I think Polanski is scum, but we have to remember it was the sixties and mores were quite a bit different. Sex was everywhere and most people didn’t think it was a big deal. STDs could be fixed with a shot of penicillin and promiscuous sex was almost an expectation. That being said Polanski was an adult, and even if his victim was a willing participant, he had an obligation to protect her from herself. In the eighties, I had a friend’s sixteen year old daughter pursuing me and doing everything short of groping or raping me. She was a beautiful girl, but I turned her down and had a long talk with her to help her see her attraction to me wasn’t a good thing. She went on to find a good guy her own age and has three great kids.
Yes no doubt, but a 44 years? old person having sex with a 13 year old girl isn't just scum - but a mentally depraved person. (see his own childhood experience in Nazi occupied Poland) He shouldn't just serve prison time, but needs to be placed in a mental institution - till declared fit for society.
As for society in the 60's - 70's - yes everyone is familiar with "make love not war" - some women demonstratively walking around without bra's - and certain Hippie communities living in and out of the day, being stoned and fabulating "great" ideas as how to change the world. Did this absolute minority group represent society? IMO - nowhere near. There were hundreds of thousands of people if not millions demonstrating against the Vietnam war - were they all Hippies and stoned folks? certainly not. But certainly extreme prevailing authoritarian politics beheld by the mainstream parties at the time, drove then straight into these "new ideas/ideologies" beholding political groups.
As for your personal account, an adult in Germany having consensual sex with a 16 year old - wasn't illegal in the 60's. (16 was and still is the legal limit in Germany) But you needed and still need parental consent for a marriage. That the US society in general is more conservative then that of Germany is understood. But this isn't the point or issue to me.
Since the 60's - two, now almost 3 generations of people have been raised in the "spirit" of what the Americans define as lefty/liberals - and in Germany is defined as ANTIFA and GREENS. These sympathizers or members have the same common goal - to reject and "fight"
authority and
respect defined by the state and beheld in majority by it's general population.
These "lefty/libs" represent at most 30% of a western countries population. At average around 15-20% of the population could be considered to be "lefty/libs" hardliners. As such they wouldn't pose any serious political threat to the so called establishment, aside from creating chaos in public life, via demonstrations or e.g. sit-in blockades, etc. etc.
The real problem is the personal/morally corrupt agenda of politicians and their respective
mainstream parties. To compromise and as such be willing to do anything to keep their hands onto power, their lucrative ($) political standing and their status in society. This has led to official and unofficial political government coalitions. And the GREENS are indisputable the masters in this "game".
Due to this "immoral-corrupt" - "traitorous"? behavior of mainstream parties towards their voters and as such towards the majority of society - the Greens or "lefty/libs" manage to impose/implement laws that they, based onto their own % would never be able to achieve or push through.
So to come back to the topic - the Greens (
defy authority and respect and
general prevailing moral standards) naturally now have millions of younger folks who simply defy the age limit of 16 because it "represents" to them authority, respect and general prevailing moral standards. So "explanations" - reasoning's" are being pushed, e.g. - today's people and younger folks are physically and mentally more mature then those in the 60' or 70's.
Actually the exact opposite is the case - due to parents pampering and life-experience based via I-phones, these "younger people" are far more incapable towards decision making processes and life experience, then any other generation before them.
But that doesn't hinder the Green's now to push for the age limit of 16 to be dropped to 14. (after all it's just about pleasing
their future potential voters). And due to these morally corrupt mainstream politicians they will likely achieve it.
And it will be those dishonest, immoral mainstream parties that will then in return formulate to the general population and their voters:
Society is changing - sex today is seen differently, Sex is everywhere and most people don't think it's a big deal anyway. etc. etc. - Not the Greens who pushed this in the first place, standing behind the curtain and laughing their heads off.
