RoadMAP Debate Script
The semi-automated Debate Script makes it easy to reply to most challenges in short-form social media debates on MAPs and sex between adults and minors. It also seeks to close the debate by pushing it towards an inevitable and unresolvable ethical dilemma (for the anti). All you have to do is identify 1 or 2 of the following 3 truth claim types in your opponent's argument, then immediately make the opposing "golden rule" truth claim/s and applicable sub-claims. You then cite the evidence/upload and reproduce the visual excerpts in this article. This advertises the fact that you are well-read on the topic (whether or not you actually are) and allows viewers to access relevant information.
This script does not address misdefinitions, which are common in these debates.
The fundamental rules
- Important: To display confidence and clarity of thought, you first make your corresponding truth claim/s, then evidence them in the same reply.
- If your opponent makes two or more truth claims that require evidence to disprove, only ever address and provide counter-evidence for two in your reply. Any more is overkill.
- If your opponent only makes one truth claim (from sections 1 or 2), make yours in response as per usual. But then pivot, and say something provocative relating to section 3 like "but far more important for me, are the outcomes for minors/youth/children. From peer-reviewed literature, we actually know that no case of consenting, nonviolent sex with an adult has ever been causally linked to harm. The long-term self-perception of "abuse", where simple consent has been given, is largely neutral or positive". This is essentially an attempt to drag your opponent into deep waters, where you can set up the inescapable moral dilemma explained in section 3. Only then do you cite your evidence against their single truth claim.
The Script
Identify one or two of the following claims (may be in different categories).
1. Pedophilia (or Hebephilia) is not a sexuality, or is "invalid"
Their specific truth claim/s might be:
- 1a) Pedophilia is a pathological paraphilia and/or uncommon.
- 1b) No chronophilia (age preference) is a sexuality. It is therefore invalid.
- 1c) Pedophiles or MAPs in general are attempting to gain entry into the LGBT community.
Your golden rule: Pedophilia (or Hebephilia) is already a sexuality, or orientation.
Your immediate and corresponding counter claim/s:
- 1a) Forget about MAP activists, even psychiatrists have accepted for a long time that pedophilia can be an orientation - have you read the DSM-5? Also, phallometric studies have (again, for a long time now) shown that pedophilia is relatively common and hebephilia is very common. Historical and cross-cultural evidence suggests that hebephilia is actually normative in men. This isn't something we can just deny or legislate out of existence.
- 1b) Invalidation/erasure is for neoreactionaries. Even modern psychiatrists (see the DSM-5) have entertained chronophilias as sexual orientations for many years. Historical/anthropological evidence shows that age-structured relations are very common - even in historical eras before there existed any widely received social definition of homosexuality or other alternative gender-based expressions.
- 1c) This is flat-out incorrect, and no one ever cites an example. While the modern LGBT movement was pro-youth rights and largely pro-pedophile til the late 80s, MAPs created their own identity as a response to defamation and their own exclusion from an LGBT movement that is becoming increasingly bourgeoise and mired in subjectivism. MAPs are seeking to reduce stigma, not create provocative new subjectivities!
2. Minors or children are developmentally inferior
Their specific truth claim/s might be:
- 2a) The adult partner has a lot more power, meaning it's abusive.
- 2b) Brain development only ends at 25 years of age. Minors are underdeveloped.
- 2c) Children or minors (thus) can't give "informed consent".
Your golden rule: Minors are developmentally sound & can consent.
Your immediate and corresponding counter claim/s:
- 2a) Under the current system, the younger partner has access to blackmail (ultimate veto) power and the power of attraction - this is backed up by numerous studies that asked minors how they felt. Also, physical relations are not like hand-to-hand combat, so - if power difference automatically led to exploitation, far more adult relationships would have led to lasting trauma.
