this post was submitted on 31 May 2024
126 points (98.5% liked)

politics

19160 readers
5365 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 32 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] jeffw 90 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Next week in a totally unrelated news story: Louisiana to charge LGBTQ adults as sex offenders when they come within 100 feet of children

[–] [email protected] 39 points 5 months ago

This is precisely what they’re doing.

[–] saltesc 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Works out well for anyone looking to fully transition but can't afford that phase of surgery. Louisiana wondering why all these out of state people hanging around their schools suddenly.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Further underlines the baffling failure to understand about anything related to what experts call “humans” by the GOP.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 5 months ago (5 children)

I have a couple of concerns with this.

The first being if some states are going to try to use this against any kids charged with being child sex offenders, like several states have done with teenagers who have sex with each other (or have nude pictures of each other).

An additional concern is obviously conservatives trying to use this against trans people and drag queens, whom they are already trying to define as sex offenders just for existing in public.

Another concern or just question is...is this meant to be a deterrent? And is it even effective in that? For a lot of child sex offenders, a major component of the pleasure derived is from having power over the child in question. Removing their genitals wouldn't necessarily change that? It's possible it may even have them turn more to violence toward children as their outlet.

I'm just wondering on the effectiveness of this method. Is there any evidence at all or is this being done on an emotional whim?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It also has the same issue as the death penalty, where once the punishment is enacted, it can't be undone based on new evidence.

[–] hoshikarakitaridia 12 points 5 months ago

This is the most legally sound argument against it.

Sure it's bad to diddle kids, but it's even worse to not have diddled kids, be accused and falsely convicted, have you genitals removed, and then on appeals the court is like "yeah sry bro they fucked that up, just reverse it".

Although a lot of people think the death penalty is bad for financial or logistical reasons, but in my opinion the biggest reason against it is that there's no quick way to revive a person when a court later on says they got it wrong.

[–] Eatspancakes84 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This is a punishment that simply cannot be enacted. Any doctor that participates violates his Hippocratic oath.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I'm sure they'll find someone. You only need to have one in the state.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

John Oliver showed me they'll probably just call in a vet.

Maybe get some farmer with castration bands.

[–] jeffw 6 points 5 months ago

Evidence? GOP crime deterrents? lol

[–] foggy 5 points 5 months ago

Impotent rapists still penetrate. 🗡️

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

Oh SURGICALLY. Yeah that's fucked up.

[–] Stern 34 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Unless the evidentiary standard is like, "video evidence of the person stating their full name and social security number before doing it", I'm firmly against any punishment that can't be reversed or at least readily resolved like the death penalty or castration. We've got plenty of cases overturned years later on DNA evidence and the like.

[–] jeffw 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Yeah, the right wing obsession with punishment is absurd. Even if we do have that level of evidence, the first reaction should be an attempt to rehabilitate, not inflict irreparable harm.

It’s also stupid because sometimes sexual abuse of a child is about power, not sexual pleasure itself.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 months ago

I'm not really sure what removing a female sex offender's ovaries are supposed to do to prevent recidivism. As far as I'm aware, that wouldn't do anything but send her into early menopause; restlessness, irritability, and libido might actually increase, which may make reoffending more likely.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 5 months ago

Next we should cut off thieves' hands. Then harvest organs randomly from prisoners.

They're criminals. They should not have any rights. Fuck em, right?

(/s)

[–] JeeBaiChow 15 points 5 months ago

False accusations gonna go through the roof in Louisiana. Calling it now.

Also, how are women child sex offenders affected by all this?

[–] 5oap10116 12 points 5 months ago

This will certainly help them pay their debt to society and become fully functioning rehabilitated members. I can see only pros. /s

[–] Telodzrum 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Cool, Louisiana joins Florida and California as the only places with medieval penal codes like this.

[–] jeffw 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] Telodzrum 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, it’s one of two states still using chemical castration as a punishment. Between that and still being a death penalty state it’s a rather barbaric place.

[–] Snowclone 9 points 5 months ago

People spend so much time hating CA for being liberal, they can't seem to figure out we have a justice system that's more responsible for the huge percentage of prisoners vs free citizens than Texas. We had a ''three strikes'' rule in the 90s that made nearly every single conviction a mandatory life sentence, as we have so many tack on laws you can't be convicted of one singular crime in almost every case. We had to stop enforcing the 3 strikes rule, apparently baseball isn't a viable guide to civil codes. Who knew? And we regularly have prisons just send lesser or non violent crime prisoners home with time served because they don't have any space left in the prison.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

How about pass a law to turn Louisiana into a giant parking lot

[–] rayyy 5 points 5 months ago

Matt Gaetz might want to avoid Louisiana.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The clergy’s looking worried.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago

They’re completely safe. What are you talking about? No one goes after the religious.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Why not Chemical Castration? The state's ability to decide who is and is not an offender aside, surgical castration seems pointless and ineffective.

[–] kitnaht 7 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Surgical castration is quite effective. It removes the ovaries/testes which produce testosterone/estrogen. Problem is, from that point on, you probably need to take supplements, because I'm no doctor but I think you need those hormones for proper bone density control, etc.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

I have a genetic condition that severely limits testosterone production. Didn't find out until I was almost 40, my health hasn't been terrible. Mental health is a different story.

I've spent the majority of my life "castrated" and it hasn't been all that bad, that being said I still had urges even with pretty much zero testosterone so I question whether it will do anything to prevent abuse.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I used to think so, too, but it turns out castrated monks and other animals have a lot of data implying they live even longer. I still think Chemical Castration would be better, though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Living longer doesn't necessarily mean that your bones are healthy. Osteoporosis is much more likely without adequate sex hormone production.