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On February 24 2026 09:33 dyhb wrote:Show nested quote +On February 24 2026 09:25 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: Fawning over, ogling, harassing, abusing, and raping children might *technically* not be called pedophilia - depending on how young the kids are - but ... but continuing to do so regardless of how young the kids are is dumb and wrong and benefits actual criminal pedophiles. There are Diddys (allegations/lawsuits) in this world, but not every sex abuser and sex harasser and skeevy middle-aged man is a Diddy. What the hell is this relative-to-Diddy moral standard? That's not where the bar is set. Trump is a piece of shit who sexually assaulted children and adults, and he committed a hundred other crimes, full stop. Our standard here is not better-or-worse-than-Hitler, and I just said: the label doesn't dismiss all the ethical problems one should have with Trump's sexual harassment, sexual assault, and child molestation.
Do you know what actually benefits and emboldens child molesters? The fact that we elected one to be president. Twice.
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On February 24 2026 09:48 Hat Trick of Today wrote: Is this guy Blackace, these are the exact same pedantic debatelord semantic arguments that no normal person would ever make. Even lives in California.
Never met someone who chose that as their hill to die on that didn't need their hard drive investigated by the FBI.
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On February 24 2026 09:42 Jankisa wrote:Show nested quote +On February 24 2026 08:27 dyhb wrote: The new definition for pedophile is talking and acting lasciviously about or around teenage girls? I live in California, and we have special punishments for sexual crimes against victims younger than 14 and victims 10 and younger. So if you're just confirming that this is the same moral turpitude we always knew about, then continue talking exactly as you have. I don't want to spare the extra depraved their due consequence just because you have some masturbatory fixation in calling Trump a pedo. It's incredibly creepy that you are making these distinctions as if they make anything better, for fucks sake Trump was born in 1946 if he ever touched any girls under 18 trafficked to him by Epstein, and there is an incredible amount of circumstantial evidence around that despite his DOJ has spending 6 months covering any of firm evidence up, he should be thrown away forever. Fucking hell, "moral turpitude", you are so weird. In before "sure he raped kids, but it might technically not be pedophilia because do we even know if Trump was truly sexually attracted to them? he could have just been bored."
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On February 24 2026 09:54 LightSpectra wrote:Show nested quote +On February 24 2026 09:48 Hat Trick of Today wrote: Is this guy Blackace, these are the exact same pedantic debatelord semantic arguments that no normal person would ever make. Even lives in California. Never met someone who chose that as their hill to die on that didn't need their hard drive investigated by the FBI.
I don’t think you’d find anything in that hard drive, he’s just one of those pedantic debatelords. They’re not really there to achieve anything but to rile people up and win internet arguments when people ultimately get bored of them.
The California mention has me fairly convinced he’s just Blackace, a pedantic debatelord that would occasionally throw shade at the state he lives in and hyperfocus on specific words and terms. To the point he would always derail forum discussions for entire pages because we have to argue about the angle of Elon Musk’s arm, as if that was the only proof the man is incredibly sympathetic towards fascist ideology and white supremacy. Same deal here with the “um ackchyually it’s technically not rape and pedophilia” stance the guy takes.
It’s why half the time I type up a response then just delete it because what is the point even talking to half of these people if there is nothing to be gained from the process.
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I know an English lit professor that gets testy over people misusing words like "literally" or "biannually". If that guy corrected me on saying "pedophile" when "ephebophile" is more correct I'd be fine with it since at least he's established himself as someone concerned with technical precision.
Someone who only becomes a grammar Nazi when it's in defense of a sexual abuser is more likely just an actual Nazi.
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On February 24 2026 09:42 Jankisa wrote:Show nested quote +On February 24 2026 08:27 dyhb wrote: The new definition for pedophile is talking and acting lasciviously about or around teenage girls? I live in California, and we have special punishments for sexual crimes against victims younger than 14 and victims 10 and younger. So if you're just confirming that this is the same moral turpitude we always knew about, then continue talking exactly as you have. I don't want to spare the extra depraved their due consequence just because you have some masturbatory fixation in calling Trump a pedo. It's incredibly creepy that you are making these distinctions as if they make anything better, for fucks sake Trump was born in 1946 if he ever touched any girls under 18 trafficked to him by Epstein, and there is an incredible amount of circumstantial evidence around that despite his DOJ has spending 6 months covering any of firm evidence up, he should be thrown away forever. Fucking hell, "moral turpitude", you are so weird. It's incredibly weird that you think Trump must shoot to moral rectitude just because he isn't a pedo. We can just simply be accurate about politics regardless of the figure involved.
