Dr. Venkman wrote:So you would wait until the children are raped by these pieces of shit first. OK.
All your solutions take place after the children are victimized. Do you honestly think this is the first time these guys have met someone and followed it up? They show up at a house with the intent of raping a kid. They actually have the balls to show up.
How many of them have prior criminal convictions? How many of them had actually met a kid on a chatroom on the Internet before? I seriously wonder.
And honestly, I'd rather the children weren't raped in the first place. I'd just like to clear that up, because I feel like you might be getting the wrong impression. Before going any further I'll state the obvious by saying that
child molestation is basically the worst thing.
Dr. Venkman wrote:You wrote that question. I was genuinely curious.
I wrote
Fuck this series straight to hell. Could we please spend our time, energy and money on more legitimate pursuits of justice?
and nothing more. The phrase "protecting children from sexual predators" creates a foregone conclusion about the accomplishments of this television program, a conclusion that I personally haven't reached, and therefore I'll play the "you're putting words in my mouth" card here. I'm all for protecting kids from sexual predators, but just not this way, which really might not be protecting them at all.
Dr. Venkman wrote:Yeah, screw those ten percent of kids that get molested via the internet. What the fuck is wrong with you?
I know, fuck me for suggesting that the root of this problem is maybe not in some creepy dude's studio apartment, right? Those ten percent of kids that get molested via the Internet would find their ranks greatly reduced if they were educated to understand the warning signs of sexual predation and were instructed to, say, avoid setting up one-on-one meetings with online strangers that they find in chat rooms. A show that teaches parents how to talk to their kids about this, that would be useful and fucking awesome. This show isn't it. It's trash. It's Roman coliseum bullshit.
Dr. Venkman wrote:In one breath, you say that it shouldn't be on television. Yet, in the next, you claim this T.V. show should be responsible for policing the "other 90%" of unrepresented cases. You are insane.
Thanks! I am glad to know that there is one sane viewpoint and everything else is just ludicrous. I'd been labouring under the impression that I could have my own opinion on things for so long that it never even occurred to me.
I didn't say To Catch A Predator should be responsible for policing those other 90% of cases because that's not the show's premise. I think it should be off the air and the discourse on the subject should be meaningful and directed towards producing results and minimizing the risk that children are exposed to, instead of it being sensationalized bullshit that attacks a few dudes for ratings. Once again, though, fuck me for thinking that, right? What an asshole I am.
Dr. Venkman wrote:"Symptoms of pedophilia"? How about venturing to a 10-year olds house to rape them. Would you consider that a "symptom" of the "disease" you all seem so intent on protecting?
I guess yeah I would? It's a tremendously disgusting symptom and I am by no means defending it or protecting pedophiles simply because they are pedophiles. These stings are meant to take people and send them away to prison where they will not understand why what they did was wrong (or, considering that it's a sting, probably what they did wrong - see my post on the last page with the string of hypotheticals to maybe catch a glimpse of that). Punishment over rehabilitation. Awesome use of tax dollars, to be practical about it.
Dr. Venkman wrote:Oh good. As long as you're comfortable...
We wouldn't want to embarrass the poor child rapists or anything.
Yeah, this isn't a thread about having an opinion on a topic. You're right.
Dr. Venkman wrote:Yes, volunteering at a sex education center would be much more effective.
So volunteering for something that actively campaigns to, among other things, help actual victims of real violent crime cope with what has happened to them is less useful than a vigilante group which gets people arrested for committing a hypothetical crime?
It's the easy way out to want blood. Why not just title the show "Lynch Mob" and be done with it?