this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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In what appeared to be a moment of misspeaking, anti-LGBTQ+ Republican Sen. Ted Cruz (TX) said in a recent congressional speech, “How about we all come together and say ‘Let’s stop attacking pedophiles’?”

During a congressional hearing on the current president’s actions addressing crime in cities — which seems mostly to be insulting large city mayors, ignoring higher-crime areas in red states, and then sending in armed federal officers against the mayors’ wishes — Sen. Cruz referred to Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-NJ) plea for Democrats and Republicans to “come together and have bipartisan agreement.”

“I think that’s a great idea. We should have bipartisan agreement,” Cruz said. “How about we all come together and say, ‘Let’s stop murder’? How about we all come together and say, ‘Let’s stop rape’? How about we all come together and say, ‘Let’s stop attacking pedophiles’?”

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[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 hours ago

Or, to put another way, "let's keep defending pedophiles".

[–] AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Scrolling past headlines like this one while the Curb your enthusiasm theme plays on loop.

[–] root@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

For me it's the Always Sunny in Philadelphia theme

[–] FalschgeldFurkan@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

Wow, a brain made of butter

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I wish that homunculus of a fleshbag had the empathetic capacity to feel any kind of philia. It might make him about literally anything but himself.

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 hours ago

Autophilia?

[–] NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net 17 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Did he say it again or was this the one from a few months back? Because either way this is hilarious

[–] klugerama@lemmy.world 5 points 13 hours ago

Date on the article is September 2025.

[–] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 12 points 17 hours ago

Ted, you stupid motherfucker, how about we start executing them instead of protecting them?

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 9 points 16 hours ago

We’d attack policy, but Republicans don’t have any.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 15 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Just to be clear, ALL MAGAs are Pedophiles, or Pedophile Protectors.

You know another name for a Pedophile Protector?

Pedophile.

[–] thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Nazi apologists are Nazis

Pedophile protectors are pedophiles

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 3 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

What about nazi pedophiles apologists protecting nazi pedophiles??

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 2 points 14 hours ago

There is no limit on stacking labels.

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 8 points 17 hours ago

Rafael cant suck enough pedo cock

[–] boaratio@lemmy.world 6 points 17 hours ago (7 children)

His name is Raphael, not Ted.

[–] sploosh@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

I have negative love for the guy, but people have a right to call themselves what they want. Even shitty cowards.

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 7 points 16 hours ago

While it’s true that Bruce Jenner is not their name even if they’re deeply horrid, it feels like Cruz here calls himself Ted so that he can get votes from racist people who wouldn’t elect him solely based on his name. I’m 50/50 on it.

[–] boaratio@lemmy.world -1 points 16 hours ago
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[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 3 points 15 hours ago

Texas, the pedophile state. Don't like it? Maybe get some new reps!

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 132 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Same article as September for those curious if Raphael did it again, it's just an old article.

[–] LMurch@thelemmy.club 17 points 1 day ago (6 children)

I have a feeling he was trying to say, "let's stop calling people pedos". That's the best sane-washing I can do.

Have we seen Cruz's name in the 'Trump Files - featuring Jeffrey Epstein'? Maybe he really is standing up for the Epstein class. He's been known to lick Trump's boots, every now and then.

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago

The only people in the US being broadly unjustly called pedos are minorities. They are being called that by his party and the people who support his party.

Don’t do work for this parasite.

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[–] yonderbarn@lazysoci.al 7 points 1 day ago
[–] exaybachae@startrek.website 25 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Well, it's technically true. Pedophilia, attraction to children (prepubescent youths), is generally best addressed with acknowledgement, treatment, and management.

Sexual assault, and rape, and predator practices are the crimes identified pedophiles are typically found participating in if their attraction to kids isn't addressed appropriately beforehand.

Ya'll don't really think being attracted to kids is a crime itself do you? Or that there aren't thousands, or tens of thousands, of people out there that are attracted to kids and just don't act on it, or haven't been identified?

Pedophilia, though specific in nature, is a similar subject to mental health in general, in how it's treated by society. As it becomes more acceptable to admit to having mental health conditions, the instances of those conditions leading to dire circumstances dimishes.

Be more proactive, and less reactive.

Note: though it should be clear enough, I do want to specifically state that this message in no way promotes or supports criminal actions taken towards children or knowingly disregarding such actions if the assailants are rich, or any other such nonsense.

