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PaperclipPerfector  17d ago (text post)   32898 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 4, 2024

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I wonder if their genius idea was to stage a "predator catch," but they went full vigilante with it (because young dumb males).

If you're not aware, there are a ton of "pred-catcher" YouTube and Rumble channels. Basically doing the Chris Hansen thing (who has his own channel now as well): a decoy pretending to be a minor will hang out on dating apps or social media sites until some guy (a guy 99.9% of the time) takes the bait, and then they set him up to come meet the minor. They confront him, try to get him to confess, and then call the police - filming the entire thing.

The YouTubers, however, are familiar with the law and are generally very careful not to do anything that could get them arrested (especially not putting hands on the pred). They also make very sure their targets have thoroughly and unambiguously incriminated themselves. Their decoys usually pretend to be 12 or 13 - well below any possible age of consent - and they wait until they have hours and hours of sexually explicit messages, with the perp clearly stating he's aware of the decoy's (supposed) age.

Usually these are straight men going after young girls, but sometimes they get a gay guy trying to hook up with a boy.

Anyway, that's what this looks like to me: they got the idea from watching a pred-catcher video, but decided to beat the shit out of the perp instead. Very stupid, but probably not a hate crime, although since they found the perp on Grindr, I can imagine a DA who wants to make it a hate crime arguing that they were specifically targeting gay men.

Is the 16 years old gambit being used to cover up the fact that they really just wznted some good old fag bashing?

Idk to me the whole thing seems like a wash. Dude tried to fuck a 16yo, a hazardous occupation even if it is technically legal.

If you're not aware, there are a ton of "pred-catcher" YouTube and Rumble channels.

I was not aware, but your explanation seems quite plausible to me, and all the more so if such content is presently en vogue.

I can imagine a DA who wants to make it a hate crime arguing that they were specifically targeting gay men.

This seems pretty obviously true: they were on Grindr and so they were targeting gay men.

Which I guess goes to the general incoherence of hate crime enhancements in general.

Man I am getting severely Baader-Meinhof'd about Rumble today. Swear I've never heard of it until last night, and four references since then.

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