What did Adam Lanza think the age of consent should be?

I hear folks talking about Adam defending pedophilia. What did he say the age of consent should be?

He said "I don’t think there should be any age of consent".

Flanders Darrel wrote:

I hear folks talking about Adam defending pedophilia. What did he say the age of consent should be?

STK wrote:

He said "I don’t think there should be any age of consent".

I'd like to add that his defense of pedophilia extended beyond advocating for no age of consent. He went so far as to suggest the social stigma against pedophiles was equivalent to homophobic related bullying.

Some people, mostley muslims, belive the age of consent is around 9. Mohammed marries Aisha at that age.

QuestionMark wrote:

Flanders Darrel wrote:

I hear folks talking about Adam defending pedophilia. What did he say the age of consent should be?

STK wrote:

He said "I don’t think there should be any age of consent".

I'd like to add that his defense of pedophilia extended beyond advocating for no age of consent. He went so far as to suggest the social stigma against pedophiles was equivalent to homophobic related bullying.

so basically he was one of those guys who said that pedophilia was pedosexual

"hey u cant arrest me,im pedosexual. if your not part of the solution your part of the problem buddy"

eldigato wrote:

so basically he was one of those guys who said that pedophilia was pedosexual

"hey u cant arrest me,im pedosexual. if your not part of the solution your part of the problem buddy"

I don't think he explicitly called it "pedosexual" but yeah, he was a pedo white knight. It's the main reason he's considered a pedo himself.

QuestionMark wrote:

eldigato wrote:

so basically he was one of those guys who said that pedophilia was pedosexual

"hey u cant arrest me,im pedosexual. if your not part of the solution your part of the problem buddy"

I don't think he explicitly called it "pedosexual" but yeah, he was a pedo white knight. It's the main reason he's considered a pedo himself.

If Adam believed this, it wasn't his own idea. A 2007 research paper on pedophilia that Adam apparently had on his computer supports the notion that pedophilia is a distinct sexual orientation. It very plainly states:
A substantial amount of research has been performed on what leads one to be attracted to children. Pedophilia, especially the exclusive type, may be best thought of as its own category of sexual orientation, not something that is superimposed on an existing heterosexual or homosexual identity.

There are conflicting statements about what Adam really thought of pedophilia. In his essay, his basic premise was that rights should be extended equally to all people. He was especially disturbed that while the public was outraged when a gay man committed suicide after being publicly outed by a roommate who hid a camera in his dorm room, the same outrage was not apparent when a person of interest on the show To Catch a Predator committed suicide during filming. This does suggest that he viewed pedophilia as a sexuality, like homosexuality. He seemed to believe that if the person in question had no control over his sexual preferences, it was not acceptable to persecute him by exposing and ridiculing him on public television, resulting in the man shooting himself in the head. He viewed the disparity in attitude as hypocrisy. There's more to the essay but that was the basic sentiment in the introductory paragraphs.

Aside from that, however, a friend of Adam's said that he once posted an opinion online stating that he thought of pedophilia as a disease that should be treated and not something to be considered evil. This suggests that at this time, he did not view pedophilia as a sexuality but as an illness. This point of view could also explain why he did not believe that pedophiles should be persecuted, because generally, it is not socially acceptable to think of the thoughts and behaviors of someone with a mental illness as evil, considering that this is also something which is out of their control when they are not in treatment.

Adam's online friend was also asked about this and when speaking to her, he expressed a slightly different point of view. She said that he hated pedophiles because they could be a threat to children and that child/adult sexual relationships could be unhealthy. At the same time, she also shared what he wrote in his essay, which is that these relationships could possibly be beneficial to both parties, presumably under circumstances where the child is consenting. Among other things, Adam believed that children should have autonomy over their own bodies and this was certainly a major factor in his reasoning for abolition of the age of consent, if his essay is to be believed.

Here is a quote from his essay to give some idea of why he may have felt that instituting a legal age of consent was immoral, and it is argued from the perspective of protecting the rights of the child.

