maybe IF the 'kill all pedophiles' rhetoric resulted in child abuse prevention I would defend the divine right of beating up random pedophiles as a solution, but it appears to me all concern goes out the window the second it's a child you know and not a stranger online, or the second your current beliefs and biases are challenged.
if you really cared you would talk about things like, I don't know, how the concept of "parental alienation" is used against child abuse victims in court. point is i've never heard any of these people supposedly outraged at child abuse note anything specific other than whatever vague topic qanon is fixated on. oh you're against child sex trafficking? great! did you know most children are not trafficked by strangers? do you know how capitalism and imperialism incentivize the child sex trade? are you ready to confront realities about child abuse the second your personal beliefs are challenged? would you even believe a child if they accused someone you personally see as a good person? it's a topic people express strong feelings towards but feelings are not solutions or based in reality rather than what you heard in a podcast or on tiktok.
one of my most "controversial" assertions are that child sex abuse is not primarily motivated by sexual attraction to minors as a whole, but the power dynamic between adult and child, and the values surrounding sex, gender, and sexuality in a given society. many people point out that there are many popular pedophilic and incest porn categories. have you noticed how much of this context is grounded in patriarchy and the idea of the nuclear family? why is it "daughter and father/stepfather" specifically? why are women seen as more attractive when appearing underage? is this really just a default state of pedophilia when every single role here is socially constructed? I don't care how insane I sound saying this but it's not pedophiles I even fear the most when thinking about child abuse. it's hard to even know if a child molester is attracted to children as a whole or attracted to the vulnerability of a specific child. what I fear are the structures in our society that incentivize and enable the abuse of children.
ultimately it's easy to have an out-group to blame for child abuse that we can just somehow get rid of and then all children are safe. that's a comforting belief to hold. it's just not correct.
"why do you defend pedophiles so much" believe it or not I am not trying my best to give pedophiles better PR in these posts. they exist as a topic here because they've been tied to the topic of child abuse. i'm not thinking about supporting nor denouncing pedophiles at all actually, i'm thinking about what role sexual desire plays in abuse. if you personally can't discuss the topic with me saying "btw I think pedophiles are evil" over and over then that's really a you problem and you can just go off my blog.