Like being tall, or black, or gay, being a pedophile is a state of being, not an action, and people should not be attacked for their state of being, full stop. Crimes they commit are another matter entirely.

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 3 points 18 hours ago

We don't call people pedophiles unless there's evidence that they've abused children. I shouldn't have to explain that. Playing these semantic word games makes it seem like you're running defense for Ted Cruz, and I assure you he does not deserve that from you.

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago

So, we do understand “context” though, right? No one is hearing about a guy who never hurt anyone but who is managing their problem and thinking “I’m gunna go beat them up.” However, there do happen to be a whole lot of people on Cruz’s side of the aisle, including the president, who seem to be the absolute worse possible version of a pedophile.

You haven’t said anything that nullifies, or even weakens, the arguments made or sentiments show in this post.

[–] D_C@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I saw a documentary about three or four decades ago with a guy who was a paedophile. After watching it I felt bad for him, he basically said "I was never abused. To me it seems natural to think of children as sexual beings. I realise why it is wrong and I will never act on it.
Think of it this way. You may find blondes beautiful, but you don't know why. Now I imagine if everyone else was wanting you dead because you like blondes. That's me. And no one will help me."

He looked for help in many different ways and places, the doctors, therapists, mental health clinics etc etc but they all just kept on reporting him to the police. I think in the end he tried to commit suicide, or he tried to chop his own balls off to stop the urges. It was something extreme. After that he got the help he needed anyways.

I've looked for it a few times but never could find it again. I may be misremembering certain things, but the basics are her knew it was a mental disorder and wanted help. But only got it when things got extreme.
These are the people who should get help.

The ones like that obese orange child rapist should get the noose.

[–] volvoxvsmarla@sopuli.xyz 3 points 16 hours ago

I'm so glad documentaries like that exist. It was documentaries like the one you mentioned that I stumbled across and that made me realize that "locking up all the pedophile monsters" was a narrative that would harm my children, not protect them. I can barely imagine how lonely and cruel such a fate must be and the bare minimum we can do as a society is to offer the help, support, and compassion to these people.

[–] naught101@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don't think that's what Cruz was talking about

[–] volvoxvsmarla@sopuli.xyz 3 points 16 hours ago

It's not, which is why OP put "technically" in the first sentence. And I think they did a great job differentiating the matter. It's clearly not what Ted Cruz meant, yet his sentence in itself - taken out of his context - is correct. Pedophiles, as in people who have this attraction, are human beings. They deserve proactive help and support. People who abuse children are criminal( human being)s. They deserve to be treated as the human garbage that they are and be prosecuted. There is a venn diagram style overlap between child rapists and pedophiles. But it is not a necessity to have pedophilia in order to molest children (a lot of criminals assault children not out of sexual attraction but because of power dynamics), nor is every pedophile a molester or plans to eventually assault children. We need to focus on prosecuting child abusers no matter their sexual orientation, while helping people with pedophilic attractions without stigmatizing them in the meantime. Their lives suck as it is already.

The Epstein case has drawn a lot of attention to pedophilia but we need to be really careful to not get lost here.

[–] Cantaloupe@lemmy.fedioasis.cc 16 points 1 day ago

I can't think of a better way to quell the flames of public outcry!

[–] kn33@lemmy.world 38 points 1 day ago (9 children)

September 30, 2025

Not that I think it's unimportant, but I wish we'd keep things current here.

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[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 21 points 1 day ago (2 children)

wasn't this awhile ago or did he do it again.

yeah, I had to check the date and it was in September last year

[–] tonytins@pawb.social 9 points 1 day ago

My bad. It resurfaced on my feed and I mistook for a new article.

[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The more time passes the more I realize how widespread the problem of rich and powerful people living under a completely different set of rules has taken effect. They are abusing this situation to a point where they have developed their own subculture and much looser morality standards. They can't even help themselves but let it slip that they think that being a pedophile is considered normal now.

And that's just the tip of the lawlessness and moral depravity iceberg. We've seen on increasing occasions that they don't even care about hiding it anymore because Trump has shown them that there are no consequences.

[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 28 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

For the past decade, senator Rafael Edward Cruz, who immigrated here from Canada and who goes by a different name for some reason, continues to be the most shittiest human being to everybody. From dead naming people, to blocking social services, to fleeing Texas when it got too cold, texas being the state he immigrated to.

Yet people keep voting for him.

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[–] TemplaerDude@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Inevitable.

Hope you’re proud of your representation, Texas.

[–] DrDickHandler@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago
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