Sure. Similarly I don't think it's unreasonable to judge people according to the moral stance of the time in which they lived, even if I find that moral stance objectionable in the present context.

Who is Dawkins to judge whether they were harmed?

I don't agree with his stance.

"But we know that the victims of sexual abuse suffer the same effects whether it was 50 years ago or yesterday."

In what possible sense is the brutal abuse of a child "the most in thing right now"?

so it was OK for Jefferson to have slaves

Peter Watt, director of child protection at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, pointed out that those who have been abused and suffered the repercussions for decades may disagree.

Ok, but where did he say it was "OK in all cases"? Isn't it clear that he is only talking about his own experience, and the experience of some classmates he knows about?

I don't see where Dawkins is saying that pedophilia on the whole is fine. His remarks are pretty specifically limited to the context of his own experience and the experiences of some number of classmates who, one can assume, he's in contact with and thus has some kind of knowledge about the degree of harm they…

I don't understand the question, or why you think it's a matter of spreading. Spreading has nothing to do with it.

Well, nothing, because I don't treat my bedsheets like underwear. That's the point.

Ugh, it does, but I don't gather it's particularly unique in that regard.

Unless your mattress is a piece of cardboard over a subway vent and your ass cheeks are the kinds that crack walnuts, you absolutely put your butthole on your sheets when you sit up. That's absolutely happening.

Sitting up. It's a thing. People do it.

You know, the butthole. The shit-chute. That orifice that hot poop comes out of, and which is not at all effectively cleansed and sterilized just by wiping dry, thin paper over it a couple of times. That part of your body which will assuredly plant an invisible load of coliform bacteria each time you sit up on the…

How do you get in and out of bed without sitting up/down as part of that process? Maybe you take a flying swan dive onto the mattress, but how do you get up out of it? Do you just roll off the side and onto the floor like a sack of flour?

You don't sit up? Twist around at night? Kick the sheets off one leg but leave the other covered? You sleep like a positioned corpse, either flat on your back like a plank or face-down, like on a massage table - but never in the "crawl" position?

Believe it or not there's a substantial number of median options between "Doris Day in The Pajama Game" and your own personal "Oh! Calcutta!" revival. All of which don't involve rubbing your sweaty butthole all over your bedsheets.

Well, presumably they're people who don't like getting anus on their bedsheets.

Do the British not have anuses? Otherwise I don't get it.