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France Doesn't Have An Official Age Of Consent
France has a reputation for being the most sexually liberated place in the world. Threesomes, affairs, skunk-on-cat -- unlike those English-speaking bores, the French are cool with pretty much anything. And it seems that includes having sex with kids.
French law doesn't technically have an age of consent. Unlike in any half-decent country on this Earth, having sex with a child isn't automatically considered rape in France. Instead, if some monster molests anyone under the age of 15 and prosecutors can't prove the child was "coerced," the crime is classified as a "sexual infraction," which comes with a small fine and maybe, maybe, a few years of jail. For example, in 2017, a 29-year-old man was arrested after he had lured an 11-year-old from a playground and repeatedly had sex with her. But he was acquitted by a judge because his lawyers claimed that her agreeing to go on a walk with him counted as consent, going as far as to say: "We are not dealing with a sexual predator on a poor little faultless goose." No wonder Roman Polanski feels so at home there.
But unlike many insane European laws, this isn't some medieval hangover from a time when people were supposed to marry at age 12 and die at the ripe old age of 12 1/2. This messed-up worldview only came along in the late '60s, when apparently the Sexual Revolution eased taboos a wee bit too much. Certain folks started arguing that children, most of whom can't even be in charge of a lemonade stand, can be considered in charge of their own sexuality in their relations with adults.
"If a 13-year-old girl has the right to take the pill, what is it for?" read one creepy petition signed by many prominent intellectuals, including an incredibly old Jean-Paul Sartre (to the surprise of no one, he remained an asshole right up 'til the end). Suddenly "pedophilia was considered a sexual orientation ... It was all part of a vision of freedom," according to psychiatrist Muriel Salmona. Anything to stay ahead of the perv curve, we guess.
After several protests, the French government promised to codify the age of consent in 2018, but did a 180 at the last moment, leaving France's children up for grabs. They must've suddenly remembered their favorite Sartre quote about high school girls.
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Sweden Is Almost 100 Percent Anti-Drug
You'd think that a nation constantly on the brink of cabin fever whose skies occasionally light up like a Led Zeppelin laser show would be into mind-altering substances. But for some reason, when it comes to drugs, Sweden doesn't need to take anything to be paranoid as hell.
Chad Blakley, lightsoverlapland.comEven your nature looks like it's on LSD! Get it together, Sweden.
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