On February 24 2026 10:14 LightSpectra wrote: I know an English lit professor that gets testy over people misusing words like "literally" or "biannually". If that guy corrected me on saying "pedophile" when "ephebophile" is more correct I'd be fine with it since at least he's established himself as someone concerned with technical precision.
Someone who only becomes a grammar Nazi when it's in defense of a sexual abuser is more likely just an actual Nazi. It explains so much that one has to establish oneself to your satisfaction of being a good person before you use pedophiles for the worst of the worst. I just treat strangers on the internet with some indifference to their secret, internal motivations, since I don't claim to have such crystal balls to which people are secretly actual Nazis on the internet.
On February 24 2026 09:51 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:Show nested quote +On February 24 2026 09:33 dyhb wrote:On February 24 2026 09:25 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: Fawning over, ogling, harassing, abusing, and raping children might *technically* not be called pedophilia - depending on how young the kids are - but ... but continuing to do so regardless of how young the kids are is dumb and wrong and benefits actual criminal pedophiles. There are Diddys (allegations/lawsuits) in this world, but not every sex abuser and sex harasser and skeevy middle-aged man is a Diddy. What the hell is this relative-to-Diddy moral standard? That's not where the bar is set. Trump is a piece of shit who sexually assaulted children and adults, and he committed a hundred other crimes, full stop. Our standard here is not better-or-worse-than-Hitler, and I just said: the label doesn't dismiss all the ethical problems one should have with Trump's sexual harassment, sexual assault, and child molestation. Do you know what actually benefits and emboldens child molesters? The fact that we elected one to be president. Twice. I think society should reserve an extra level of scorn for the morally depraved people that mess with elementary school children, and I'm a little disgusted to hear you argue otherwise.
That's all. It's a little weird to deflect to either (1) [Poster] really wants to call Trump a pedo, and it's [Not Poster] problem if they don't recognize it (2) We have laws setting different penalties for the most heinous crimes, but I'm going to say 0 things about that but 20 things about how only bad people bring that up and you must be in it to make Trump morally better.
I get that there's a lot of debatelords on here that have to smear the arguer, so I'll drop it if there's absolutely zero substantial disagreements with me on the substance. There's probably no pedophilia in the Epstein files, simply because people here jump to claims of sexual misbehavior when I ask about it. There's a lot of rich people who should know better than accept invites and email Epstein, and calling them pedos is a dopamine hit and fights Trump.
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On February 24 2026 08:27 dyhb wrote: It explains so much that one has to establish oneself to your satisfaction of being a good person before you use pedophiles for the worst of the worst. I just treat strangers on the internet with some indifference to their secret, internal motivations, since I don't claim to have such crystal balls to which people are secretly actual Nazis on the internet.
You're not doing a good job of keeping it secret.
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Northern Ireland26785 Posts
I feel my brain is melting away, is anyone else similarly afflicted?
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Semantics on the topic are important in the clinical and legal context.
The hard age limit of 18 in the US probably is supposed to serve as some kind of deterrent because of its massive porn industry (just guessing that it is the reason) but tends to be softer in some other countries.
Usually there‘s a tolerance range of two years difference under 16 and under certain circumstances that require consent obviously, there‘s possible tolerance starting from 16. My first relationship was in the sub16 range which might have been dangerous if I lived in the US.
I think the Russian connection regarding Epstein (apparently he hired Russians on the farm and some of them provided services) is another troubling aspect because it exposes some entities in the US keeping their options open to a collaboration which doesn‘t resonate well with the allies it claims to have.
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United States43987 Posts
You can accept the existence of a grey area without thinking that the old man hosting an underage girl beauty pageant and then sexually harassing the contestants is within it. You don’t need to assert that anything relating to someone under 18 is always wrong to be confident that the things Trump brags about doing are wrong.
It’s just debatelords muddying the water. “oh, you say murdering a baby is always wrong, well what about baby Hitler”. Like okay, sure, but the baby your guy killed and ate wasn’t baby Hitler.
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On February 24 2026 11:16 WombaT wrote: I feel my brain is melting away, is anyone else similarly afflicted?
