Conservative Nightmare Fuel

[AprilStorms]

I'm surprised at the attitude toward incest, a little bit. I'd heard it brought into the marriage equality debate once or twice, but the numbers are higher than expected. The threat of rape of kids is still enough to set me, personally, against it. (I didn't expect anyone to support underage sex, but I guess I'm wrong again... Still really curious as to why people chose that option. )

Anyway, for those of you who supported relationships between relatives - how close is too close? First cousins? Siblings? Parent and child? Anything as long as they're all adults? I'm genuinely curious.

And it looks like we have our first person opposed to interracial relationships. Wonder if they just forgot to click the button?

[Guest]

Anyway, for those of you who supported relationships between relatives - how close is too close? First cousins? Siblings? Parent and child? Anything as long as they're all adults? I'm genuinely curious.

Anything as long as they're all adults.

[Cimmerian]

I'm surprised at the attitude toward incest, a little bit. I'd heard it brought into the marriage equality debate once or twice, but the numbers are higher than expected. The threat of rape of kids is still enough to set me, personally, against it. (I didn't expect anyone to support underage sex, but I guess I'm wrong again... Still really curious as to why people chose that option. )

Anyway, for those of you who supported relationships between relatives - how close is too close? First cousins? Siblings? Parent and child? Anything as long as they're all adults? I'm genuinely curious.

See, I won't support any adult having sex with children, period-- but I don't factor them into the incest consideration.

Could it happen? Yes, but as incest and sex with children were listed as two separate listings I think many people were considering adults only for incest. (At least, by the posts I've seen on the thread thus far.) So I looked at it on the level of adults only.

I don't have a line on what is "too close" for incest relationships. I admit certain relationship combinations (parent/child) disturb me a bit compared to the others, but if everyone is an adult of sane mind who is capable of consent then I don't see why other peoples' morals or the possibility/ability of them having children should be what decides whether or not it should be allowed.

Many couples don't want kids. And with the stigma attached to incest, incestuous couples might be happy just to be "allowed" to be together without hiding. I feel like society assumes everyone wants kids, or that they're going to be a couples first "want" when they might just rather be together without be attacked.

If they want kids: Yes, the probability of genetically related conditions goes up the closer the relation is and with the number of generations that produce children, but with the science we have now we know what genetic markers are that make a child prone to inheriting certain conditions or disorders. Parents can be genetically typed to see what their child could possibly end up with, and the probability of some of them. Not all close relation matches that produce a child are prone to certain inheritable diseases/conditions either-- it's all about individual genetics until the family has so much incest in the DNA that it's mutated and/or reduced variety in the gene pool. One generation/child born from familial DNA isn't likely to cause major problems unless otherwise indicated; it's not like the child is any more prone to wanting to then romantically be with a family member. (At least not in anything I've seen yet.)

If they don't want kids of both their exact DNA then we still have so much technology that they could use a donor and just one of them to have a kid-- plenty of families do that. Or they could adopt.

(Interesting thread by the way! This one is fun to watch. :D )

[natsume]

You would be hard pressed to find a psychologist who wouldn't tell you how unhealthy a sexual relationship with your immediate family would be. People seem quite supportive of it here for some reason. And don't respond "well, what if you were brother and sister separated at birth?" Or something absurdly unlikely. Most incestual relationships are based off of psychological abuse. Most incestual relationships are with children, not two adults. It's like saying you support poaching because the elephant they killed could have had cancer.

[Guest]

It's like saying you support poaching because the elephant they killed could have had cancer.

In what way does that analogy make sense to you??

[knout]

I guess it does make more sense if you consider incest as 2 consenting adults. To me incest just screams underaged and that's why it felt weird that it had more support than I expected... But now having read that and seeing the poll options, I see more clearly.

[Anthracite_Impreza]

See I've never thought of incest and child abuse together? Everyone's against paedophilia anyway, so doesn't that solve the problem?

The way I see it, animal breeders regularly breed related animals together and (almost) no one gives a damn, so why give a damn in humans? Reeks of human supremacy to me...

[knout]

Sure, the general consensus prevents paedophilia, but you still get little girls being married to their cousins and uncles every year :/

[Guest]

See I've never thought of incest and child abuse together? Everyone's against paedophilia anyway, so doesn't that solve the problem?

The way I see it, animal breeders regularly breed related animals together and (almost) no one gives a damn, so why give a damn in humans? Reeks of human supremacy to me...

This.

[Confusion 0]

See I've never thought of incest and child abuse together? Everyone's against paedophilia anyway, so doesn't that solve the problem?

Pedophilia and child abuse aren't the same thing. Pedophilia is an attraction, not an action.

[AprilStorms]

See I've never thought of incest and child abuse together? Everyone's against paedophilia anyway, so doesn't that solve the problem?

The way I see it, animal breeders regularly breed related animals together and (almost) no one gives a damn, so why give a damn in humans? Reeks of human supremacy to me...

I think the concerns arise from how other genetic problems like hemophilia don't compound with every generation but incest does. Breed two (unrelated) hemophiliac dogs and you get hemophiliac puppies. No better off than the parents, but no worse either. You could breed those hemophiliac dogs with more (unrelated) hemophiliac dogs and all you get is more hemophiliac dogs. No healthier, but no sicker either. Breed two healthy but related dogs and then those puppies with their relatives and the first couple generations might be okay but eventually more and more problems show up - newer generations are sicker than the old. This is why purebred dogs have so many danged health problems.

