arsCynic

Oh god are you really bringing up a “women do it to” point completely unprompted?

No. Merely stating that women aren't as fragile with a need to be protected as discussion like these often make them seem, e.g., "advancing on her was grooming by default because all people of that age are vulnerable". Seinfeld advanced, Shoshanna consented, and so did the parents. There was no vulnerability being exploited here. If it sounded like whataboutism then I should have phrased it better.

As for “being attracted to fertility” and whatever…yea that’s not it, chief. Maybe I’m of the group that doesn’t see it that way but I’m 30 and I see someone ~25 and under and I see a child, not someone I should be sexually attracted to. Certainly not someone who I’d actually give that kind of attention to. I’m more than monkey brain, and maybe most people aren’t but we trust them to have jobs and shit so they should be able to handle this, too.

Perhaps this is the crux of the matter, more people than you'd like have monkey brains. Have you looked at human behaviour in general? In comparison Jerry and Shoshanna having been a thing at their ages is a triviality compared to the actually unethical harmful things we do as a society. And just to be sure, this isn't a whataboutism again, because considering the quote mentioning her parents, there was no harm done.

Anyway, to bring it all back to my main point, it not being unethical doesn't mean everyone should intentionally start dating younger people, but merely that calling Seinfeld a paedophile is an irresponsible and ironically childish unconstructive thing to do. Just like him saying “'Free Palestine' are worse than the Ku Klux Klan”.

Think about the number of words you have written on this particular subject. I’m not saying it automatically makes you a weirdo to think so long and hard about this but… I wouldn’t want to hang out with you.

If you were falsely accused of rape or murder, would you want a lawyer that analyzes your case long and meticulously or a zero-attention-span illiterate straight from Idiocracy that sifts TikTok's "Ow-My-Ballz" videos all day?

Thinking long and deeply about oftentimes uncomfortable subjects or ethical dilemmas is why becoming a lawyer, doctor, judge, et cetera, is difficult, and accusing a person over the Internet is not. The latter unfortunately requires Brandolini's law to refute: “The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.”

Ok, so the guy goes for as young as he possibly can and we’re going to assume that that confirms that he wouldn’t going any younger if he could? That’s the thin ice I’m talking about.

Oh it wouldn't surprise me if many would go lower if the opportunity presented itself. Some of them, a small minority, will be paedophiles, and would go as low as they could. However, biologically the majority are simply attracted to fertility, attractiveness, i.e., young women, not girls. That's exactly why there's a need for an age or metric where ambiguity regarding potential harm/manipulation is decreased to a minimum, because obviously any kind of harm toward living beings is unethical; spare self-defence, but that's neither here nor there.

I agree that we cannot call him a pedophile because there is no direct evidence of it, I’m on board with that, but his actions are not doing a lot for him. If he said “oh yea I like 24 year olds and older” that’s still weird for his age but it shows that his limit is a personal one and not a legal one.

Only aiming for as young as legally possible would be suspicious, but as far as I'm reading he's still together with his wife Jessica Seinfeld who he met when she was 26, so I'm not yet sure what you mean by "his actions". Anyway, what about what the women think in these situations? Shoshanna was on board for four years, and so were her parents. There's no indication Seinfeld was inappropriate.

“Not Lonstein, though. What distance there is between them on life’s time line, it seems, they more than make up for with a similar temperament. “I am not an idiot,” says the comic. “Shoshanna is a person, not an age. She is extremely bright. She’s funny, sharp, very alert. We just get along. You can hear the click.” Within weeks after their first date, friends and neighbors grew accustomed to the sight of the Seinfeld limousine idling outside the Upper East Side luxury apartment building where Lonstein lives with her 15-year-old brother, David, and her parents, Zachary, a wealthy computer-store owner, and Betty, a home-maker. The Lonsteins have always approved of the romance. “Shoshanna is very mature,” says a source close to the family. “Jerry is thoughtful, a good person. The family have nothing but positive feelings about the both of them. Everyone respects their relationship.” ―The Game of Love

Women are as biologically wired as men are, and equally flawed—just look at how Justin Bieber was publicly salivated over at a similar young age, that's clearly not okay. Meanwhile all of these discussions oftentimes sound as if women are always at the mercy of men. They aren't.

