I'm withholding judgment, too. I think if he really was doing this a lot, on a regular basis, he would be smart enough to have someone else obtain it for him. The fact that he "outed" himself about going to the site to me seems to support his story.
As for whether it's a strange excuse or not -- well, how many people who are abused as children end up in the sex trade? How many exorcise their demons by getting into S&M? Maybe going to this site is a way for Townshend to exorcise his demons. Andrea Dworkin wrote a piece once about Nazi imagery in porn she found in Israel and how disturbing she found it. Susie Bright responded to that by noting (I'm paraphrasing, because I can't locate the exact quote -- lo siento) that she didn't find that unusual: we eroticize the taboo and the dangerous, and in Israel, what's more taboo than the Holocaust? If Townshend was abused (and I wouldn't discount the possibility), then it does make a weird sort of sense that he would want to confront it in that way. If he had tons of child porn on his computers, that would be one thing. But until all the evidence is in, I say don't give in to the group lynching mentality. Not that you were.
On a different topic: I shared your "I don't like that baby" anecdote with my best pal Kat, whose daughter is two months old. She laughed a whole lot. "Uh, it's a BABY! How can you form any reasonable perspective on a person at that stage of life, let alone pronounce judgment to someone else?" Exactly.
i hope it doesn't sound as if i am praying for the guy to go down in flames, firing up my torch and sharpening my pitchfork. i'm not.
but if he just gave them his cc info, etc., to prove something, to give to the police... why? there ARE law enforcement agencies doing the same thing, obviously. and no matter one's good intentions, it's still illegal.
and of course i understand the taboo fascination this.. stuff has, for many former.. (ugh, the word "victims" still sucks. but i have to use it anyway.) that's the thing that not one of the various and sundry popular methods for "getting over it" will acknowledge. but just because it's darkly attractive to someone doesn't make it acceptable. and using one's own abuse as a justification is embracing sick victim culture with open arms. which is reprehensible. it's like people who pity abusers because said abusers were perhaps abused as children... so? where can one find sympathy for not being responsible for one's own actions?
i meant it was an odd excuse - explanation would doubtless have been a better word - in the sense that i didn't think it would clarify much. better to not have said anything, i think. but hey, i'm not pete townshend, am i?
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As for whether it's a strange excuse or not -- well, how many people who are abused as children end up in the sex trade? How many exorcise their demons by getting into S&M? Maybe going to this site is a way for Townshend to exorcise his demons. Andrea Dworkin wrote a piece once about Nazi imagery in porn she found in Israel and how disturbing she found it. Susie Bright responded to that by noting (I'm paraphrasing, because I can't locate the exact quote -- lo siento) that she didn't find that unusual: we eroticize the taboo and the dangerous, and in Israel, what's more taboo than the Holocaust? If Townshend was abused (and I wouldn't discount the possibility), then it does make a weird sort of sense that he would want to confront it in that way. If he had tons of child porn on his computers, that would be one thing. But until all the evidence is in, I say don't give in to the group lynching mentality. Not that you were.
On a different topic: I shared your "I don't like that baby" anecdote with my best pal Kat, whose daughter is two months old. She laughed a whole lot. "Uh, it's a BABY! How can you form any reasonable perspective on a person at that stage of life, let alone pronounce judgment to someone else?" Exactly.
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but if he just gave them his cc info, etc., to prove something, to give to the police... why? there ARE law enforcement agencies doing the same thing, obviously. and no matter one's good intentions, it's still illegal.
and of course i understand the taboo fascination this.. stuff has, for many former.. (ugh, the word "victims" still sucks. but i have to use it anyway.) that's the thing that not one of the various and sundry popular methods for "getting over it" will acknowledge. but just because it's darkly attractive to someone doesn't make it acceptable. and using one's own abuse as a justification is embracing sick victim culture with open arms. which is reprehensible. it's like people who pity abusers because said abusers were perhaps abused as children... so? where can one find sympathy for not being responsible for one's own actions?
i meant it was an odd excuse - explanation would doubtless have been a better word - in the sense that i didn't think it would clarify much. better to not have said anything, i think. but hey, i'm not pete townshend, am i?
i sound like the morality police. i'll stop now.