doubtingthomas’s topics MEGATHREAD

[doubtingthomas]

This nonsense belongs in the megathread.

Okay. Mr. 16 year olds are adults.

[doubtingthomas]

Doubting Thomas, this post isn't helping your cause. I think it would be wise to step back from these discussions and get involved in other conversations that don't touch on this subject for a bit. I do feel maybe you have been tarred a little but the way you reply is like giving people ammo to fire at you. I hope me saying this isn't offensive. I do feel for you and I mean well.

But for the sake of replying. I think there are probably more women abusers than we realise.

Thank you. I'll take a break now; I just wanted to see if this was going to be moved to the megathread

[doubtingthomas]

I honestly suspect DT obsesses over this topic way too much. I've never encountered anyone who put so much effort into defending an imbalance of power in a relationship.

Jesus Christ! What topic am I obsessed with? It was you guys who brought up the 17-year-old, not me.

And this thread is completely different. It's not about defending an imbalance of power. This thread is about a news article regarding a sexual abuse case.

This thread is part of a larger pattern, and as Chap noted, it should go in the megathread because it's not really off DT's only topic of interest.

The patterns you see don't exist. Notice it's always you, Doctor CamNC4Me, Marcus, Dr. Exiled, and honorentheos who accuse me of nonsense. Dr. Shades, Morley, and Gadianton attack me too, but they don't make up wild accusations like you guys do. You see, it's more of a selection bias; only the dumbest people are going to see patterns that don't exist, and the dumbest people tend to be the loudest.

Then you have the more intelligent posters like Res Ipsa, EAllusion (RIP), Rivendale, Imwashingmypirate, and others who have defended me. Other posters like Everybody Wang Chung (who is an attorney) don't get involved because of you guys, but it's clear that the intelligent people on this board don't mind the things I say.

Maybe there is something we don't see.

I would argue that they see things that don't exist. You shouldn't take them seriously, especially Some Schomo, he once accused Dr. Shades of defending rape, but that wasn't the case at all.

[Gadianton]

What topic am I obsessed with?

I didn't see anywhere where Schmo said what you accused him of saying. He said "imbalance of power" in a relationship, which could mean a lot of things.

"Both sides" threads usually mean the person is saying the other side did x wrong, therefore I should be able to do x. Or I do x, but so does the other side, and so why aren't you outraged by that?

If that's not what you meant, and really all you were doing was trolling to see if Res would merge the thread, it was a terrible idea to use this as the bait.

Since you made such a bad choice here for bait, I'll go ahead and follow up on my last comment; I was going to let it die at that point. When I told the story about my relative marrying a 17-year-old, that's a totally true story. However, I confess, I wanted to fudge it a little and say she was 15 to see what the reaction to that would be. Would it have been the same? Or would it have been universally condemned by everyone? hmmm....

The hard stop on fudging it was I assumed it wouldn't be legal anywhere and so not believable. I didn't bother to look it up and try for a believable backstory because I assumed there was no way. When DT starting spouting out about this kind of stuff being legal just about everywhere, I called his bluff and did some searches. And I learned something. To my horror, I discovered the liberal state of California is the worst offender. I ran into an article by the Independent that claimed to have found a handful of very young marriages, down to the age of 10, and perfectly legal in California. I'm not sure I could be convinced that these cases are anything but legal trafficking. California is a huge state, and it's probably an outlier judge that would grant such a stupid thing -- at least I hope.

But then, just a few days ago, a video clip of a right-wing congressman, an old pervy-looking guy went viral making a pervy comment on the floor and he got booed. Basically, he was arguing that since abortion is illegal or going to be illegal, that marriage should be permitted at as young of an age as possible while able to get pregnant in order to avoid pressures to break the law (or will-be law). So yeah, taking away abortion may be a real slippery slope. We may be having these conversations more often if the religious right gets their way.

[doubtingthomas]

I've noticed something interesting: while people enjoy poking holes in weak arguments for entertainment, they tend to avoid engaging with strong ones that challenge their beliefs. This reluctance isn't unique to any particular group; it's a common human trait to avoid discomfort. This is why ex-Mormons often face expulsion from Mormon sites; people simply don't want to entertain their arguments.

Now, I'm left wondering about the necessity of Megathreads. In theory, adults should be able to ignore topics they disagree with. I've noticed that there are prevalent beliefs among ex-Mormons, and a lot of the things I say challenge those beliefs. People will feel outraged about the things I say, that's why they get sent to the Megathread. People can't seem to behave like grown-ups, so they complain about the topics I create instead.

But it's not like I am spamming the board with ten new topics a day.

[Chap]

I don't think he is a pedophile, I don't think he wants to date teenagers.

You may well be right. I hope you are.

But goodness me! He really does put a lot of energy into posting about such topics. Better that, I suppose, than actually doing anything.

[Morley]

I've noticed something interesting: while people enjoy poking holes in weak arguments for entertainment, they tend to avoid engaging with strong ones that challenge their beliefs.

Which is why you should avoid making weak-ass arguments. Sometimes strong arguments convince people.

[doubtingthomas]

I don't think he is a pedophile, I don't think he wants to date teenagers.

You may well be right. I hope you are.

But goodness me! He really does put a lot of energy into posting about such topics. Better that, I suppose, than actually doing anything.

I hope? Okay, Mr. 16 year old are adults, this is complete BS.

What topics am I putting a lot of energy into? Hint: Topics that don't involve children.

I think he is just not expressing himself clearly and the similar but slightly different topics are making it confusing.

Chap was very clear when he said that 16 year old are adults.

[doubtingthomas]

Which is why you should avoid making weak-ass arguments. Sometimes strong arguments convince people.

What weak-ass arguments did I make?

[Chap]

Chap was very clear when he said that 16 year old are adults.

I don't seem to recall stating that on this board recently. Can you just find the post you are thinking of, and link to it?

I think there is a possibility you are thinking about somebody else.