BangkokReady

I'm simply giving my opinion based on observations. No. I don't think you're that stupid. You're saying this as some sort of subtle accusation. There is no reason to assume this. There are a broad range of sources that foreigners can access to get an idea of what happens in Thailand. See the comment you're replying to. No need to type it out again. You can disagree if you wish. Who said anything about the whole of Thai society accepting it? Most Thais don't really care about what happens to people unrelated to them or anything that doesn't affect them. 1, This doesn't have anything to do with the US as it is a completely different culture. 2, I don't believe that it happens anywhere near the same level. 3, The reaction to it in the US is completely different to Thailand, showing the very different attitude towards it in the US. Mentioning the US only serves to highlight the fact that attitudes are very different in Thailand and doesn't help your argument at all.

Well, it is and it isn't. To us, from our perspective, thinking of our home countries, it's obviously something that is not only illegal, but also something that is universally condemned, probably the worst crime that a man can commit. But, in Thailand, although it is illegal, it is something that is often accepted, tolerated, turned a blind eye to, etc., generally were there is a relationship with the girl being underage and the man being in his twenties. It would also seem that underage prostitution is tolerated in some instances (although I don't know much more than what we see in the news about that). And, of course, wealthy men in Asia get away with a lot. See, I wasn't/haven't pointed the finger at anyone. That isn't the angle I was taking. A deviant in deviant land... Sometimes you have to simply try to shrug things off. We all see many things every day that we would no doubt like to fix. It would be hard to live in Thailand if you worried about every one of them. You certainly cannot change anything. You need to be able to accept some things as being "just the way things are in Thailand". It doesn't mean you approve of it. It doesn't mean you cannot make a tiny effort in select safe situations (I've certainly shown very discrete disapproval on a number of occasions about certain behaviours in Thailand). It doesn't mean that you don't sometimes hear things that break your heart. But there's only so much of your emotional reserves that you can dedicate to something that you have almost zero chance of fixing. You'd be going up against a society, and even people who are in the victim group are indoctrinated to believe it is how things should be. And, sorry, but typing "that's disgusting, he should have his penis cut off" on a forum just isn't the tonic for me that I guess it is for others. I'd rather show kindness to people have been treated unkindly in real life, than to rage against some formless phantom online.

Is that where the "liquid molly" car stickers come from?

In every example you have quoted, it's quite clear to me, if a 14 year old girl seeks out and initiates sex with a man, then those things have happened. She bares no legal responsibility, the man does, whomever initiates is irrelevant. The adult will always carry the legal responsibility. But that isn't what I was discussing. I was very specifically taking issue with the comment of "it's always the guy doing X, Y, Z", when obviously the girl, underage or not, is perfectly capable of doing those things also. That's it. I'm not assigning blame and there is no perpetrator that needs to be blamed, as I am simply discussing the possibility of something occurring.

I made those comments specifically in response to another comment where Bluespunk said something about it always being the case that the older man was the one who sought out the girl and initiated sex, so I questioned "what if the 14 year old girl who sought out the man and initiated sex, would it still be the case that the man sought out the girl and initiated sex?". I didn't mention criminality, responsibility or whether it changed who was "to blame". If You want to pretend that meant something different for your own bizarre reasons, I guess I can't do much to stop you. ????‍♂️

We? Why do you have a weird fixation on this being a discussion about "us Westerners". No one has said anything about any of "us" doing anything. We're discussing what Thai people do in Thailand. I guess I can see why you're so confused if your brain has centered Western people as the actors in this for some strange reason.

How so?

Why should I have to condemn it? I haven't defended it. I haven't said that it's a good thing. I'm not discussing the merits of it. Do you seriously believe that unless someone publicly states that they don't approve of something then they must be in favour of it? We all need to state "I don't want to <deleted>*k 14 year old girls" in order to discuss it happening in Thailand? And if we don't then the default assumption is that we do? Sorry, but I'm not down with the whole witch hunt, forced speech, take a knee thing. And you realise words don't mean much, right? Someone could come to this thread and say how disgusting they find it but not mean that at all.

Why do you need to turn it into "if you say that X happens in Thailand then you must want to do X and be totally in favour of it"?

Sure, it's not everyone. Why do you need to accuse anyone? Someone saying "it's accepted/not unusual in Thailand" isn't saying they or anyone they know want to have a relationship with an underage girl. Accusing people of something in some sort of attempt to shame them is a lazy way to argue.

No $hit, but who said anything about legal responsibility? Not that I mentioned court, but are you suggesting that if factually the girl came onto the guy and initiated sex, and you said that in court, they would say "no, the guy came onto the girl and initiated sex"? Just seems a bit weird. If the girl came onto the guy then the girl came onto the guy.

Ipso facto we can't acknowledge that it's a common thing in Thailand or objectively discuss Thailand's attitude to underage sex?

You didn't.

Obviously, but why not answer the actual question?

Well, answer it yourself then?

Sorry, you're saying that if a 14 year old girl came onto an adult and initiated sex, that would mean he was coming on to her and initiating sex? No.

Why do you need to try and accuse someone simply because they are saying something is common place and tolerated in Thailand and you don't like it? You're basically saying "you're not agreeing with us about this, so that means you have sex with underage children".

Would it still be the adult doing everything? I'll answer for you: no, of course it wouldn't, so what you said is illogical.

So if the underage girl sought out and came on to the adult man, initiating all sexual acts, would it still be the the adult doing everything?

Even when culturally the law is considered advisory and is generally only enforced when there is some bigger problem caused or a wealthy hiso person demands action? You must know that in Thailand people break the law all day every day and generally no one does anything about it. Thai behaviour is dictated largely by custom and tradition, hence its very common to see underage girls in relationships with twenty something (age) men.

Or something "wrong" with the girl's value system. Whether that's from parents or Thai society, is another question. One thing we know is that Thais love money and prostitution is not exactly frowned upon.

Sadly not an uncommon thing to happen in Thailand. I wouldn't wish feminism on any society, but Thailand would definitely benefit from being a little nicer to women and girls.

There are plenty of gangsters/hoods who will shoot someone over something just as trivial.

How is Trump antisemitic?

It's OK. Comrade Corbyn has gone. You can drop the charade now.