to seeing people blatantly defend pedophilia on the internet that it doesn’t even surprise me any more. If those comments on Reddit were being downvoted I’d be far more surprised – delighted, to be sure, but very surprised.
I’m sorry if you thought I was serious in the first part, Rutee, that’s my fault for not making it clear. I was pretty fucking angry when I wrote it.
That’s just my gut reaction whenever I read pro-CP shit online — SEND THE BASTARDS TO THE MOON/DESERT ISLAND/OIL RIG/CLOSED CAVE SYSTEM/ROCKET DESTINED FOR THE SUN. I am fully aware that it is neither realistic, not humane, and that there are a lot of pedophiles out there who hate that they are attracted to children and want help, but reading shit like this just makes me livid.
post. first post. Arg.
Eh, OSHIII, I’m with you on that part. My own gut response to pedophiles kind of scares me. My mother and aunt were both abused as children, and I spent my entire childhood trying to figure out why my mother reacted the way she did to things that seemed innocuous to me, until she told me what had happened and it all made sense. My gut response to pedophiles tends to be “give me a gun and I will shoot him/her myself”. I am quite aware that that is an unacceptable response, but the feeling remains.
What game is that, Rutee? It looks fun.
*ignores OP*
I’m touchy on convicts. The reason the US’ prison system is so fucked up is that there are a LOT of reactionary morons who think “lock ’em up and throw away the key” is the reasonable, appropriate response to a criminal. I’m glad you two at least recognize this generally.
It’s Uncharted Waters Online, which is a freemium MMO based on the Uncharted Waters games (Most of which didn’t make it to markets outside Japan). Players start affiliated wth a European country, with either a trade, maritime, or adventure profession. Advancement is primarily based on skills, with levels being a pleasant bonus aside from a few milestones. Players are really expected to branch out of their starting profession (Maritime, in particular, absolutely can not survive past the early levels; There’s just not enough income to pay for their gear without supplementing it with some actual trading or adventuring).
The established economy is surprisingly nice to newbies, because the game devs were quite skillful in putting in gold and wealth sinks. On the downsides are grinding maritime (To most people, a downside, anyway, as it must be done at least some to handle the higher level ships) and, to many, the excruciatingly/pleasantly long tutorial (The game is extremely complex, and while some of it is fishmining, a lot of it is “Hey, we have special systems, learn them” The game also doesn’t provide much direction, which to some people sucks. The site is here: Oh, and personal bonus to me, almost every craft skill will make money as you level it. Which is flipping amazing to me as an MMO veteran, crafts do not work that way.
…somehow, I’m not surprised someone with a Mismagius avatar would know about Touhou as well…
Yeah… I’m going to give this a big giant “no” and go look up recipes for fancy French sandwiches. I haven’t eaten in 14 hours and I’m feeling a mite peckish.
Although I will comment on Hershele and Cassandra’s whole squick issue. Just because something is squick-worthy doesn’t mean it is wrong or bad or sick. But on the other hand, than last statement I made can’t be used as an excuse for things that ARE wrong, bad, and/or sick. Back when I was semi-active in the kink scene, there seemed to always be some person who was kind of seriously disturbed, and who was using the general community sense of acceptance and lack of judgmental attitude as a shield. Understanding that the vast majority of human behavior probably falls under the category “not for me, but fine for you” doesn’t mean that there isn’t some small amount that falls under the “not for anyone, ever” category.
Anyhoo. Brunch?
Can I just say how glad I am that none of our resident trolls have yet showed up to defend the original thread? There’s a certain comfort in knowing that even your enemies have limits.
@ Cassandra – I think Snowy’s “Mother cat hugging the kitten” video is cuter, but that’s got to be the most patient cat in the world. The nicest cat I’ve ever known would have taken off (maybe with a scratch to pull himself clear) by the time the ear-pulling started.
@Cassandra:
Great kitty video. It reminds me of my brother/sister-in-law with their kids and cat, a bit Russian Blue. Their oldest learned that the cat was not appreciative of games. When asked “What sound does a kitty make,” he’d respond with a hiss.
However, my niece (18 mo) did not give a damn what the cat thought. She’d crawl into the cat bed, regardless of any previous occupancy. Apparently the cat didn’t know what to do in the face of a full-frontal assault, when scare tactics and bluffing worked to keep her big brother at bay.
