This is a symptom of how I think Republicans and many neoliberal Democrats have basically reduced our government to systematically stop recognizing compassion as a function. All that is left is possession (property rights), and punishment (criminal enforcement). Charity and compassion are seen as some exotic thing that tend to belong in the personal sphere, not something that is a government function in society.
Court OKs child porn prosecution of minors distributing pictures of themselves
91–100 of 315 posts
Re: Court OKs child porn prosecution of minors distributing pictures of themselves
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
It'd be so much easier if as a society we agreed that everyone should have healthcare, and that reproduction should be a choice positively made, instead of the default consequence of sex.
>> reproduction should be a choice positively made, instead of the default consequence of sex. Wait what? Reproduction is the default consequence of sex. That's basic biological fact. You can't legislate that away.
Reproduction is one consequence of one specific sex act.
Hetero vaginal intercourse often doesn't result in procreation, and that's your best shot at it anyway.
There isn't really any universal default consequence, just like there isn't a universal sex act. A lot of people enjoy it, some people feel shame, etc. Life is a spectrum.
Re: Court OKs child porn prosecution of minors distributing pictures of themselves
#93Everything is a crime in our neo-puritan state. Congrats, two 17 year olds sending pictures of themselves consentually = child porn. What I also couldn't understand from the article: A picture of someone who is an adult, but is /pretending/ to be a minor is also child pornography? What?! Pornhub.com will need to take a hard look at some of its content providers then. Or does it not apply to Montreal based companies?…
> Everything is a crime in our neo-puritan state. What is strange is how today's puritanism is coming from the left rather than the right. Growing up as kid, I remember christians and conservatives attacking "Married with Children", "Simpsons", "Beavis and Butthead", "Southpark", etc. Even as an elementary kid, I remember associating christians/conservatives with censorship and for most of my life identified myself a…
Re: your last point, I hope the God I don't believe in helps us...
At this point, if they spend time going after people for that type of technicality, then it's only a matter of time before they get all of us in prison for something.
70m people in the USA have a criminal record of some kind.
The more victimless crimes we have, the more power we will lose.
Re: Court OKs child porn prosecution of minors distributing pictures of themselves
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There's a quote about doing the same thing and expecting different results... It's the definition of insanity. The abortion topic is interesting because we're talking about how we socially define a human life in a realm where science can't help at all (or at least has failed to give a concrete answer thus far). If it was an accepted truth that human life begins at conception, then abortion is murder. Even our laws…
I think the abortion discussion is much easier than its made out. I like Peter Singers approach to ethics which sets the goal to be avoiding of suffering. Now the question is easy: at what stage of the pregnancy can the being suffer? The entire abortion conversation is completely ruined by most people wearing glasses colored with existence bias.
If you like Peter Singer's approach so much, then you agree with him that one should be allowed to "abort" babies for a long time after birth as well? No? I guess it's not so easy after all.
Re: Court OKs child porn prosecution of minors distributing pictures of themselves
#95We are out of our minds.
Re: Court OKs child porn prosecution of minors distributing pictures of themselves
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
It'd be so much easier if as a society we agreed that everyone should have healthcare, and that reproduction should be a choice positively made, instead of the default consequence of sex.
>> reproduction should be a choice positively made, instead of the default consequence of sex. Wait what? Reproduction is the default consequence of sex. That's basic biological fact. You can't legislate that away.
I believe the grandparent just means free access to birth control. Ie “With our current technology the default state doesn’t have to be pregnancy anymore.” It’s phrased a bit weirdly, I’ll grant you.
Re: Court OKs child porn prosecution of minors distributing pictures of themselves
#97What is the rationale behind defining child porn age The first case is something that actually happened to a friend of mine. He was 23 and dating a 17 year old, got convicted, sent to prison, and is now labeled a sex offender for life. Are there any countries out there that take a sane approach to this moral conundrum?
The weirdest thing is that we deem people as legal adults at 18.
If you look at neurological science, crime rates, and even car insurance rates then it's fairly easy to see that the brain has not fully matured by age 18 in most people.
Sure, a person's capacity for logic/reason has matured but usually that happens around 15 anyway. Inhibition of risky behavior and thus the ability to make sound decisions definitely has not.
A more sane legal adult age would probably be around 25 but then how would we justify enlisting legal 'children' in the military?
Re: Court OKs child porn prosecution of minors distributing pictures of themselves
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There's a quote about doing the same thing and expecting different results... It's the definition of insanity. The abortion topic is interesting because we're talking about how we socially define a human life in a realm where science can't help at all (or at least has failed to give a concrete answer thus far). If it was an accepted truth that human life begins at conception, then abortion is murder. Even our laws…
Science didn't fail and actually helps a lot here. We know the brain development level of fetus at different stages. As a society we're generally ok with killing fish, reptiles and most of the society is ok with killing mammals. That places abortion cut-off anywhere between 3 and 6 months for the current state of the society moral development. And that is what most of the states have when they aren't dominated by ant…
Science has failed to define what a human life is (really what any life is). It has not enumerated the qualities that make us human nor has it established a plausible theory and effective model that allows us to assess the attributes of a developing fetus and declare, "this one is human, this one is still a pile of cells". (And that's not to say it hasn't been helpful in sussing out practical guidelines so far.) I respectfully disagree that terminating the life of a fish/mammal and a 3- or 6-month old human are effectively the same thing. We kill and eat animals because that's how our biology works, and thus it is mostly socially acceptable. We don't allow eating small human fetuses because they're, "basically just a mammal at that stage". There are things that make something decidedly not human, but so far we can't really agree on how to distinguish definitely a human from potentially a human. Until we understand exactly what makes us human, I'm uncomfortable simply sweeping that unknown under the rug, morally.
Re: Court OKs child porn prosecution of minors distributing pictures of themselves
#99What other things that you can do to yourself are illegal? Suicide. Abortion in some places. What if I cut a piece of my body and eat it, is that cannibalism?
Drugs
Re: Court OKs child porn prosecution of minors distributing pictures of themselves
#100What is the rationale behind defining child porn age The first case is something that actually happened to a friend of mine. He was 23 and dating a 17 year old, got convicted, sent to prison, and is now labeled a sex offender for life. Are there any countries out there that take a sane approach to this moral conundrum?
It's mostly just "18+" is considered an adult for almost all legal purposes. California has some sanity about "statutory rape", which is what your friend almost certainly got nailed on. The number of years under 18 as well as the age difference can be taken into account, and that conviction could be reduced to a different misdemeanor. However, you need a GOOD lawyer to pull this off.
Age of consent is 16 in 30 States
and 17 in 8 states