I'm truly surprised at the length of mental gymnastics people are willing to go to still try and defend Trump. He's a total scumbag, failure as a president and also failure in life. Dude has absolutely nothing going for him. Didn't achieve anything in his entire life by himself and now just acts as a 12yo boy throwing tantrums left and right in need of attention.
On February 24 2026 11:20 Vivax wrote: Semantics on the topic are important in the clinical and legal context.
The hard age limit of 18 in the US probably is supposed to serve as some kind of deterrent because of its massive porn industry (just guessing that it is the reason) but tends to be softer in some other countries.
Usually there‘s a tolerance range of two years difference under 16 and under certain circumstances that require consent obviously, there‘s possible tolerance starting from 16. My first relationship was in the sub16 range which might have been dangerous if I lived in the US.
I think the Russian connection regarding Epstein (apparently he hired Russians on the farm and some of them provided services) is another troubling aspect because it exposes some entities in the US keeping their options open to a collaboration which doesn‘t resonate well with the allies it claims to have.
US has this kinda backwards though. I believe it was Jim Jefferies who once said: In USA when you're an 18 year old girl you can have a gangbang with 5 dudes in some sleazy motel and it'll all be legal as long as someone is filming. At the same time you can't have a beer until you're 21. If anyone needs a beer it's that girl...
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On February 24 2026 12:07 Manit0u wrote: I'm truly surprised at the length of mental gymnastics people are willing to go to still try and defend Trump. He's a total scumbag, failure as a president and also failure in life. Dude has absolutely nothing going for him. Didn't achieve anything in his entire life by himself and now just acts as a 12yo boy throwing tantrums left and right in need of attention.
He 20x'd his father's fortune and became a re-elected president.
I mean, I think he is a pathological narcissist and a deeply corrupt man of low cunning, but saying he hasn't archived anything is plain delusional.
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doubleupgradeobbies!
Australia1288 Posts
On February 24 2026 12:07 Manit0u wrote:
I'm truly surprised at the length of mental gymnastics people are willing to go to still try and defend Trump. He's a total scumbag, failure as a president and also failure in life. Dude has absolutely nothing going for him. Didn't achieve anything in his entire life by himself and now just acts as a 12yo boy throwing tantrums left and right in need of attention.
I suspect partly cult of personality, and partly because some people were only ever in it to 'own the libs'.
Most of the mental effort of keeping a cult going was always done by the cult members rather than the cult leader. It's hard and embarrassing to admit you got suckered into something completely irrational and self serving for the cult leader, even to yourself. It's not uncommon to have people unable to let go and doing incredible mental gymnastics rather than finding their way out of a cult mentality.
Some people don't actually give a shit about Trump, I suspect many debatelords fall under this category. They were only ever in it to piss off the 'Libs" (I admit, I kinda understand when it comes to actual Liberals). They don't have an actual position on Trump, it's just funny to them to see people they are debating lose their minds when they take ridiculous positions that seem absurd.
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On February 24 2026 12:47 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:Show nested quote +On February 24 2026 12:07 Manit0u wrote:
I'm truly surprised at the length of mental gymnastics people are willing to go to still try and defend Trump. He's a total scumbag, failure as a president and also failure in life. Dude has absolutely nothing going for him. Didn't achieve anything in his entire life by himself and now just acts as a 12yo boy throwing tantrums left and right in need of attention.
I suspect partly cult of personality, and partly because some people were only ever in it to 'own the libs'. Most of the mental effort of keeping a cult going was always done by the cult members rather than the cult leader. It's hard and embarrassing to admit you got suckered into something completely irrational and self serving for the cult leader, even to yourself. It's not uncommon to have people unable to let go and doing incredible mental gymnastics rather than finding their way out of a cult mentality. Some people don't actually give a shit about Trump, I suspect many debatelords fall under this category. They were only ever in it to piss off the 'Libs" (I admit, I kinda understand when it comes to actual Liberals). They don't have an actual position on Trump, it's just funny to them to see people they are debating lose their minds when they take ridiculous positions that seem absurd. I have similar thoughts on the call-someone-a-Nazi weekly quotas. Or the related reaction to crafting some outright lie or half-truth about Trump, confident that anybody pointing it out can be righteously called out as a Trump defender.