The cat passed away a few months ago (20 year old kitty). They decided to keep the bed, since my niece likes it so much. But now, my niece just toddles over to the cat bed, picks it up, looks around, and shrugs while dropping it back on the floor. She probably won’t remember it later in life, but at least now she knows that the hissy grey thing isn’t around anymore. Kinda sweet, kinda sad.
Following the subject of brunch, Eggs Benedict is very good dish. It’s the right amount of fancy, but if you’re fairly skilled in the kitchen, it’s easy. I find hollendaise to be too rich (and a little more fussy than I care for), so I use homemade cheese sauce, sharp cheddar being the best. It’s even better when made with 10 year-old cheddar.
Biscuits and gravy are good too – I have a simple recipe that I use, and it’s so simple I can make it when hungover. Because somehow the cooking gods hate me, my biscuits always turn out horrible and I use store-bought. All you do is brown 1 lb of sausage on high heat, drain all but one tablespoon of fat (and mind you, it doesn’t have to be exact), sprinkle with two tablespoons of flour and cook for a minute or two (until the flour’s been absorbed), then lower the heat to medium, add two cups of milk, and stir until thick. Thin with milk if it gets too thick. Serve over biscuits, or anything, really. This makes a lot, so I’d halve or quarter it if it’s just me, or prepare it when my friends were over and we’d been drinking the night before.
I’m very fond of breakfast. Bacon rolled into crepes, German pancakes, cocoa pancakes, waffles…mmmm. Even a poached egg on toast is good. Or soft boiled eggs or omelets.
OT – Oh, and I deeply resent people who use a “sexually mature” standard. I had a C cup and my period in 5th grade. I was 9 years old, still playing with dolls. My feeling is, have those thoughts, keep it in your head, but as soon as you step into any real world application of it – touching some young girl’s breasts or child porn – you’ve just stepped into the territory of wrong. And while I know it’s not necessarily a slippery slope, but someone who makes all sort of justifications for CP is probably capable of taking that leap from not touching to touching and coming up with even more justifications.
Super cute video alert!
OMG, the cute is overwhelming!
CP topics always reminds me of Donnie Darko
One thing I don’t understand is this. I know that I’m pretty prudish, but there seems to be so much adult professional and amateur porn readily available. So why do people need to see photos of physically mature, but underage girls (or boys for that matter)? With so much porn and so many photos already available, why the need to see photos of girls like the fourteen year old mentioned in the OP?
Is it the sense of violating her since she didn’t consent to have the photos put online for anyone other than her boyfriend, is that part of the attraction?
It seems like a sick obsession where, even in the midst of more porn than ever, it’s still not enough for some people. It’s like a kid in a candy store who can have all the candy he wants for free going to the 7-11 next door and shoplifting Hershey bars.
I don’t even want to think about child porn and its defenders.
@ Joe – In all honesty I think long involvement in the kink community is part of why I don’t buy the “but it’s all just a matter of opinion” approach to stuff like this. Some things squick most people for very good reasons. I think that the instinctive “kids are for nurturing and protecting, not for sex, don’t even go there” response is a strong one because it needs to be. The fact that it’s clearly not functional in some people is an indication that something has gone very wrong in their brains, not a sign that everyone else needs to be more tolerant.
The kink community tolerates a lot of behavior that it shouldn’t. Ageplay isn’t in the “shouldn’t tolerate” column, it’s just in the “not for me” column, but I really don’t like the way that the kink community is very good at shaming people into cooperation and compliance when they run into stuff that is just not on the menu for them.
Is it the sense of violating her since she didn’t consent to have the photos put online for anyone other than her boyfriend, is that part of the attraction?
Ding, ding, ding. I think you’ve got it, Wisteria.
Yes on the idea that it’s the violation aspect that’s appealing. Look at NWO – if the age of consent turns out to be lower than he thinks, he then demands that it be lower still, lower than he was previously even asking for. The whole thing is about being outraged by the idea of women ever having the power to say no to anything.
These people’s entire sexuality is built around the idea that sex is a game that they need to win, and in order for them to win someone else has to lose. They’re just not interested in sex where everyone involved is having a good time and happy to be there.
It’s sad, really, thinking of sex as a zero-sum game. Sex where everybody involved is having a good time and happy to be there is the GOOD kind of sex.