In November 2024, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida withdrew his name from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, as federal investigators said they discovered payments he made to a number of women in exchange for sex.
“Women”? Is there something preventing journalists from calling 17 year olds children, like they are?
There are states where you are considered an adult at 16 and can be tried as such.
Though I’m sure the media is thinking they need to treat Gaetz with kid gloves.
Yes, it’s called monopoly by the parasite class on media
They’re just so used to it, statistically just about all the prostitution in the US is minors who are being abused, and sex trafficed. Most come out of the foster system, most children don’t have to worry about aging out of family care, and the gov has a lot of really shitty little loopholes to cut foster kids out of any benifits as quick as they turn 18 if they still qualify for anything. This is a passive system that everyone in power is not willing to discuss or deal with it, police have been fighting legislation that says they can’t just have sex with minors who are being sex trafficed to arrest them for prostitution. And they even fight against legislation that says they can’t have ‘‘consensual’’ sex with people they arrest or are to guard. The news also wields power and they also don’t want to talk about it, or report on it.
A 17-year-old is not a child.
Honestly 18 is an arbitrary number, yes. But looking back on it, I was a child till at least 24. Until you can stand on your own, you’re a child. Matt Gaetz is a pedophile regardless of arbitrary numbers and definitions.
I think I was a child till like 30 to be perfectly honest…
I would describe someone who is 17 a child
You are still required by the gouvernment(at least in Romania) to go to school when you are 17
Personally I would probably describe them as a teenager to be honest, but yeah they’re definitely a minor nonetheless
I mean, I get where you’re coming from. There are a lot of people who say 17, and treat that like the individual in question is 7. Which is pretty weird.
They very much are, both legally and emotionally.
I would generally describe a 17 year old as a young adult. Not defending Gaetz, who is a colossal turd, but I think it’s disingenuous to call a 17 year old a “child”.
Edit for posterity: Yeah, Gaetz sucks, no I am not trying to say it’s okay for a grown man to have any kind of sexual relationship with a 17 year old. I’m just saying that using the same term to describe a 5 year old as someone literally months away from being able to vote is just… I dunno. Imprecise. For a community called “Fediverse vs. Disinformation” calling Gaetz a pedo for having sex with a 17 year old doesn’t feel correct to me.
it’s not though? if we’re talking about their emotional or even academic performance, sure I’d say it might be a bit of a stretch as your brain continues development well into your mid-late 20s but yeah why not, it’s pretty innocuous.
but when the topic is getting paid for sex…you still wanna call them young adults? why not 16 y/o as well? 15 is only two years away, that’s a young adult too, no?
fuck outta here with that shit. she’s under 18, she’s legally a child. there is nothing disingenuous about that, it’s literally the law.
How about 9 years old? Old enough, eh?
What the fuck kinda shit do you have to be on to do some shit like this?
It’s a trip because physically they’re pretty close to adulthood, although they still have some more maturing to do. Mentally and emotionally they’re close to adulthood in some regards, and still very much children in others. Their brains literally haven’t developed certain processing areas yet, so they’re not as capable as actual adults at processing things like long-term consequences. Lastly, to anyone who is an actual full-blown adult, 17 year olds are full-on kids. The only people who don’t think they are, are other kids around their age, and apparently dudes like Gaetz.
As a school transportation worker, I find your opinion nauseating. 17 year olds are NOT adults. They are minors, and if you feel comfortable treating them as an adult there something very wrong with you. For the good of the species, do better, we should love our children enough to keep them safe.
They are minors, never said otherwise. But they’re also not children.
Wow, what an asshole
He defended his vote in a Facebook live video in December 2017, saying, “Unless there is an overwhelming, compelling reason that our existing agencies in the federal government can’t handle that problem, I vote no because voters in Northwest Florida did not send me to Washington to go and create more federal government. If anything, we should be abolishing a lot of the agencies at the federal level like the Department of Education, like the EPA and sending that power back to our state governments.”
“To be fair, little Matty always was a bit of a grammar nazi.” - Mrs. Henderson, grade 3
I can’t wait for his creepy face to start fading from my memory just like that George Santos character.
Rafael Cruz next please
Nothing to stop trump from keeping quiet and still appointing this ghoul during his recess appointments.
He’ll get some job for sure. Maybe not AG anymore, but something.
How dare you talk about George Anthony Devolder Santos like that? I’m cryin rn
Ssshhh !! You know Trump’s not done with appointments yet, right?
I can’t decide if Gaetz or Mike Johnson has the more punchable face.
I feel like for me, Johnson’s is more punchable, based solely on the fact that I don’t want to make physical contact with Gaetz.
If I can use some intermediate object like a baseball bat? Gaetz all day.
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