🤮
Edit: something something there would be a dead Republican representativee
He looks like Gothmog.
Don’t do Gothmog dirty like this. A disfigured and crippled orc being able to command a marching army and dodge half a house thrown at him is definitely in better shape than these pedophiles that can’t even sit on a chair straight.
Gothmog had honor
Gothmog was based on Harvey Weinstein, so the comparison is perfectly apt.
the resemblance is uncanny
“Nu-uh! It’s only grooming when my kid realizes they’re gay, not when I trade her like a brood mare to an influential political old fart in exchange for financial favors and political sponsorship of my relatives!”
Pedocons
I guess one happy couple doesn’t mean other marriages would be happy.
She looks like she’s either holding in a fart or unbelievably uncomfortable next to her own husband.
I mean, yeah, that’s literally the definition of anecdotal evidence. One happy couple doesn’t mean sweet fuck all.
She looks happy to you?
How the fuck could you know, just from a single picture? What, you know she isn’t?
I agree, it feels like most people never looked at pictures of couples before. Even if this is staged or photoshop there is no evidence of her being unhappy.
Now this guy could be the worst person on Earth, but we really don’t know that based on one photo from what is clearly a staged photoshoot (not even a candid shot).
I understand wanting to make a point, but this whole thread to be honest looks exactly to me like the flipside of people salivating against drag shows or stuff like that: hard stances based on no information. One picture and it’s already certain he is a groomer, she is not happy etc.? Yes, there is a big age difference, but this doesn’t mean anything per se.
I am honestly very surprised to see people acting with such confidence over something they objectively know so little about.
i’m not sure how much context I need to decide it is inappropriate for 42 year-old to hit on a high schooler whether she is 18 or not.
You can of course have your own morale, but there is nothing objective. I cannot personally relate to that either, but I also acknowledge that this is purely cultural and therefore relative and possibly temporary. I find the arguments that by definition label it as wrong or worse grooming to be moralistic and - to some extent - bigoted. Even if directed towards a person that probably is a bigot himself etc.
I’m assuming you mean morals.
That’s about as far as I’m willing to take this conversation. Advocating for cultural relativism to defend a 42-year-old dating a highschooler and then calling me bigoted for not accepting it…I mean that has to be the bravest take I’ve seen in a long time. Indefensible, but brave.
By the way, I am an American and this guy lives in my society and culture. Please don’t be an intolerant bigot - apparently that falls under your definition, which is bizarre.
Yes, I mean morals.
I am not calling you bigoted, I am calling the arguments that on principle see a relationship between a 19-20 yo (the age where they realistically started dating) and a 43-45 yo as inherently predatory and wrong, bigoted.
It’s no different from many other moralistic arguments. In fact you fail to elaborate any reason why it’s objectively wrong/predatory for a 45 yo to be with a 20 yo, and are resorting in making thins creepy purely with the language (high-schooler).
Please don’t be an intolerant bigot - apparently that falls under your definition, which is bizarre.
It’s clear that your view is not so universal, even in your country, or such view would have been codified in law (as we have laws against pedophilia now, while in ancient Greece it was absolutely normal to have sex with kids, for example). So in which way I would be a bigot (I really don’t understand what I assume is a provocation).
Man I’m out this is truly insane.
I noticed mods removed this comment with the reason “defending predators”. The point of this whole discussion is that being older doesn’t make you a predator BY DEFAULT, in my opinion (and according to the law, otherwise it would be illegal). You can be a predator and exploit a 17 yo being 18, while a 18 and a 40 yo might have a healthy relationship.
Being a predator makes you a predator, not being older. Hence, I am not defending anybody, I am questioning the rushed and deterministic way in which the “predator” jusdgement is thrown based on nothing else than anagraphic age.
What is wrong with you
Yes, and also as the other commenter stated this is a manipulated photo. So honestly there is no evidence of either.
One commentor expressed skepticism with no proof and then a person responded to them with an article about this couple’s engagement that also tells the story about how they met at an FFA event. So yes, there is pretty concrete evidence this is real.
Which one are you talking about? Because none of them feature concrete proof if you read them. ‘Doesn’t mean for sure’ isn’t concrete and also if it is correct it does not give us the answer to is she happy or not. And slight speculations do not count.
Read the article it is right there. That is concrete proof. It announces their engagement and explicitly says where they met. I don’t understand how this is ambiguous to you.
I must have misunderstood you. Yes there is proof that they met I’m not doubting you, here are the references I’ve collected:
Sorry, I came on too strong there
The body language in the photo makes me want to vomit. GIRL, GET OUT OF THERE.
Not to mention her ‘hide the pain Harold’ eyes.
Her smile is so fake.
0% chance you would have any problem with the “body language” if you had seen this image with no context, lol. There is literally nothing odd about the body language, at all.
People don’t even realize how deeply bias affects their interpretation.
And honestly, she doesn’t look that much younger than you. I think people are overreacting. It looks like you have a nice family.