It’s also weird that he says he could love someone whole-heartedly but also couldn’t properly communicate with her on more nuanced topics. Like, what made this minor so great and why could he not find that in anyone between 30-45y/o?

If you were referring to "I can’t philosophize with her", that's a quote from a wholly different book about two siblings part of the youth resistance in Nazi Germany. I just found that sentence particularly apt to decide whether a relationship is right or not.

ohh, i’m not here to argue with you, and you’re not about to change my mind. I’m just pointing out that no matter how much you write, you’re not winning anything in the court of public opinion here.

Well in that case, no matter what the popular opinion on anything is, it in itself remains an argumentum ad populum fallacy:
“In argumentation theory, an argumentum ad populum is a fallacious argument that asserts a claim is true, or good or correct because many people think so.”

I think you have a rather unfortunate bias here. You’re not going to win anyone over to the argument that"almost a paedophile is fine" concept. The vast majority are going to find it morally reprehensible. They’re going to say barely legal is not morally nominal.

You have an opinion, it’s yours. It’s not an opinion that you’re going to defend and change people’s minds on, though. They’re going to see you as a paedophile supporter, whether you consider that to be your situation or not.

“that "almost a paedophile is fine" concept”

That's not fine, and a loaded argument.

"They’re going to say barely legal is not morally nominal."

At what point would it be morally nominal? Should there be a different cutoff age? Should there be a maximum age disparity? How do we even decide on this stuff objectively? And I'm not asking this rhetorically. As far as I know most things human are normally distributed and such ages were decided by looking at what age the majority of people are cognitively mature enough to make their own decisions without being easily manipulated. If, supposedly, most people think Seinfeld was morally reprehensible, then perhaps we should decide upon an age where it wouldn't have been? Or use different metrics altogether perhaps. I don't know.

An arrow to the knee.

😄; well, sir, at least you made me laugh out loud.

Believe it or not, your level of maturity at 17 years old does not represent the majority of 17 year olds. Nor does mine and I considered myself to be reasonably mature at that age, as it seems you believe yourself to have been. What makes grooming so effective is that the targets of grooming don’t realize when it is happening. You may be right about the definition, but the way you are going about trying to correct people is insensitive to the topic at hand. Especially when it is so obvious that said point has gone straight over your head. You are completely off topic with the definitions argument.

Wait, the topic at hand is "Jerry Seinfeld says people who say 'Free Palestine' are worse than the Ku Klux Klan", right? The whole reason I brought this up was because unjustly calling him a paedophile does discussing this topic a disservice because any further arguments won't be taken as seriously. Sprinkling valid criticism with lies doesn't strengthen an argument.

It isn’t some abstract academic debate.

Why can't it be? What's the point otherwise. My objective is mutual understanding, learning something new, and reaching an agreement or compromise. I know that might still be a pipe-dream online, but yeah, I try.

Yes because we all know every relationship is consensual. Especially when it’s between a man in his late 30s who took an interest in a 17 year old girl. Why would the word “grooming” ever be a thought on anyone’s mind in such a scenario.

Were you cognitively not capable at seventeen to detect grooming? And I'm not saying this acerbically. People who argue your point seem to talk as if at seventeen they still thought as 12-year-olds. If that's the case, then yes I agree. But in my late adolescence I was definitely capable of discerning vice from virtue.

Anyway, here we go with definitions again:

“Sexual grooming is the action or behavior used to establish an emotional connection with a vulnerable person – generally a minor under the age of consent[1][2] – and sometimes the victim's family,[3] to lower their inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse.” ―https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_grooming

While the corporate elites don't really have a great track-record, especially considering "where are the Epstein files?", I don't think it applies in Seinfeld's case, even though he strikes me as a douchebag. But I might be wrong, have been before.

Classic Soresi bit: https://youtu.be/nu6C2KL_S9o

Classic comedy, great bit. But he's not a doctor, not a lawyer, not a judge. Whoever thinks that conflating terms will help stop actual paedophilia is kidding themselves.

They dated for four years, therefore I assume there was consent. I don't think the word predatory applies in such cases.

Conversely, we had a comedian in my country who relentlessly messaged women he worked with to the point of once going to their home and knocking on her door begging she opened. That's predatory.