Let's see... My original question was, "if the children said they are harmed then why don't you believe them?" Your answer sounds very much like it isn't that you don't believe them, but that the harm is discounted because it's society's fault.
Yet the original question posed was whether children are harmed or not, not whose fault it was.
Suppose that all the harm (all the "psychosocial" bad feelings) is an artifact of society, rather than society's way of preventing the bad feelings that are a natural result of sexual abuse. What then? Is it more important for a child to experience sex with an adult than being well-integrated into society? In fact, one of the most painful aspects of sexual abuse is the child's realization that the adult was deliberately creating a relationship outside societal norms that would alienate them from society.
Secondly, saying that the harm is caused by society and not by sexual abuse is not relevant if your intention is to keep a child from harm. (Sounds more like a rationalization of someone trying to get away with doing harm: I didn't hurt his feelings! Society did!) In this absurd hypothetical scenario where harm is just an artifact of society, you might have three options if you want to actually prevent the child from coming to harm: prevent sexual abuse, remove the child from society (only a monster would do this), or significantly change society. Good luck with the last bit, as
child sexual abuse is outlawed in every developed country, generally with severe criminal penalties (Wikipedia).
child sexual abuse is outlawed in every developed country, generally with severe criminal penalties
And yet, other things that cause children as much or more harm (such as emotional abuse) are not similarly outlawed. This raises a strong suggestion that this has more to do with parents' interests than childrens' interests.
Evolutionarily, parents have a strong incentive to exert influence over their childrens' choice of sexual partners. Actually, they have strong incentives to exert influence over their childrens' choices, period, but this is especially...
What do you believe that most people on this site don't?
I'm especially looking for things that you wouldn't even mention if someone wasn't explicitly asking for them. Stuff you're not even comfortable writing under your own name. Making a one-shot account here is very easy, go ahead and do that if you don't want to tarnish your image.
I think a big problem with a "community" dedicated to being less wrong is that it will make people more concerned about APPEARING less wrong. The biggest part of my intellectual journey so far has been the acquisition of new and startling knowledge, and that knowledge doesn't seem likely to turn up here in the conditions that currently exist.
So please, tell me the crazy things you're otherwise afraid to say. I want to know them, because they might be true.