As far as I know she wants to be there.
That’s what happens with grooming, hence the word.
That looks like a picture of a dad, his daughter, and his grandson.
Gross
That picture looks off. Like the heads don’t match the bodies or something.
It’s because whatever department store he went to didn’t have a shirt off the rack that fit both his neck and his belly.
Combined with the fact that I think she just had a larger than average head
I thought so too, but the story checks out. Their engagement announcement was on page 7 of this local newspaper:
http://eaglevilletnhistory.com/print/Jan_2011.pdf
You have to read between the lines a bit: she was involved in FFA as a high schooler and graduated in 2007. He appears to have been involved in FFA extensively. It doesn’t mean for sure that they first met at an event where she was a student participant, but it seems likely. And of course, the age gap is the same either way.
Not like they admitted it or anything 🙄
Sorry, there wasn’t a source so I just went looking and this was the first thing I found.
Their engagement announcement was on page 7 of this local newspaper:
Looks like a nice father-daughter pic without any context.
And grandson
I’m talking about different pic, without their offspring.
That’s really unfair to paint all Republicans with that brush. Some of them are married to groomers.
there is no age limit. there is an age minimum
ಠ_ಠ
What the fuck…
Also, where were the parents of that girl to stop this shit? Also, where were the friends of that girl to stop thta shit?
This child has no friends, her parents married her off to him. He probably gave them money.
She looks 14 tops and he looks like her dad.
That pic really puts the age difference in perspective
Her: if I marry this old fucker I’ll collect so much life insurance some day.
He was in his 40s, not 70s, lmao, wtf are you talking about? Zero chance that was the reason she married him.
yeah because children are so calculating…
Someone else in the thread has posted an article. They married in 2011, she completed highschool in 2007. She must have been 21-22 when she married. Not really a child (but also nothing tells us she is in for the money, obviously!).
Edit:
https://prospect.org/politics/how-republican-rep-john-rose-found-his-wife/ The article above reports she is from 1989, apparently.
if you’ve been groomed from childhood it doesn’t really matter at what age you get married. you’ve still been manipulated and one can hardly assume real agency is involved. mind that people usually don’t say “let’s get married” and do it that year. the idea of marriage was likely discussed and decided on way earlier.
OK, but it’s a big IF, it’s as much as a conjecture as assuming she is in for the money. We don’t know when they actually started having a relationship, we don’t know if any “grooming” happened, nor to what extent, we don’t know when they decided to get married.
Also, they seem to have met when she was 18. That’s already not a child (which means it can hardly be called grooming). Plus, grooming is not like a lifetime spell, it’s something that victims blames themselves for usually, but not something that they never realize.
To me it seems they simply have a very big age difference.
this is like a notch above “it’s ephebophilia actually”
they meet when she was 17, in highschool. he was not. a couple years later he gave her a scholarship for college and later they got married.
no it’s not a big conjecture. considering he’s an anti LGBT republican makes it almost a guarantee actually.
To me it sounds like a conjecture based on prejudices. Also, I think that women are not necessarily dolls completely subjects to the will of men simply because they are older (and therefore capable of who knows what long-lasting convincing), but humans with autonomy, capable of taking their own decisions.
I don’t see what his shitty political views have to do with the lack of information we have to judge the specific dynamics of their relationship.
The only argument here really is a moralistic one (big age gap), which is something I would expect from conversatives, not from progressive people. Instead I see moralism and infantilization under the pretence of protecting “children”.
it is a conjecture; i just said it’s not a big one. a safe bet, you could say.
if you don’t see what kind there is between right wing religious cunts opposing lgbt rights in the name of family and children and child predation then I can only wish you a quick recovery from your decades long coma.
also you’re going super hard on this not being about children (or “children” to use your scare quotes) is weird. giving big “but she looks mature” vibes. the only argument isn’t the age gap. it’s that one was middle aged and the other was a minor when they met, and they got married a few years later.
This is true, there is barely any info about this situation and people instantly accuse him of grooming. Age difference is probably why people are sour, it is easier to call it grooming and call him a pedophile.
Also the point you made about grooming not being a lifetime spell is important, as the whole point of grooming is to normalise sexual abuse with a minor, now she wasn’t a minor and there isn’t any proof he sexually abused her so where are the assumptions coming from?
I bet you this guy, without a shred of irony, screams “groomer” every time it’s brought to his attention that drag queens exist. Screams until he’s hyperventilating and blue in the face. And 100% believes he’s the good guy fighting the good fight.
Well, see–groomers are giving upstanding men with a penchant for girls less than half their age a bad name ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ He is fighting the good fight! Girls yet to be born and men in their early twenties deserve to have their romantic preferences served so that in another 20 years or so they too can find love in considerably older/younger generations… 🫠 Wtf is wrong with this country, i swear this is fallout from lead exposure but that’s too easy of an answer. There is some deliberate evil at work here, imo
And the GOP wants her not to be able to divorce him unlike the Democrats.
