Posted on 02/07/2023 6:59:13 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Somehow I missed this story, but my colleague-by-extension Madeline Leesman at Townhall picked it up.
A Professor at SUNY-Fredonia has been arguing–for decades now–that pedophilia should be legalized and that it isn’t immoral at all. It’s like playing kickball or other sports, and if kids consent to the sex there is no clear moral reason that it is wrong or should be prohibited.
Yikes!
🚨🚨🚨 Professor says an adult wanting to have sex with a kid is accepted as being wrong but “it’s not obvious to me that it is in fact wrong” pic.twitter.com/ygC5nuHDNa
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 2, 2022
The video was posted by the invaluable Libs of TikTok, who somehow manages to find some of the most insane content that is posted on the internet.
The New York Post and Fox News picked up the story, but I am unaware of any other MSM media coverage of the story.
A State University of New York at Fredonia professor is under investigation by the school after videos emerged of him defending pedophilia and insisting it wasn’t “obvious” to him why it was wrong, according to a report.
Professor Stephen Kershnar, who teaches libertarian philosophy and applied ethics at SUNY Fredonia, was filmed questioning whether pedophilia was in fact unethical.
“Imagine that an adult male wants to have sex with a 12-year-old girl. Imagine that she’s a willing participant,” Kershnar says in the viral clip shared on Twitter by Libs of TikTok.
“A very standard, very widely held view is that there’s something deeply wrong about this — and it’s wrong independent of it being criminalized,” Kershnar continues.
“It’s not obvious to me that it’s in fact wrong. I think this is a mistake. And I think exploring that why it’s a mistake will tell us not only things about adult/sex and statutory rape and also fundamental principles of morality,” the professor adds in his jaw-dropping comments.
He compares minors consenting to sex to them consenting to a kickball game or lessons pic.twitter.com/AG4rAF1koT
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 2, 2022
SUNY-Fredonia President responded to the video floating around–which dates back to a podcast discussion from 2020–with the following statement:
A message from SUNY Fredonia President Stephen H. Kolison
pic.twitter.com/EDZCHCE7ch— SUNY Fredonia (@FredoniaU) February 2, 2022
That’s all well and good, except it is entirely deceptive in intent. It turns out that Professor Stephen Kershnar has been making these arguments for years, even publishing academic papers about the subject and discussing his beliefs in his classes. It is simply impossible for the university to have been unaware of his philosophical position up until this moment.
In other words, they are just covering their asses by disassociating themselves from his ideas when the public became aware that he was spreading them.
This is truly horrifying pic.twitter.com/RrSeyb1oGf
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 2, 2022
According to the Post, Kershnar has penned one hundred articles and book chapters on topics like abortion, adult-child sex, hell, pornography, sexual fantasies, slavery, and torture. And, he allegedly wrote in an abstract that it is “morally permissible” and “should be legally permissible” for state and private schools to discriminate against women, claiming that women are “likely to produce less than male counterparts.”
Students at SUNY Fredonia told Buffalo-based outlet WKBW that Kershnar made them uncomfortable.
“When I was reading his essays on the age of consent and thinking that underaged sex and sex with girls who are twelve are okay and shouldn’t be thought of or questioned because you’re taking away the right from people who wanna do it. I think that was the breaking point for me,” Tralle Cotter, a junior, told the outlet.
“I hope they [the school] will remove him, maybe I’m optimistic or I want to trust this school,” Olivia Sylvester, a sophomore, told the outlet. “But I want to be able to love this college, and I want to do it, and I want to be proud that I came from here, so I want to trust they’re going to do the right thing.”
It is all appalling, and Kershnar should never have been hired or given tenure at the school.
But should he be fired for making his arguments? I would argue that no, he shouldn’t. He should be excoriated in public.
Why? Because ideas, even horrible ideas, should be discussed in universities. Critical Race Theory, Marxism, Satanism, and all manner of ideas are out in the wild, and intellectual interrogation and refutation should be done in public with rational arguments. For the average person in normal life, simple disgust is a powerful moral argument and likely to be a good guide for living a mostly moral life.
