[Foundation-l] Pedophilia and the Non discrimination policy

[Jesse (Pathoschild)]

(My last message incorrectly insinuates Nihonjoe himself is a
paedophile, due to momentary confusion when I was writing it.
Disregarding that, my arguments remain.)

-- 
Yours cordially,
Jesse (Pathoschild)



On Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 12:50 PM, Jesse (Pathoschild)
<pathoschild at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I see a strong moral streak underlying many of the arguments in favour
> of banning this editor, with unsubtle arguments fronting the idea that
> paedophiles are inherently evil and can do no good. These arguments
> are not convincing to me; no group of people is inherently evil.
> Paedophilia does not lead automatically to child abuse, any more than
> heterosexuality leads automatically to rape. I'm sure most of us can
> draw the parallels to similar cases of hatred throughout history
> without my prompting.
>
> We should be careful about assuming that we are the sole protectors of
> our underaged editors, when they are far better protected by their
> parents, educators, and local police. Wikipedia is a very unlikely
> preying ground for child abusers; it is often impossible to know the
> age or location of a given editor, every comment is automatically
> archived and logged, and even if they were to find a target on
> Wikipedia they would need to approach them physically. Far easier to
> find and approach victims in the physical world, where the underaged
> are common and visible. Furthermore, banning an editor does not in the
> least change his access to our underaged contributors.
>
> This editor has contributed productively to Wikipedia since September
> 2005; he's been an active editor even longer than I have. In all that
> time, he has not demonstrated any interest I can see in child abuse,
> stalking, or harassment. He received 82% support in his request with
> 154 users commenting, many expressing concerns similar to mine. I
> think this rather discredits the suggestion that paedophiles disrupt
> or harm the community and project by their mere presence.
>
> I do not agree with banning (or blocking) any editor for purely
> idealogical reasons, especially a long-term editor that has already
> proven his worth and gained widespread support in the local wiki
> community.
>
> --
> Yours cordially,
> Jesse (Pathoschild)
>