Quote :

The right of children to have sexual relationships is a small step toward liberating them from the oppression of adults which they currently endure. 

I would encourage everyone to carefully read through the entire essay and take note of the perspective to understand what he was trying to express. He was advocating for the cessation of what he perceived to be the persecution of pedophiles for their sexuality but a larger part of the essay is focused on the liberation of children from oppression.

It appears to me that Adam's views on pedophilia evolved over time. He stated that this was a topic of interest since he was 14 years old, which would have been between 2006 and 2007. Based on the timing, I believe that there are two possible events that may have sparked Adam's original interest. Both of these were events that would have been reported in the news and there is proof that he had an interest in both of them.

The first event, which Adam referred to in his essay, is explained here. It happened in late 2006 and the episode of To Catch a Predator was aired in early 2007.

The second event, which was discussed in a book that was found in Adam's bedroom, is explained here. This happened in late 2006, which was around the same time that Adam stated that he found the Columbine forum through a Google search.

If these incidents factored heavily in his understanding of pedophilia, then it would add some insight into why he might be so focused on the idea that the persecution (or prosecution) of pedophiles could lead to terrible things.

In terms of Adam's own sexuality, he did not seem to have much sexual interest in anyone at all. In his essay, he referred to not understanding the adult sexuality that is pervasive in our culture. In fact, he said that it was "as disgusting to me as pedophilia is," which is a line that is often overlooked. He also said that he didn't personally understand why a child would want to "be sexual" but that he also didn't understand why adults were so sexual (and going back to the topic of his essay for a moment, he also said that his own disgust or lack of understanding was not sufficient reason to desire the persecution of anyone for their sexual preferences or a reason to impose his own perspective on others). He once expressed that he had believed in the past that he was asexual, which suggests that he was not actually asexual, but his online friend said that he had told her that he had only been attracted to one or two people in his life and that "it was really not a factor for him." His essay also said that "if" he was ever going to engage in sexual activity, it would have to be meaningful. He ended his essay by saying that he was confused about his sexuality but that he was "certain" that he was not a pedophile but obviously, that blunt declaration means very little to most people (including me ), though there are still reasons to believe that he was not actually a pedophile.

sscc wrote:

In his essay, he referred to not understanding the adult sexuality that is pervasive in our culture. In fact, he said that it was "as disgusting to me as pedophilia is," which is a line that is often overlooked. 

The problem is I can't imagine him being fully truthful with a statement like that. 

sscc wrote:

there are still reasons to believe that he was not actually a pedophile.

There are also plenty of reasons to believe he was. It just seems way too suspicious to me. He goes on the internet and tries his best to remain anonymous using tor and other methods, defends pedophiles, advocates for the removal of age of consent laws, and when he eventually goes on his murder spree, he makes sure to destroy his computer's hard drive (an incredibly odd move unless there was suspicious material on there), and his main targets are six year olds*.

Is it possible that Adam Lanza was not a pedophile? Yes. But the picture being painted here is rather suggestive. 

*To be entirely fair here I don't think "pedo rage" was the only thing driving Lanza. I think it also had a great deal to do with wanting to get a large kill count with relative ease, wanting to give the biggest middle finger he could to a society he hated, and wanting to kill people whom he felt were more functional than him. Assuming of course he wasn't having a psychotic episode.

QuestionMark wrote:

sscc wrote:

In his essay, he referred to not understanding the adult sexuality that is pervasive in our culture. In fact, he said that it was "as disgusting to me as pedophilia is," which is a line that is often overlooked. 

The problem is I can't imagine him being fully truthful with a statement like that. 

sscc wrote:

there are still reasons to believe that he was not actually a pedophile.

There are also plenty of reasons to believe he was. It just seems way too suspicious to me. He goes on the internet and tries his best to remain anonymous using tor and other methods, defends pedophiles, advocates for the removal of age of consent laws, and when he eventually goes on his murder spree, he makes sure to destroy his computer's hard drive (an incredibly odd move unless there was suspicious material on there), and his main targets are six year olds*.