- 2b) This is a common myth based on outdated studies from the late 00s and early 10s. Gray Matter peaks at around the start of puberty, just after total brain volume. Regardless of size, the prefrontal cortex is already functionally mature at that point, and myelination continues to progress into the 40s. "Impulsivity" is highly debatable and laden with negative value judgments, but is likely adaptive and pro-reproductive to the limited extent it might exist.
- 2c) This is not necessarily true, as even mainstream opinions on older minors would now hold that they can give informed consent to life-changing procedures. However, even with present social stigmas, simple (yes/no) consent is already enough to tell us that outcomes will likely be positive or neutral... go straight to 3c.
3. Harm is far too common - inherent/fundamental
Their specific truth claim/s might be:
- 3a) Children are naturally innocent, and sex robs them of/destroys that innocence.
- 3b) Most modern societies outlaw adult-minor sex because we know it's harmful.
- 3c) Studies (of survivors/criminal/therapeutic samples) demonstrate this terrible harm.
Your golden rule: Harm is not inherent to or common with voluntary/nonviolent activity.
Your immediate and corresponding counter claim/s:
- 3a) Innocence is an age-old postindustrial myth going back to the Victorian era. You are essentially protecting a quasi-religious social institution, and a harmful one at that. Literature strongly supports this.
- 3b) Popularity of a policy does not make right, and who is to say we know better nowadays, when previous societies had quite different standards for far longer than the current post-industrial norms? The assumption of harm is completely contrary to the facts, indicating that today's laws are an early-phase over-reaction in the development of public morals/ethics... go straight to 3c
- 3c) Informed consent is an arbitrary legal concept although in real terms, it's obvious neither children or adults can really claim to give informed consent. What is far more important to outcomes in peer-reviewed studies is simple consent (yes/no) - something adults and minors do all the time. Indeed, when we exclude simple consent from our definition of Child Sexual Abuse, the entire concept of CSA as a predictor of harm becomes empirically invalid because we start counting far too many cases where the child or minor gave simple consent and was left unharmed. This has been known for over 20 years and confirmed repeatedly.
Evidence material you should cite
Decide what arguments and how much material you will cite on the basis of their argument, your reply and whether you want to keep some of your powder dry.
1. Pedophilia (or Hebephilia) is already a sexuality, or orientation
Gallery of excerpt graphics supporting 1a, 1b, 1c, with reference and function in description box.
Link to relevant list of excerpts in Web Archive/Alternative Wiki, and live NW alternative.
Some links to highly pertinent articles.
2. Minors are developmentally sound & can consent
Gallery of excerpt graphics 2a, 2b, 2c, with reference and function in description box.
Link to relevant list of excerpts in Web Archive/Alternative Wiki, and live NW alternative.
Some links to highly pertinent articles.
3. Harm is not inherent to or even common with voluntary/nonviolent activity
Gallery of excerpt graphics 3a, 3b, 3c, with reference and function in description box.
Link to relevant list of excerpts in Web Archive/Alternative Wiki, and live NW alternative.
Some links to highly pertinent articles.
So they called you names?
So, you tried all of this, but your opponent just called you a pedophile or an enabler and pretended they won the debate? Even if this is to be your last contribution, you should remind them:
- 1. That they just lost a debate, so have to resort to ad hominem attacks.
- 2. They are unable to read basic statistical analysis or engage in high-school level deductive reasoning or logic, and therefore not worth your time.
- 3. They clearly never had a genuine interest in pursuing an evidence-based policy discussion, since they just ignored important data on outcomes for youth/minors. They are taking advantage of children by using them to virtue-signal.
- 4. Further, if they profess an interest in tolerance or social justice, point out that they just assumed your minority sexual identity, putting you at risk in a public place. Even with less stigmatized, less commonly defamed identities (trans/non-binary people, gays in homophobic countries) this is considered a grave offence.
- 5. Finally (optional) they are cowardly and inauthentic, butthurt, whining like a bitch or triggered (include a nice triggered gif).
Further discussion of the genetic fallacies and name-calling used against suspected pedophiles can be found on Debate Guide.