In what appeared to be a moment of misspeaking, anti-LGBTQ+ Republican Sen. Ted Cruz (TX) said in a recent congressional speech, “How about we all come together and say ‘Let’s stop attacking pedophiles’?”
During a congressional hearing on the current president’s actions addressing crime in cities — which seems mostly to be insulting large city mayors, ignoring higher-crime areas in red states, and then sending in armed federal officers against the mayors’ wishes — Sen. Cruz referred to Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-NJ) plea for Democrats and Republicans to “come together and have bipartisan agreement.”
“I think that’s a great idea. We should have bipartisan agreement,” Cruz said. “How about we all come together and say, ‘Let’s stop murder’? How about we all come together and say, ‘Let’s stop rape’? How about we all come together and say, ‘Let’s stop attacking pedophiles’?”
Well, it’s technically true. Pedophilia, attraction to children (prepubescent youths), is generally best addressed with acknowledgement, treatment, and management.
Sexual assault, and rape, and predator practices are the crimes identified pedophiles are typically found participating in if their attraction to kids isn’t addressed appropriately beforehand.
Ya’ll don’t really think being attracted to kids is a crime itself so you? Or that there aren’t thousands, or tens of thousands, of people out there that are attracted to kids and just don’t act on it, or haven’t been identified?
Pedophilia, though specific in nature, is a similar subject to mental health in general, in how it’s treated by society. As it becomes more acceptable to admit to having mental health conditions, the instances of those conditions leading to dire circumstances dimishes.
Be more proactive, and less reactive.
Note: though it should be clear enough, I do want to specifically state that this message in no way promotes or supports criminal actions taken towards children or knowingly disregarding such actions if the assailants are rich, or any other such nonsense.
Like being tall, or black, or gay, being a pedophile is a state of being, not an action, and people should not be attacked for their state of being, full stop. Crimes they commit are another matter entirely.
I saw a documentary about three or four decades ago with a guy who was a paedophile. After watching it I felt bad for him, he basically said “I was never abused. To me it seems natural to think of children as sexual beings. I realise why it is wrong and I will never act on it.
Think of it this way. You may find blondes beautiful, but you don’t know why. Now I imagine if everyone else was wanting you dead because you like blondes. That’s me. And no one will help me.”
He looked for help in many different ways and places, the doctors, therapists, mental health clinics etc etc but they all just kept on reporting him to the police. I think in the end he tried to commit suicide, or he tried to chop his own balls off to stop the urges. It was something extreme. After that he got the help he needed anyways.
I’ve looked for it a few times but never could find it again. I may be misremembering certain things, but the basics are her knew it was a mental disorder and wanted help. But only got it when things got extreme.
These are the people who should get help.
The ones like that obese orange child rapist should get the noose.
I don’t think that’s what Cruz was talking about