Paedo Mania!!! - Is something dark lurking in the obsession?

[Spion]

You know, for a so-called academic, you don't half behave like a spoiled child who can't get his own way.

IME, that's a quite common trait in academics. The emphasis on individual work and lack of collaboration is what does it, IMO

 

[Donna Ferentes]

This was quite an interesting thread and it'd be good if you and nino didn't have one of your spats on it, thereby rendering it useless to everyone else.

.

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

It is indeed an interesting thread thus far.

Obviously, people are fascinated with paedos because, as BernieGunther and others say, they are fascinated with all things sexual and outragous.

Also, as some have said, it gives people a sense of superiority to be able to look down on paedos.

But I was wondering whether societies fixation ran parallel to the notion that homophobes can themselves be self suppressing homosexuals. i.e there is something about child abuse that the press and some of it's consumers may even LIKE. Given the amount of abuse in society and the increase in the sexualisation of children, I think the theory may have milage.

TBaldwin

I think you were getting the wrong end of the stick earlier on, perhaps deliberately. This is not a thread about what social workers or the law should do about paedophilia. Neither is it seeking to minimize the harm of abuse.

I was specifically thinking about the over hyped nature of the "stranger danger" abuse.

If we are to square up to the horrors of child abuse that means squaring up to the fact that it mostly takes place in a family context. The press has no interest in this inconvinient truth because the family (as I said in the header) is a cornerstone in reactionary thinking.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

you don't half behave like a spoiled child who can't get his own way.

you're abusing a child on the internet!?!?!

 

[ViolentPanda]

I was specifically thinking about the over hyped nature of the "stranger danger" abuse.

If we are to square up to the horrors of child abuse that means squaring up to the fact that it mostly takes place in a family context. The press has no interest in this inconvinient truth because the family (as I said in the header) is a cornerstone in reactionary thinking.

The focus on "stranger danger" may very much be a reaction against the "inconvenient truth" of familial incest and "friend danger".
Oddly though, if you look at the (scant) media reportage from the late 19th and early 20th centuries on the subject, then the focus is very much on the dangers present within the (usually working class) family, often attributed to over-crowding (yes, I realise just how counter-intuitive that seems!).

Then as now, of course, the emphasis is on this being something the working classes do.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Well, understatement's what I do, Mr Panda. Being a middle-class English gentleman.

You're a middle class English gentleman?

Ah, that nails where the hypocrisy comes from, anyway.

 

[Julie]

I'm not sure if this article has been linked here yet but I liked it:

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/420/

'We are witnessing the politics of the jailhouse, where everybody seeks to demonstrate that, whatever else they might have done, they are on the side of Good against the threat posed by Evil perverts. Some of us have argued since the morbid obsession with child abuse escalated almost 20 years ago that fear itself is the greatest threat to our children’s future in a free society. This is no time to be put off that argument by the emotive words of a young victim’s mother, or those who would use her as a human shield.'

 

[nino_savatte]

IME, that's a quite common trait in academics. The emphasis on individual work and lack of collaboration is what does it, IMO

That and the fact they get their post-grad students to do their work for them...and then claim the work is theirs. I'll bet that's what phil does too.

 

[nino_savatte]

you're abusing a child on the internet!?!?!

No, just phildwyer.

 

[nino_savatte]

To be fair, there was something behind it, albeit not very much.

This was quite an interesting thread and it'd be good if you and nino didn't have one of your spats on it, thereby rendering it useless to everyone else.

I hate to point this out to you, Bernie (and I don't normally have a problem with you but it seems that you're jumping on the "blame nino bandwagon"), but dwyer came along and labelled me a "liar". If you want to point the finger, point it in his direction.

 

[phildwyer]

dwyer came along and labelled me a "liar".

I said nothing of the sort. I will now though: you're lying again, Nino.

 

[nino_savatte]

I said nothing of the sort. I will now though: you're lying again, Nino.

Post edited. Reply to post unnecessary.