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One worrying trend I've been seeing in the modern world is the social outlawing of any form of permissible contact between older people and children. It seems that with the obsession modern western society has on children's sexuality, all of the sudden the default position when an adult interacts with a child that isn't related to them by blood, is that the adult is a sexual predator.
Especially on the motte there have been a lot of recent concerns about 'grooming,' which as a thread below mentions is an extremely muddy and useless term. In my opinion it should be tabooed from these discussions.
This issue becomes especially salient when you look at the rise of internet addiction issues, and the mental health/suicide problems that come along with it. Many kids go to internet forums like this because they don't have role models or guides they respect in life. They end up forming parasocial relationships with internet celebrities that are probably more likely to be predatory and harmful to the child, as if the habit of going on the internet all day isn't bad enough.
We as a society are losing vast amounts of illegible knowledge every day as older people die, exit the workforce, or suffer cognitive decline. There are many areas where 'book smarts' can't teach you everything, especially when it comes to emotional issues or social issues. The rise of inceldom, trans, and other social movements primarily focused on social issues of young people are a prime example.
My question is: How are adults supposed to offer guidance to children in the modern world, especially adult men? There are numerous stories of a child's father having the police called on them because people think the father might be a sexual predator, in this environment why would any man risk the reputational and legal risk of mentoring a kid?
Is it worth losing any realistic relationship between the young and old because of vague fears of sexual predation? Does the current hysteria even help sexual predation, or does preventing children from having good role models make them more insecure and vulnerable to bad actors?
Why are you blaming talk about grooming for this? It has been ramping up for decades. In the early naughts, when I was leaving school, I had one occupation in mind - I wanted to be a daycare worker. I wanted to play with babies and finger paints and macaroni art all day, that is my dream job. I never met a single person who thought that was a good idea.
Every single person I spoke to about it got nervous and started talking faster trying to convince me to change my mind, because I was just going to get hurt over and over again. I would have an uphill battle getting credentials because men are considered less competent with children, I would be viewed with suspicion by parents and co-workers and I would probably end up in jail because I tickled a kid and a parent thought I was making a move. And it has only gotten worse since then. This shit about groomers is a symptom, not the cause.
Why?
How much money can you make being a daycare worker?
$30 an hour top? You could get a decent, normal manly job, make $60 an hour and spend the rest of your time fingerpainting if that's your thing.
You could even afford a family and do it with your own children.
Normal people are not going to like the idea of a childless man handling their kids all day, and I think it would be a struggle to get children from a woman making $15/h top.
What did you end up doing?
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Yeah this is true - I saw the groomer discussion downthread and had this thought so decided I would push back. Realistically this topic deserves it's own effortpost.
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