But many of the moral positions we take for granted were once considered disgusting, and many things which people took for granted in the past we now consider disgusting. That is part of the value of philosophy and a commitment to rational discussion. Simply yelling down people for proposing ideas we find repellent is not a defense against those ideas becoming accepted. It is important to understand them and be able to respond to punishment, because often enough the effectiveness of that response weakens over time.
Remember, the disgust for interacting with Black people in some parts of the US was so high that Whites didn’t share spaces or drinking fountains with them. We now know this is evil. Social norms are good guides for daily life, but an insufficient foundation for a moral society.
The age of consent is different in different cultures. It has changed over time here in the United States, and even each state sets the bar differently. Social norms are powerful, but rational arguments can buttress those norms or change them.
That doesn’t mean I agree with Kershnar. I just don’t think the standard for what is taught to college-age students should be in agreement with me or others.
Were I on the hiring committee at the time of his application, I likely would have voted against his hiring, although I would have heard out the arguments for doing so. I just don’t you can or should suppress ideas, but fight them on their turf.
So I give SUNY-Fredonia an “F” for how they have handled this situation. They lied about whether they knew Kershnar’s views, and then canceled his classes and put him under investigation simply to save themselves grief.
Hateful ideas are hateful, but also ideas. Ideas should be confronted, since they will never go away. We need to express our disgust and argue our point.
Yelling “shut up” is not an argument.
I think a crowbar across the face would straighten this guy right out.
Ooh, that one will go over big in the faculty lounge. That probably isn't true of transgender "women?, right? Right?
pedophiles have no redeeming qualities.
they can’t be rehabilitated.
Kill them.
And those that enable them.
The Bible has a lot to say about Pedastery. It is not good, and at times, the Popo seems to either have forgotten the front pRt of the book, or never read it.
Yeah, imagine, since no 12 year old girl is going to agree with that.
If they are going to legitimize that kind of age difference, they need to apologize to the Republican guy who ran for senate IIRC, in GA.
Or any other republican politician they vilified over alleged pedophilia.
I’d hate to be Kershnar’s young son or daughter. Hopefully he has no children.
He looks like an incel.
Though, strictly speaking, Pederasty is defined as sexual relations specifically with a boy.
The term you're looking for is Pedophilia.
And yes, the Bible does have something to say about that.
Regards,
Ask the professor why we don’t give 12 yr olds credit cards, or enroll them in adult chess tournaments, or send them to war.
Young children do not yet have the judgement to make decisions with far-reaching consequences. That’s why they have parents supervising their lives.
Now, it used to be that kids could be married as young as 13, but that was only with parental permission, with the parents carefully evaluating the prospective spouses for suitability.
The real objective here is the professor wants to remove all parental control and supervision and transfer that power to representatives of the State.
“Pederasty or paederasty (US: / ˈ p ɛ d ər æ s t i / or UK: / ˈ p iː d ər æ s t i /) is a sexual relationship between an adult man and a boy, pubescent or adolescent [citation needed].The term pederasty is primarily used to refer to historical practices of certain cultures, particularly ancient Greece and ancient Rome.. In most countries today such relationships are illegal.” It is different from Pedophilia because it targets young adolescent boys. Many Emperors had this trait because it wasn’t so much about sex, but more about exhibiting their power to do whatever they wanted, especially to make themselves as gods. Caliigula comes to mind, as well as Nebuchadnezzar and his grandson Belshazzar, which is mentioned in the Midrash of Rashi. What I see today is a total affront to what God had taught, and the purpose is the same as it was in Babylon - to raise themselves up to be as gods. Pedophilia? I don’t really see that connection in what is taught in the Bible.
The point is, the ruling class is already on board with it. Not that they are all child rapists, but OK with it. Like "gay rights" fifty years ago.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
