Why does people on reddit always criticizes a 21-23 year old dating someone 18/19?

I have seen people on reddit even calling 22 year old dating an 18 year old predatory and creepy too and assuming that the older one will manipulate the younger one even though both legal adults and only 4 years apart(could be 3 too if she is gonna be 19 soon). Also why do always assume the 18 year old to be in high school? Both 18 and 22 can be in college too like a college freshman dating a college senior. I have also seen some redditors finding even 19 and 22 weird. So would you call me mentally stunted if I am 22 and talking with a 19 year old and don't notice a big maturity gap between us and can get along well even though reddit treats the gap between 18/19 and 22 to be the same as 30 and 18? I can understand people judging and criticizing a 30 year old for dating an 18 year old because even though its legal, the difference is huge but whats wrong with 21-23 dating some 18/19? Yeah I have seen reddit criticizing even 18 and 21 too.

I'm not sure why this concerns you so much that you've stumbled from Reddit (where, let's face it, you can find opinions for all seasons) onto a UK student site when you are clearly from the US. I can only assume it's to seek validation for a relationship you have or may enter into. In which case yes, you're broadly right. The main issue with age gaps is not so much the age gap itself but the gap in maturity and where the two are in life. A 23 year old who is out of university and in work is in a position where they can exert power over an 18 year old who is still in school, and to a degree an 18 year old who has just started university. It doesn't make the relationship inappropriate and doesn't mean that the 23 year old is doing that, but the risk is there and people on the internet will therefore comment on it. But a 35 year old isn't going to be able to do the same to a 30 year old despite the age gap being the same. So the red flags are situational more than anything.

I have seen people on reddit even calling 22 year old dating an 18 year old predatory and creepy too and assuming that the older one will manipulate the younger one even though both legal adults and only 4 years apart(could be 3 too if she is gonna be 19 soon). Also why do always assume the 18 year old to be in high school? Both 18 and 22 can be in college too like a college freshman dating a college senior. I have also seen some redditors finding even 19 and 22 weird. So would you call me mentally stunted if I am 22 and talking with a 19 year old and don't notice a big maturity gap between us and can get along well even though reddit treats the gap between 18/19 and 22 to be the same as 30 and 18? I can understand people judging and criticizing a 30 year old for dating an 18 year old because even though its legal, the difference is huge but whats wrong with 21-23 dating some 18/19? Yeah I have seen reddit criticizing even 18 and 21 too.

Idk? is it some kind of virtue signal among youngsters to be so concerned with age? legit read people calling someone a paedo for datting a 19 year old (he was 23, she 19). People are weirdly stupid nowadays.

It is. Politically correct culture and some problematic parts of woke culture have infected our society nowadays.

Back in the late 20th century these age gap relationships and sometimes bigger were thought of as fine, rules were more lenient those days. We've turned very protectionist (shall we say infantilising) of the youth these days, culturally.

While we can't turn back the clock, and some things in old days were problematic, we both know this infantilisation of youth has gone too far! They're young adults for **** sakes.

It's not just back in the 20th century. I remember nobody in say 2012, 2011 being bothered by a 19 year old dating whoever let alone a 23 year old. But nowadays it seems that the louder you are about how a 20 year old is "still a kid", the more moral of a person you are seen to be. Being 20 is very young and that person likely has no real experience with relationships. But how do you get experience at that age? you get into a relationship and a 23 year old isn't going to be worse for you than a 19 year old merely because they're 23.

A lot of the posters on reddit's dating and relationship connected threads take very hostile attitudes towards lawful age gap relationships that involve any teenagers or more than 3 years age gap between adults.
Reddit has quite a few toxic cliques that also spend a lot of time together offline and are in the habit of flouting rules against brigading or vote manipulation.

You deserve a rep

Back in 2011-12 you could still gamble at 16, leave school at 16 in England, marry with parent permission in England and Wales. Now our freedoms have been taken away. Many hysterical feminists are trying to take away more of our sexual freedoms. Some girls have also joined in the bandwagon to complain of older men who just wanted to try their luck with youthful ladies (we are talking about those at or over the age of sexual consent, don't misinterpret, TSR mods)

20 year olds are not kids they're young adults. Yet our society latched on to 25 as the "magic number" which our brain is "fully" developed. You don't need a fully developed brain to decide on relationships with adults, you just need a developed enough brain.

If these feminists can band together to gang up on older men going after younger ladies, we should band together to defend these older men, they deserve their freedom to go after younger ladies without the shaming from radical feminists and some hysterical girls trying to take down our reputation.
I've seen some in TSR who advocated for my banning because of my views. This culture has infected significant parts of our society.

Now, how do we fight back?

You deserve a rep.

Although, these things depend on culture. In California this stuff is less accepted because of their culture and their age of sexual consent being 18.

For TSR and UK, the bottom line is 16. Do remember some people in Reddit come from countries where their age of sexual consent is very high, and thus may react in horror.

You deserve a rep

Back in 2011-12 you could still gamble at 16, leave school at 16 in England, marry with parent permission in England and Wales. Now our freedoms have been taken away. Many hysterical feminists are trying to take away more of our sexual freedoms. Some girls have also joined in the bandwagon to complain of older men who just wanted to try their luck with youthful ladies (we are talking about those at or over the age of sexual consent, don't misinterpret, TSR mods)

20 year olds are not kids they're young adults. Yet our society latched on to 25 as the "magic number" which our brain is "fully" developed. You don't need a fully developed brain to decide on relationships with adults, you just need a developed enough brain.

If these feminists can band together to gang up on older men going after younger ladies, we should band together to defend these older men, they deserve their freedom to go after younger ladies without the shaming from radical feminists and some hysterical girls trying to take down our reputation.
I've seen some in TSR who advocated for my banning because of my views. This culture has infected significant parts of our society.

Now, how do we fight back?

You deserve a rep.

Although, these things depend on culture. In California this stuff is less accepted because of their culture and their age of sexual consent being 18.

For TSR and UK, the bottom line is 16. Do remember some people in Reddit come from countries where their age of sexual consent is very high, and thus may react in horror.

Just a small question for information what type of gambling could you do at 16 in 2011-12?

Otherwise I'm in general agreement that the whole question surrounding age gaps is becoming silly.

Don't really fight back anything. I just ridicule these people who think at 18 you can sign up to go to war but not date someone MERELY (this is the important thing, they may not be suitable to date for other reasons but they focus solely on age) because they're 4-5 years older.

The National Lottery, one of those exceptions back then, before they raised the age to 18 in 2021. I felt like that was an overreaction and dismantling of a fine tradition.

At least we are in agreement. The bottom line is not to date or have sex with anyone below 16, period.