I think this is the right forum for this matter. Here is the lead paragraph from an article I just ran across:
*Missouri House Speaker John Diehl said Thursday that he is resigning from the Legislature after acknowledging that he exchanged sexually charged text messages with a college student serving as a Capitol intern.*
I would think that at this point, everyone knows that electronic messages can not be kept private. I would think that politicians would know better than to put sexually charged messages in their text messages. I would think that most adults and all public office holders would know that it’s viewed as extremely inappropriate, if not potentially illegal, to engage in sexually charged conversation with someone who is of college age. How does this happen? How in the fark does this happen to the farking Speaker of the House of the State of Missouri? This subject has been in the public spotlight for years, it has brought great amounts of public shame and ridicule to people, it has brought down careers. And yet…and yet…they still do it? WTF?
You could say the same about anybody who commits any kind of infraction. Why do athletes still take performance enhancing drugs? Why does anyone rob a convenience store? Why does anyone have an affair? The answer is simple, they think they won’t get caught.
And who knows, maybe a lot people get away with doing all of those things. We don’t know what the odds are since we only hear about the ones who get caught.
To many men of that age, the prospect of sex with a college student is a pretty significant motivation to do something stupid. What’s the use of even being the Speaker of the House other than better sexual opportunities? (I’m only half joking). On the other hand, imagine how many of electronic messages like these take place every day and are never made public. Maybe the odds were in his favor.
I wrote a song (loose remake of Marty Robbins El Paso) with modern lyrics that would have been perfect for Kid Rock to take to Number One, making me millions of dollars.
It’s titled Pussy Makes You Do Some Fucked-Up Shit.
Well people rob convenience stores because they need the money. I think that is relatively easy to understand. If they’re desperate enough they may do so even if they think it’s likely they will be caught. Why to politicians or other notable people exchange such notes with younger people? Perhaps the rest of us just don’t understand how much they need to. That’s a possible explanation. I don’t think it can be all of the story by a long shot, but hat just might show how little I know about it.
What’s potentially illegal about college age? Intern is the magic word, not college age, since it brings up sexual harassment. I don’t care of the work subordinate is 20 or 40 that’s a recipe for throwing your career away.
I think what you (the OP) is missing is probably 50% of politicians are doing it. As are 50% of executives. And 70% of mid-level entrepreneurs. But out of literally hundreds of thousands of such men across the US, 2 or 3 get outed each year.
Having the hots for barely-20 yo girls is normal human behavior for overachieving 40-60 yo men.
I’m not suggesting its socially acceptable behavior in the US today. I’m merely suggesting they’re almost all thinking it, and of those only some of them have the self-restraint to not act on it.
The issue isn’t that they are doing it - the issue is that they are doing it with text messages. Things that never get erased, that leave them open to blackmail or outing forever.