“I do not think that 50 year old men should be having sex with 16 year old girls. But “
This level of apologia (from Megan McArdle in a podcast with Josh Barro and Ross Douthat) is fucking appalling. Idk what else there is to say.
This happens with*everything* now. No matter how grave the crime or one-dimensional the injustice, after four days the hivemind of American punditry decides that the Real Story is how the people upset about it are the real villains.
Feb 5, 2026 23:34Sure, a wide array of American elites were palling around with a pedophile and eugenicist but did you know that a Pedro Pascal fan account on bluesky is being slightly hyperbolic when posting about it
We're 5 minutes away from "actually it's ephebophilia" being a position you can just print in the WSJ or somewhere, and people just nodding sagely
The worst thing anyone can do is make a fuss
'if there is anything so wrong about it, we ourselves would be upset, and since we ourselves are not that upset, therefore, there must not be anything so wrong about it'
Anyone who has ever experienced an honest emotion without triangulating in order to maintain their status in society is the enemy