Like, he’s a bad guy. You don’t get special license to drop all standards when it comes to bad guys. But there’s something effective in-group in performing the lie, calling somebody a Nazi if they notice, and in-group signal on people “defending Trump” if you do the routine often enough. Epstein files were a bust on all but a few fringe figures and some financial/sensitive documents crime, but it’s so much easier to just demagogue through it all.
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On February 24 2026 12:37 baal wrote:Show nested quote +On February 24 2026 12:07 Manit0u wrote: I'm truly surprised at the length of mental gymnastics people are willing to go to still try and defend Trump. He's a total scumbag, failure as a president and also failure in life. Dude has absolutely nothing going for him. Didn't achieve anything in his entire life by himself and now just acts as a 12yo boy throwing tantrums left and right in need of attention.
He 20x'd his father's fortune and became a re-elected president. I mean, I think he is a pathological narcissist and a deeply corrupt man of low cunning, but saying he hasn't archived anything is plain delusional. Just to be clear, Trump made significantly less money through being a businessman than if he had just passively invested all the inheritance and let compound interest do its thing. Over the course of his life, he lost a ton of free money.
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On February 24 2026 13:15 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:Show nested quote +On February 24 2026 12:37 baal wrote:On February 24 2026 12:07 Manit0u wrote: I'm truly surprised at the length of mental gymnastics people are willing to go to still try and defend Trump. He's a total scumbag, failure as a president and also failure in life. Dude has absolutely nothing going for him. Didn't achieve anything in his entire life by himself and now just acts as a 12yo boy throwing tantrums left and right in need of attention.
He 20x'd his father's fortune and became a re-elected president. I mean, I think he is a pathological narcissist and a deeply corrupt man of low cunning, but saying he hasn't archived anything is plain delusional. Just to be clear, Trump made significantly less money through being a businessman than if he had just passively invested all the inheritance and let compound interest do its thing. Over the course of his life, he lost a ton of free money.
With passive investing you mean dumping your net worth into the SP500 and not touching anything in 40 years?
If so 99.99% of people (you included) will under perform lol, imagine that your metric of success is beating the 500 most successful companies in a given time frame LMAO. Also it means not touching a cent, which obv Trump did, he lived a lavish life.
If you start with 100M and you end up with a few billions, you were very successful, I mean most people wouldn't even bother and would just retire in a yacht, (I would).
Saying that Trump hasn't achieved anything requires such a degree of denial of reality and bias that renders the opinion of somebody who claims that, as useless.
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On February 24 2026 13:37 baal wrote:Show nested quote +On February 24 2026 13:15 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:On February 24 2026 12:37 baal wrote:On February 24 2026 12:07 Manit0u wrote: I'm truly surprised at the length of mental gymnastics people are willing to go to still try and defend Trump. He's a total scumbag, failure as a president and also failure in life. Dude has absolutely nothing going for him. Didn't achieve anything in his entire life by himself and now just acts as a 12yo boy throwing tantrums left and right in need of attention.
He 20x'd his father's fortune and became a re-elected president. I mean, I think he is a pathological narcissist and a deeply corrupt man of low cunning, but saying he hasn't archived anything is plain delusional. Just to be clear, Trump made significantly less money through being a businessman than if he had just passively invested all the inheritance and let compound interest do its thing. Over the course of his life, he lost a ton of free money. With passive investing you mean dumping your net worth into the SP500 and not touching anything in 40 years? If so 99.99% of people (you included) will under perform lol, imagine that your metric of success is beating the 500 most successful companies in a given time frame LMAO. Also it means not touching a cent, which obv Trump did, he lived a lavish life. If you start with 100M and you end up with a few billions, you were very successful, I mean most people wouldn't even bother and would just retire in a yacht, (I would). Saying that Trump hasn't achieved anything requires such a degree of denial of reality and bias that renders the opinion of somebody who claims that, as useless. I didn't say that. For starters, he achieved the presidency, three wives, and a ton of crimes. Oh, and "99.99% of people" aren't gifted millions of dollars that they won't ever need to use on day-to-day expenses; the vast majority of people don't have the opportunity to invest all their money, because they need to use their money. Trump made money through some of his businesses, just not as much as he could have made if he wasn't a businessman, and just invested it all.
