Re: Incentive (not to) to lie

Sadlife,

You aren't one of the people I don't read. I don't reply all that often, perhaps, but as I've said elsewhere, I have to be pretty selective.

I take your implicit criticism very seriously. You want to feel good about yourself, that's a high priority for what you value here, and you feel that I may get in the way of that.

So here's how I see it. I think that anyone who today engages in sexual activity with a girl shouldn't be doing it, because it risks severe harm to the girl (we all agree about the iatrogenic part, at least). I have no direct desire for them to feel bad about it -- I want them to stop, or even better not to start. For some people, feeling bad about it might help with that most important goal, and if so I'm in favor of their feeling bad.

Aside from that, I'm all in favor of people here feeling good about themselves. And it seems that each of you knows what you're doing in your own life and can decide that for yourself. I don't see how the existence of pedophiles who engage in sexual activity with children should make you feel less good about yourself if you don't. There are a few pedophiles who we all agree do truly terrible things, and I don't think the solution is to say, "They're not really pedophiles."

However, I place a high value on the truth. It might make good PR for Virtuous Pedophiles if I could say that I know none of us engage in adult-child sexual activity. But I can't say that, because it's not something I can be sure of. I can say I think such people are very rare and explain why, but I can't guarantee it. I am asking the same of Dissident.

One way a person might feel happy is not to think about unpleasant things, and talk about how wonderful little girls are. But it seems a lot of posts here are focused on saying how terrible the antis are, how unfair society is, and how we ought to fight against it all. I guess that can help bind a group together, but I think keeping a close watch on truth is very important too. I try to evaluate each discussion on its merits and figure out the truth as best I can discern it. If I agree with what lots of people here are saying, I'm unlikely to comment on it. If I disagree, I'm more likely to say so.

You certainly don't have to care what I think. But if you do, then I think that if you are child celibate you can feel very good about yourself. You can enjoy the good parts of having an attraction to children. I know I do.