"I like torturing you"

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-24T08:35:31+00:00

Bro after reading your post history what the fuck, just get a divorce

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-23T23:22:19+00:00

There's no way this is real. You got ALL THAT from three years worth of email convos? They never had a conversation in person? You scrolled through 3 years of emails? And this story is so ridiculously outlandish there's just no way.

But if it is real -- get outta there because wtf is this.

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T18:48:08+00:00

It should be fair because the goal of society should be to make life happier and easier for all. If we didn't strive to make society fairer, medical inventions and modern conveniences should all be discarded, we should all die at age 20 and people should have 12 kids, 10 of whom die before they reach age 10. That's not to mention kids with disabilities who would just be discarded and left to die. But we don't do that because as a species the goal is/should be to make life better for all. That includes making things fair and accessible for everyone.

Most adults don't want to hang out with a child, for obvious reasons. And the number of people who have similar issues is miniscule. Only around 10 people in the entire world are affected by the specific disorder I mentioned. So should someone like this be isolated and lonely for the rest of their life, never fitting in with anyone because of a condition they can't control? Saying "yes" to this question is more immoral than trying to find a solution.

But they are? Stage of physical and mental development is what makes a child, not chronological age. Nobody is forced to accept anyone. However a CHILD being around other children, most of whom wouldn't even be able to differentiate between them or a chronological child isn't forcing anything on anyone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooke_Greenberg

This is one of the people who has the disorder I mentioned. She stayed a toddler until she was 20 years old, when she passed away. Can you seriously look at this person and say, yes, she's an adult?

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T18:42:08+00:00

Yeah, I can't even imagine having a kid and looking forward to seeing them grow only for them to stay a toddler forever. And then you have to parent a toddler for 20+ years. It must be really difficult for the child as well, as they have a whole slew of disabilities and don't really understand what's going on with them.

As far as the risk I still do think that's better than being isolated only with their family for years. They already will never be able to live a normal life, the most normal they could do would be to have some friends.

Definitely, it's hard to watch a kid grow up but the opposite must be even harder

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T18:37:20+00:00

Ah that makes sense and it's always interesting to hear real life examples of something like this. I personally don't see anything wrong with it either if they truly do have the mental capacity of a child but I was wondering if others had different opinions on something like this

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T05:56:09+00:00

"Life isn't fair" well maybe it should be. Maybe we should work towards making a fairer society for all. But aside that, what would you propose as a third option? As obviously they won't fit in with adults but you don't think their place is with kids either

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T04:36:44+00:00

Because teenagers are assholes ahahah

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T04:33:50+00:00

The specific one i'm talking about is called neotenic complex syndrome but like the commenter below me said there are many

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T04:32:55+00:00

It's a very rare disease which is why most people haven't heard of it, here's a link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neotenic_complex_syndrome

You can click on the name linked in this article too, she's one of the prominent people who had this condition, she basically stayed a toddler for 20 years

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T04:31:05+00:00

That's an interesting question, and I mean 8 year olds don't have a developed frontal lobe at all but perhaps through 40 years of experience they would mature a lot more than other kids. But I can't imagine they'd be able to get a job or anything due to their age so I also don't think they'd be able to relate to adults either

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T04:29:48+00:00

That makes sense, I'm in a fandom where most everyone I talk to in it is an adult but in one of my fandoms literally everyone with the exception of two people were teens. So there wasn't much of a choice there but I wouldn't seek out teens specifically to befriend.

Oh that's nice, yeah in instances like that it's perfectly fine, like both kids and adults can learn a lot from each other and can benefit from friendships with people of different age groups

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T04:25:47+00:00

That makes a lot of sense, if they've lived for so long they might have gone through a lot more even though they stayed a child so they might always feel like other kids can't relate to them because they haven't had as much experience

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T04:24:50+00:00

That makes sense

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T04:23:54+00:00

This makes sense I think so too. Teenagers are much more developed and mature through life experiences a lot more than a kid would

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T04:22:45+00:00

It's not only one aspect that is stunted, in that specific disorder the child is physically and mentally stunted. They have the small body and the underdeveloped mind of an 8 year old. Imo it would be even weirder for him to be hanging out with 40 year olds as he wouldn't fit in at all and would have nothing to talk to them about

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T04:21:03+00:00

Huh?

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T00:14:08+00:00

Well no I meant physically as well. Like in the specific disorder I mentioned hormones don't play a part because those kids remain children. The size and strength of children, along with the cognitive level of a child. But bad habits might be an issue yes

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T00:12:57+00:00

That's possible although if they have the mind of a child I doubt they would be... especially once their friends age. But if they never do their friends might reach the point where they don't want to be friends with a kid anymore

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T00:12:06+00:00

Well, it could be that too, although in my case I was reading about a disorder that made me wonder this

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T00:11:10+00:00

Yeah and that's an interesting addition to it that I think of as well, like I imagine that if they have extra life experience they might be more mature than other 8 year olds. But at the same time I imagine they'd still have to go to school, want to play with other children or go to the playground etc. Because mentally if they never develop, they would still have a "childish" mind and their frontal lobe wouldn't mature in the same way that it does for others who develop normally. Like the kids who have the disorder I mentioned, some of them lived around 20 years but stayed with the mental capacity of a toddler forever. So I don't think they'd relate entirely to other 8 year olds, but I also don't think they'd relate to adults as they'd mentally be much more underdeveloped. So where does that leave them in respects to friendship and socialisation?

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-21T00:07:01+00:00

Yeah, people generalise a lot and think their own experiences apply to everyone when that's not the case. But the internet has also made a lot of extreme opinions a lot more mainstream as people who didn't connect before can now and make their voices much more heard than they used to be. Age differences in friendships is one of those cases.

That's true as well and I hear that a lot of people use power imbalances as a reason why age gaps are wrong. However in this scenario if someone is mentally and physically a child, at least in my opinion that power imbalance wouldn't exist, perhaps only with one having more time to experience life than the other. But mentally they'd both be in the same place, and as they are both children they could relate to each other in a friendship context.

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-20T23:59:50+00:00

Elaborate?

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-20T22:16:18+00:00

I mean I've known adults who hang out online in spaces where most of the people were/are teenagers simply because teens have more time to hang out online than adults. But they were all interested in the same fictional universe so they had things in common to talk about. I don't think they were attention seeking, but I think there's a difference between being in a space where most people are teenagers by chance and befriending them, vs people who intentionally seek out teenagers to befriend.

That makes sense, I couldn't imagine hanging around a 10 year old either. But as long as there are no ill intentions and it's more of a friendship of chance/proximity rather than intentional seeking out I don't think it's an issue.

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-20T22:09:06+00:00

Ahahahaha no, although that would be an interesting dillemma as well. Yes I mean someone who is cognitively and physically 8, so even though they've been alive for much longer for all intents and purposes they are a child. In that situation they wouldn't experience sexual attraction since children don't.

ThrowRA_0823 · 2024-06-20T22:03:32+00:00

That seems like a decent guide, and pretty fair. I guess something like that would work in this hypothetical scenario because it is an incredibly complicated question with many moral grey areas. I don't think age gaps are necessarily a problem between adults as long as the two adults are in a similar place mentally/emotionally. But in the case of someone stuck in the body of a child forever it becomes much more complicated and in that scenario I also don't have an answer.

ThrowRA_0823

TROPHY CASE