True, but I don’t think it’s much of a stretch that my point of view is closer to that of society-at-large. Perhaps that’s inconsequential to the debate at hand, though.
For me it’s not about policing people’s thoughts and punishing them for it, it’s about idenitifying people in need of help and getting them that help. I guess I can understand skepticism about therapy, especially if it’s compuslory. I’ve personally had a good experience with psychotherapy, so that biases me for sure. I’m sorry if you’ve had a negative experience or know of people that have.
Treating political dissent and homosexuality as mental illness are things that were shameful and we know that are wrong now. Pedophilia is worlds away from political dissent and homosexuality.
I find that to be rather discompassionate. Sick people should be helped. Also, I make my home in Japan and hope they take action against virtual child porn here too. This is unlikely, however, since they only criminalized possession of actual child pornography this year. Also, they censor “normal” porn here, so I don’t think you should be holding Japan up as some bastion of free expression. The only reason it took so long to ban images and video of actual children engaging in actual sexual acts and that virtual depictions remain legal is that there’s a long, deep, and disturbing tradition of sexualizing children in Japan.
I’m pretty sure the accepted theory is that pedophiles are a risk for the comission of sexual abuse, so the onus is on you to disprove that.
Fireworks are banned in lots of places in the United States as they pose a fire hazard. There are electrical codes in place and there is certainly electrical work that should be left to professionals. Prohibition of certain kinds of drugs is indeed a fruitless venture as is treating addicts as criminals, but discouraging the use of harder drugs and ensuring that addicts go into treatment is reasonable.