Is it possible that Adam Lanza was not a pedophile? Yes. But the picture being painted here is rather suggestive. 

*To be entirely fair here I don't think "pedo rage" was the only thing driving Lanza. I think it also had a great deal to do with wanting to get a large kill count with relative ease, wanting to give the biggest middle finger he could to a society he hated, and wanting to kill people whom he felt were more functional than him. Assuming of course he wasn't having a psychotic episode.

I wonde lf thats the reason he hated schools and loved monkey culture.
He said he would like to he a hubter gatherer.
Why ? Hes not a big tough guy.
Probably so he could mate with children.


Im on the fence about this question.

Smiggles94 wrote:

I wonde lf thats the reason he hated schools and loved monkey culture.
He said he would like to he a hubter gatherer.
Why ? Hes not a big tough guy.
Probably so he could mate with children.


Im on the fence about this question.

I think it's more that he didn't feel like he would function in any kind of society unless it was as primitive as possible.

Smiggles94 wrote:

I wonde lf thats the reason he hated schools and loved monkey culture.
He said he would like to he a hubter gatherer.
Why ? Hes not a big tough guy.
Probably so he could mate with children.
Im on the fence about this question.

Adam was almost certainly an anarcho-primitivist. He thought that civilization was detrimental to humanity and caused illness and alienation. He felt that schools were an important part of the system because they provide much of the cultural "indoctrination" necessary to maintain a functioning, civilized society. He viewed chimps as being similar to humans but without the interference of advanced culture or civilization.

Short summary from Wikipedia for reference wrote:

Anarcho-primitivism is an anarchist critique of the origins and progress of civilization. According to anarcho-primitivism, the shift from hunter-gatherer to agricultural subsistence gave rise to social stratification, coercion, alienation, and overpopulation. Anarcho-primitivists advocate a return of non-"civilized" ways of life through deindustrialization, abolition of the division of labor or specialization, and abandonment of large-scale organization technologies.
...
Anarcho-primitivists view civilization as the logic, institution, and physical apparatus of domestication, control, and domination. They focus primarily on the question of origins. Civilization is seen as the underlying problem or root of oppression, and must therefore be dismantled or destroyed. Anarcho-primitivists describe the rise of civilization as the shift over the past 10,000 years from an existence deeply connected to the web of life, to one psychologically separated from and attempting to control the rest of life. They state that prior to civilization, there generally existed ample leisure time, considerable gender equality and social equality, a non-destructive and uncontrolling approach to the natural world, the absence of organized violence, no mediating or formal institutions, and strong health and robustness. Anarcho-primitivists state that civilization inaugurated mass warfare, the subjugation of women, population growth, busy work, concepts of property, entrenched hierarchies, as well as encouraging the spread of diseases. They claim that civilization begins with and relies on an enforced renunciation of instinctual freedom and that it is impossible to reform away such a renunciation.

They believe that hunter-gatherer societies are preferable to our modern technological society in many ways and that technological progress ultimately had a destructive influence on humanity because humans were not evolved for this sort of lifestyle. They usually pinpoint the development of agriculture as the beginning of the destructive influence of technology on society and the industrial revolution as a major acceleration of the trend.

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I'd previously written something out but I lost it so I'll just say that I never heard that Adam used Tor or that he attempted to remain anonymous while browsing the internet. He did format his hard drive but we don't know why he did that because the only explanation his friend gave was admitted speculation. I feel that it could easily have been an attempt to keep his system "clean" in the same way that he moved almost all of his belongings out of his room.

The only other point I'll make is that Dylan Klebold, Seung-Hui Cho and other shooters also destroyed or removed their hard drives so it was not an incredibly odd move for him to do the same.

hey baby are you sandy hook elementary school

sscc wrote:

The only other point I'll make is that Dylan Klebold, Seung-Hui Cho and other shooters also destroyed or removed their hard drives so it was not an incredibly odd move for him to do the same.

That invites suspicion from me as well, although of a different nature.