[DoreenMichele]

I'm not arguing that. I'm arguing that the world is hella uptight and it drives both things, not that one would fix the other.

But I do think if adults felt they could just pay for sex to meet their needs like you pay for a hamburger at Burger King because you are hungry and that didn't have to be illegal or surreptitious, you would have a world where these conversations were easier to have and people would be more likely to hash them out in earnest.

These failings most likely start with everyone in the room not wanting to really have that conversation. Because sex is such an uncomfortable topic of discussion generally that a tough topic like child exploitation becomes effectively "unspeakable" for many people.

[jgord]

yeah, sex-related issues are about as easy to discuss as religion, and often tightly coupled / dictated by religion.

Now, politics and climate change seem to have also become religious topics - you cant discuss them without calling into question ones core identity, it seems.

Not sure how to get around this .. maybe the Street Epistemology approach, of essentially asking someone why they believe what they believe - examining ones beliefs without judgement.

It seems very infrequent that people change their beliefs based on facts - yet its a core tenet of science.

[washadjeffmad]

It has turned the spectre of abuse into a boogeyman, ripe for political misuse.

It becomes not just passable, but preferable to allow any legislator who cites it as their intent to have what they want rather than potentially open discussion on such a "sensitive topic". What would the newspapers print?

And without a third party to properly mock them, they can stay forever locked in their intensely serious and twisted dance of feeding the beast and shoveling its shit.