• abbadon420@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    2 days ago

    Age is only a number. It’s perfectly legal to write those numbers in octals instead of decimals… That would still make it illegal in most western countries though.

    • Zagorath@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      2 days ago

      That would still make it illegal in most western countries though.

      It sounds like they started dating when she was 16, which means as gross as it is, it’s not illegal in most places. Unless there was some sort of grooming, which is definitely possible given they first met when she was 15, but nothing we’ve been told in the story lets us determine for sure that it’s illegal.

      As for octal, you can’t write 9 in octal, so we know 1984 has to be base 10 at a minimum.

      • abbadon420@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        2 days ago

        You can write 1984 in octal as 3700. But I meant that 16 in octal is 20, most often 18 is the age at which you’re officially an adult. Maybe “age of consent” is something different, but it’s nasty.

        • Zagorath@aussie.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          2 days ago

          You can write 1984 in octal as 3700

          Right, but we’ve read it as “1984” already, so it’s a question of how we interpret those digits. It could be decimal 1984, or if it’s dozenal it would be (3124)10, or hexadecimal would mean it’s (6532)10. And the post itself doesn’t actually mention an age, that’s just us interpreting it

          Maybe “age of consent” is something different

          It is, very often. Most countries have it at 16 or lower, as do most states in America, I believe. (I’m not American, and that’s just something I vaguely recall hearing an American say. Never bothered verifying it myself.)

          • abbadon420@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            2 days ago

            You’re technically correct, but I was counting on a bit of “poetic freedom”. Write as octal, read as decimal.

            The post does mention age, not explicitly, but it is what the post is about.

            2000 - 1984 = 16

            2000 - 1959 = 41

            I don’t care about legality, this is borderline predatory and therefor wrong. Maybe they’re still happily married and (without more context) I’m sure OP loves their parents (so would I), but that doesn’t change how I look at this.

            • Zagorath@aussie.zone
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              2 days ago

              I don’t care about legality

              That would still make it illegal in most western countries though

              That’s what I was responding to.

              • abbadon420@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                2 days ago

                Haha you got me there XD I’m talking in circles.

                My sister started dating someone of 40 when she was 23. That was already a bit of a shock in my family, but it’s okay. I just can’t imagine anyone feeling fine with the situation OP describes. But yeah, it’s probably not technically illegal.

                • Zagorath@aussie.zone
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  2 days ago

                  I mean yeah, morally speaking, the half+7 rule works shockingly well. It’s just not entirely reasonable for the law to encode something like that though, so there’s always going to be a line somewhere. 16 seems reasonable to me (but then, I’m also a supporter of lowering the voting age to 16…)

    • animeeyes@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      2 days ago

      Age is just a number is also what my mom’s parents said when they found out about their relationship. 🙃