Sure, the general consensus prevents paedophilia, but you still get little girls being married to their cousins and uncles every year :/

But the places in which child marriage happens are mostly not in first world countries. People who have internet access and so can respond to this poll are more likely to live in the first world - so there's a discrepancy.

[Anthracite_Impreza]

See I've never thought of incest and child abuse together? Everyone's against paedophilia anyway, so doesn't that solve the problem?

The way I see it, animal breeders regularly breed related animals together and (almost) no one gives a damn, so why give a damn in humans? Reeks of human supremacy to me...

I think the concerns arise from how other genetic problems like hemophilia don't compound with every generation but incest does. Breed two (unrelated) hemophiliac dogs and you get hemophiliac puppies. No better off than the parents, but no worse either. You could breed those hemophiliac dogs with more (unrelated) hemophiliac dogs and all you get is more hemophiliac dogs. No healthier, but no sicker either. Breed two healthy but related dogs and then those puppies with their relatives and the first couple generations might be okay but eventually more and more problems show up - newer generations are sicker than the old. This is why purebred dogs have so many danged health problems.

This is true, but I severely doubt there will be enough people having incestuous relationships to compound that much...

[Junibud]

People can do whatever they want as long as we can insure consent (which is why I find bestiality and pedophilia problematic)

[noparlpf]

Support: Same-sex relationships, polyamory, interracial relationships.
Oppose: Sex with animals, sex with children.
Unsure: Incest.

In my opinion, there's no reason why it's any of my business what consenting adults do with each other in private. It's also none of the government's business.

Animals and children cannot, by definition, consent to sex, so that's right out.

Incest...well, the concern of genetic disease is kind of a hypocritical argument if we let people with, for example, Huntington's (or any autosomal dominant genetic disease) breed. My concern with incest is that there's rarely not a power imbalance at play between immediate family members, so the line between consent and abuse is blurred. For simplicity I'd probably say to err on the side of caution and avoid the mess.

[kaysir]

Poly pan grey ace product of an interracial relationship here, supportin' all that! Pedophilia, however, I am firmly against. If you love someone or want to do "adult" things with them, wait til they're legal. If your interest will have faded by then, sucks for you. That's how I feel, at least. Now... Bestiality and incest are super weird to me, but... like.... if you can tell they're into it or whatever.... just like don't force it? uh.... ahem, anyway

[Mundane Mesh]

I'm a bit torn on the issue with incest so I chose to neither oppose nor support it in this poll. Although in reality I do support some forms of incestuous relationships.

I'm against it if it also is non consensual or if one of the participants in the relationship is underage.

I can also understand the argument that if the relationship leads to children the child are at greater risk to be born with different kinds of illnesses (although the same can be said about childern of several other groups of people that do have the right to marry and have children regardless).

I don't see how incestuous relationships is wrong if it doesn't lead to children (eg a homosexual incestuous relationship) if it's between two consenting adults. Maybe we would think it's weird, but it's not our decision to decide who others are supposed to love. It doesn't hurt us nor the people in the relationship. If they thought it was weird they wouldn't be in the rellationship in the first place!

(Bestiality and pedophilic rellationships however are wrong because animals can't consent and children are below the age of consent and thus can their judgement not be fully trusted.)

[Guest]

My parents are in an interracial relationship and produced me, so of course I'd support that. :lol: I also support same-sex relationships and polyamory (as long as I'm not involved because I'm not into that).

Sex with animals is a no-no for me. The animals don't really have a say so it's kind of disturbing. I'd support incest if the children weren't at risk of being born with defects and illnesses. And I believe children are incapable of consenting, so that's a no for me too.

[booksoversex]

My stance on polyamory is that I wouldn't want to be in a relationship like that myself, but I don't really mind it otherwise. I think it would get complicated quickly if you could marry a bunch of people, though, plus it would further some rather sexist practices in certain cultrues etc. But people being together with as many as they like, doesn't bother me, I just think it would get too complicated if they could marry several people. At least as long as special rights/privileges come with that. AND, I notice most people who enter into polyamorous relationships (at least who are public about it) are many women and one man, and they're often very religious. It seems a bit cult-ish to me, and sort of sexist (it's not a coincidence that it's always a man with many wives to "enjoy").

When it comes to incest, I am disturbed by it even though I understand that many enter those relations willingly (at least when there's not power play such as huge age differences). BUT, an important distinction: I don't really consider cousins incest. In my home country (Norway), (first) cousins can marry legally. So it's not really that frowned upon here, although it's not too common either.

[Raina.]

I obviously support same-gender and interracial relationships. Everyone should. I genuinely can't deal with anyone who doesn't cause it's based on racism and homophobia, so. I don't have space in my life for those people.

I def support poly relationships, too, but I couldn't personally be in one - I know of people who do, and I do understand in a way? They just have enough love to give to more than one person!

100% against pedophilia and beastiality. Just. N o.

Unsure about incest, as there's stories of healthy relationships out there? As long as they're both adults/aware of the consequences and it's consensual, I guess. I just don't feel like I can judge this properly?

[KaitlynS]

I have no problem with the first three and the incest one is okay with me as long as it is between two consenting adults and they are not doing anything that could cause harm to others like having sex while driving or something like that, and I am against having sex with animals and kids.

[Guest]

This poll is being locked and moved to the read-only Census Archive for 2015. As part of ongoing Census Forum organization, and in an attempt to keep the demographics of the polls current with the active user base at the time, each poll will last for one year. However, members are allowed and even encouraged to restart new polls similar to the archived ones if they like them.

Serran
SPF&A & Census Moderator