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Northern Ireland26785 Posts
On February 24 2026 13:12 dyhb wrote:Show nested quote +On February 24 2026 12:47 doubleupgradeobbies! wrote:On February 24 2026 12:07 Manit0u wrote:
I'm truly surprised at the length of mental gymnastics people are willing to go to still try and defend Trump. He's a total scumbag, failure as a president and also failure in life. Dude has absolutely nothing going for him. Didn't achieve anything in his entire life by himself and now just acts as a 12yo boy throwing tantrums left and right in need of attention.
I suspect partly cult of personality, and partly because some people were only ever in it to 'own the libs'. Most of the mental effort of keeping a cult going was always done by the cult members rather than the cult leader. It's hard and embarrassing to admit you got suckered into something completely irrational and self serving for the cult leader, even to yourself. It's not uncommon to have people unable to let go and doing incredible mental gymnastics rather than finding their way out of a cult mentality. Some people don't actually give a shit about Trump, I suspect many debatelords fall under this category. They were only ever in it to piss off the 'Libs" (I admit, I kinda understand when it comes to actual Liberals). They don't have an actual position on Trump, it's just funny to them to see people they are debating lose their minds when they take ridiculous positions that seem absurd. I have similar thoughts on the call-someone-a-Nazi weekly quotas. Or the related reaction to crafting some outright lie or half-truth about Trump, confident that anybody pointing it out can be righteously called out as a Trump defender. Like, he’s a bad guy. You don’t get special license to drop all standards when it comes to bad guys. But there’s something effective in-group in performing the lie, calling somebody a Nazi if they notice, and in-group signal on people “defending Trump” if you do the routine often enough. Epstein files were a bust on all but a few fringe figures and some financial/sensitive documents crime, but it’s so much easier to just demagogue through it all. They’re a bust because seemingly nobody bar UK law enforcement thus far seems to have no balls to act upon anything, not necessarily because the contents are a big nothingburger.
I’m hoping The Hague and relevant international bodies act upon my request to elevate possible superfluous use of the word Nazi to sit aside the most egregious war crimes in seriousness as seemingly there’s a metric fuckton of folks who consider that equivalent or worse to anything else
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United States43987 Posts
On February 24 2026 13:37 baal wrote:Show nested quote +On February 24 2026 13:15 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:On February 24 2026 12:37 baal wrote:On February 24 2026 12:07 Manit0u wrote: I'm truly surprised at the length of mental gymnastics people are willing to go to still try and defend Trump. He's a total scumbag, failure as a president and also failure in life. Dude has absolutely nothing going for him. Didn't achieve anything in his entire life by himself and now just acts as a 12yo boy throwing tantrums left and right in need of attention.
He 20x'd his father's fortune and became a re-elected president. I mean, I think he is a pathological narcissist and a deeply corrupt man of low cunning, but saying he hasn't archived anything is plain delusional. Just to be clear, Trump made significantly less money through being a businessman than if he had just passively invested all the inheritance and let compound interest do its thing. Over the course of his life, he lost a ton of free money. With passive investing you mean dumping your net worth into the SP500 and not touching anything in 40 years? If so 99.99% of people (you included) will under perform lol, imagine that your metric of success is beating the 500 most successful companies in a given time frame LMAO. Also it means not touching a cent, which obv Trump did, he lived a lavish life. If you start with 100M and you end up with a few billions, you were very successful, I mean most people wouldn't even bother and would just retire in a yacht, (I would). Saying that Trump hasn't achieved anything requires such a degree of denial of reality and bias that renders the opinion of somebody who claims that, as useless. Phrasing it as “beating the 500 most successful companies” is extremely dishonest. The more accurate way of phrasing it would be “beating the returns given passively to afk investors who loan capital to a group of companies chosen arbitrarily without active research by the investor”. We’re not talking about a genius CEO here. And we’re not talking about a genius stock picker. We’re talking about the performance a 401k plan invested in the default large cap index fund plan gives someone working at mcdonald’s. That’s the bar Trump failed to clear.
Give any one of us his inheritance and 50 years to compound and we’ll do better. If you really think that you couldn’t then that says more about you than Trump.
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I mentally blocked them by the lack of a real block option. The agressive stupidity is just to much. "The president is a pedo rapist why dont you call the president a pedo rapist" At first i thought it was paid trolls but it seems to be serious?
Anyway:the uk investigation dealing with actual financial crimes is about to burry the files so we probably will not hear much about it anymore. Smart move from the brits.
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