I will say up front that my intention in writing it is primarily to reduce the likelihood of you abusing any children; and only secondarily to help you feel any better.
No offense taken. My priorities are the same as yours. I’ve got the non-offending bit covered completely, but I’ll here take the viewpoint of someone who doesn’t, because it’s interesting. The idea that thinking about something makes you more likely to do it is addressed (as an indirect consequence) in an “open thread” comment I made titled “Assertion: Child porn availability does not increase child sex abuse”. Some thoughts are pleasant. If a person cannot achieve romantic or sexual satisfaction in the real world, spinning some fantasies about it may be about the best one can do. There is no evidence it makes offending against children more likely; it might make it less likely.
It also means that people who notice that they have intrusive thoughts of this nature should not draw the conclusion, “Aha! These thoughts mean that I must adopt a ‘pedophile’ identity!”
When young teens are worried they might be pedophiles, among my initial advice is that it might go away, and I always advise people to think about their attraction to appropriate-age partners and think about that most. I do not engage in recruiting.
Pedophilia is different from homosexuality in one very important way: it is not something that can be followed through ethically to a consummation in the real world. In that sense, homosexuality is just fine and pedophilia is not good. However, they are both sexual orientations. It’s right in the new DSM5: If individuals “report an absence of feelings of guilt, shame, or anxiety about these impulses and are not functionally limited by their paraphilic impulses (according to self-report, objective assessment, or both), and their self-reported and legally recorded histories indicate that they have never acted on their impulses, then these individuals have a pedophilic sexual orientation but not pedophilic disorder.” It’s controversial, but sufficiently mainstream in psychiatry that it made it into the official handbook.
Now, few people (other than heavy-duty social conservatives) would suggest that gay people just stop having those intrusive thoughts. The class of people one is attracted to sexually is just too important to be relegated to “intrusive thoughts”.
Pedophilia is different from homosexuality in one very important way: it is not something that can be followed through ethically to a consummation in the real world.
So the difference is a century or two of cultural drift?
Of course the values of my current culture (slightly distorted in the direction of the preferences of those I most desire affiliation with) is the ideal culture. I merely notice that the moral acceptability of each of those practices has varied drastically over time, including most recently a variation in acceptance of homosexuality.
No offense taken. My priorities are the same as yours. I’ve got the non-offending bit covered completely, but I’ll here take the viewpoint of someone who doesn’t, because it’s interesting. The idea that thinking about something makes you more likely to do it is addressed (as an indirect consequence) in an “open thread” comment I made titled “Assertion: Child porn availability does not increase child sex abuse”. Some thoughts are pleasant. If a person cannot achieve romantic or sexual satisfaction in the real world, spinning some fantasies about it may be about the best one can do. There is no evidence it makes offending against children more likely; it might make it less likely.
When young teens are worried they might be pedophiles, among my initial advice is that it might go away, and I always advise people to think about their attraction to appropriate-age partners and think about that most. I do not engage in recruiting.
Pedophilia is different from homosexuality in one very important way: it is not something that can be followed through ethically to a consummation in the real world. In that sense, homosexuality is just fine and pedophilia is not good. However, they are both sexual orientations. It’s right in the new DSM5: If individuals “report an absence of feelings of guilt, shame, or anxiety about these impulses and are not functionally limited by their paraphilic impulses (according to self-report, objective assessment, or both), and their self-reported and legally recorded histories indicate that they have never acted on their impulses, then these individuals have a pedophilic sexual orientation but not pedophilic disorder.” It’s controversial, but sufficiently mainstream in psychiatry that it made it into the official handbook.
Now, few people (other than heavy-duty social conservatives) would suggest that gay people just stop having those intrusive thoughts. The class of people one is attracted to sexually is just too important to be relegated to “intrusive thoughts”.
So the difference is a century or two of cultural drift?
I’m reluctant to say what might possibly happen in the future, especially a century or two from now.
But I do not see a path to its happening, and I do not want it to happen.
Of course the values of my current culture (slightly distorted in the direction of the preferences of those I most desire affiliation with) is the ideal culture. I merely notice that the moral acceptability of each of those practices has varied drastically over time, including most recently a variation in acceptance of homosexuality.