First of all, Todd, I don't have the "you're either with me or against me" attitude. If some of the antis are truly reaching out, then I hope the CAT project works out. I am simply saying that in the past, we have had real reason to mistrust them. We've had to sit through constant lies, misrepresentation, computer hackings into our server, etc. Now, suddenly, they say, "Let's talk, shall we?" and you don't think that we're going to be a little weary?

If Payned has good intentions, then I applaud her. Perhaps I will join CAT, and see if it's truly possible to reach common ground with these people.

As for saying we have common ground in trying to prevent genuine child rape...Todd, these people support the very laws that keep youths disempowered and easy prey for abuse in the family. Until they start opening their eyes to the prospect of youth liberation and for empowering youth to be able to get the hell out of bad families, then they are NOT going to be supporting any true goal to eliminating child rape or other, more widespread problems, like emotional abuse, something most antis don't even recognize as a real problem. Instead, they keep maniacally focusing on rape and not worrying about the constant physical and emotional abuse that kids endure under the current hierarchal structure of the nuclear family. Perhaps they can at least finally stop equating pedophilia and hebephilia with child abuse and child rape.

Also, Todd, I think you need to build a stronger emotional bulwark against your doubts. Periodically, your doubts take over and cause you to get really unstable and odd. I am NOT saying that there are no negatives in our position. I simply do not think that the current laws are resolving ANY problems, but creating a whole mess of additional problems for MAA's and youths alike, causing both of us to live as second class citizens. A youth liberated society certainly wouldn't be perfect, and it wouldn't totally eliminate actual child abuse, but it would allow youths a better way of dealing with the problem and to get out of unhappy situations in which the law now forces them to remain. I am also not saying that all mutually consensual relationships would be beneficial...but that doesn't mean that negative relationships between adults and youths would result in the total ruination of the youths in question as the anti side claims. I am NOT saying there are no negatives in our position. I simply DO NOT think the current laws represent any type of solution to any negatives, but simply act as mechanisms of repression. They are intended to protect a corrupt status quo that has MANY negatives to it, not to protect any people from actual harm.

Yes, Todd, we are all varied in our opinions, but we DO tend to take specific sides on specific issues. As I told you in another post, I think it's ridiculous to think intergenerational relationships shouldn't be legalized simply because some of us MAA's are immature. That is part of the mental framework that we share with youths, and why we are compatible with them in the first place. I think it's highly insulting to suggest that just because some of us insult each other and operate without tact in discussing things means that these horrid laws have to be retained. I find that highly insulting, and I lost much respect for you for turning against the pro side just because of that. I think that is extremely petty and every bit as immature as you accuse some of us of being.

No, the non-choicers DO NOT need your help. They have the laws, the cultural mores, and the support of the general public. They are seeking to CONTROL kids, not to protect them. And they seek the basic continuation of the very laws that force us into the position of an oppressed minority.

Now, onto this...

Also, I don't believe you've ever trusted me anyway. You've even told me so several times in chat.

I told you that I didn't trust you as a mod to deal fairly with any dispute between a male and a female, and I still don't. But I DID trust you with my personal info. No longer, because I have no idea what you're going to do the NEXT time someone from GC pisses you off and causes you to allow your doubts to take over your psyche. Next time, you might have a "change of heart" which causes you to agree with the antis who think we all need to be on a sex offender registry.


I recall you spent months in chat not even replying to me after I said something you didn't like,

After you called me a misogynist because I got into a dispute with Violet that I feel to this day was entirely valid, and had nothing to do with the fact that she was female. All you saw was a female in distress; you claimed that you didn't even see the posts which clearly displayed why I was "pestering" her. You also attacked me in a very nasty way both in the board and in chat; since you were so determined to push my buttons and really piss me off, that is exactly what happened. How do you expect someone to react when you attack them in such a nasty way and make such rude accusations? It was a point of contention between the two of us that came to a head. But I still respected you as a poster and as a strong pro-choice activist, and I eagerly read all of your posts on the various MAA blogs, including Ella's.

Your status as a pro-choicer was important to us, Todd. You are one of our best posters. The fact that you have so little confidence in that position is hurtful, as is the fact that you don't trust so many of us with youths in our respective AoA simply because you don't like some of us personally. This is why so many of us are pissed off at you right now.

Also, to be fair, I had no idea that you had new doubts after reading one of Enigma's posts. Let me say that as much as I like Enigma, sometimes (IMO) he let's his problems get the best of him, and he makes posts that can cast him in a negative light. But I never saw anything to suggest that he is dangerous to youths, or made me think that he is some example that bodes ill for all MAA's having contact with youths.

I remain highly disappointed in you over this change, Todd. Despite the problems that we have had in the past based on our disagreements over various things, I DID respect you as an activist. And I think your reasons for the "change of heart" are highly insulting to us pro-choicers.