ricochet

"Yeah, I got a couple of bitches on the side"

I think many people lost interest once the initial excitement faded. Reddit is so vast that there is never a shortage of content and people to interact with it. Lemmy doesn't have the same vastness, most content creators don't get a lot of engagement so they're not as motivated, users don't have that many things to scroll through so they start checking in less often, etc.

The growing pains Lemmy has been experiencing have certainly left many a bit disillusioned too. People in general don't really want to put in effort towards anything they don't have to, and many things about Lemmy require a bit of effort. But overall I like Lemmy and I'm optimistic about it, I think it will do fine eventually, as long as we stick around.

Yeah content slows down a lot. I think overall activity has slowed somewhat since the Reddit influx.

I haven't been back there since they killed 3rd party apps.

I love it, also that's a campaign slogan I can get behind.

Perfection!

I'm thinking about a giraffe that tried to swallow an entire human, but it's stuck in its throat. So now the fire department is there trying to help and people have gathered around to watch. Someone started a sausage sizzle and there are campaign posters everywhere. The people are chanting a slogan, I can't quite make it out.

Alright we can agree on that, I prefer the European approach too.

As a general statement that's true, but it's not that clear cut: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_Europe

Most countries have additional provisions in place, for example:

Germany

The age of consent in Germany is 14, as long as a person over the age of 18 does not exploit a 14- to 15-year-old person's lack of capacity for sexual self-determination, in which case a conviction of an individual over the age of 18 requires a complaint from the younger individual; being over 21 and engaging in sexual relations with a minor of that age does not constitute an offense by itself. Otherwise the age of consent is 16, although provisions protecting minors against abuse apply until the age of 18 (under Section 182(1): it is illegal to engage in sexual activity with a person under 18 "by taking advantage of an exploitative situation".

France

Article 227-27 prohibits sexual relations with minors over age 15 (aged 15, 16 or 17) "1° where they are committed by an ascendant or by any other person having a legal or factual authority over the victim; 2° where they are committed by a person abusing the authority conferred by his functions."[33]

Spain

The age of consent in Spain is 16, under a new law which came into effect on 1 July 2015. The age of consent rises to 18 if there is deception or abuse of a recognized position of trust, authority or influence over the minor.

Romania

The Romanian Criminal Code currently sets the age of consent to 16,[103] according to legal changes in 2020. In addition, it is illegal for an adult to engage in sexual acts with an adolescent under 18, if the adult abuses the authority or influence they have over the minor in order to gain the sexual access.

...etc

I don't disagree with either approach, they are different ways of getting similar outcomes.

The point is we recognize that there are certain situations where there is likely to be an unhealthy power imbalance. Relationships between young teens and adults are one of those situations.

Like I said before, young teens are at the mercy of hormones, tend to be emotionally unstable, don’t have any real life experience yet, are idealistic, rebellious, etc. Throw in the likely power imbalance and they are really easy to abuse and take advantage of. This makes them vulnerable, you can't blame people for wanting to protect them through laws, and assholes like Epstein are a prime example of why those laws exist.

If Ronald would've used his immense power to sleep around with young girls, that would've absolutely been a problem. Look at Bill Clinton for that example. We legislate against power imbalances everywhere, the entire structure of the US government is meant to provide a system of checks and balances. We try to break monopolies, give workers rights, create unions, give tenants rights, etc, all of this is as a response to power imbalances.

Are you going to tell me that Epstein was innocent too?

There are Epstein victims who don't consider that any harm was done. There are also far more who do. Epstein didn't pull them into the bushes to rape them, he used his power and influence to get them into those situations where they felt compelled to go along with what was happening.

What is the argument to why power imbalance is bullshit? You say it's easy to prove but provide no counter arguments.

That's a bit like saying there is no evidence that working in the mines harms children if there are adequate safety measures in place.

Laws are like that, they are somewhat rigid and imperfect. Yes abuse happens so the law is there to combat that. Sure, we can look at this attractive young woman and consider that we would've been happy to have sex with her at 16 - this doesn't invalidate the reason why the law exists. She should've known better as an adult, the fact that she's young and attractive and otherwise a nice person is tough shit.