I believe @mikumiotics said something like that, but "Pedo" used as a serious term for evil crimes and accusation is honestly a red flag, might always has been. It's always been used against queers, for more than a century, it's the current weapon of choice against wierd trans women. Using it in that way is a red flag because it's using it as a weapon that has historically overwhelmingly served to reinforce the hierachy of oppression.
Once again i can't count how frequent the accusation of queers, gay and trans people (esp trans women ofc) preying upon vulnerable children is, how it's used as a one size fits all bag to put sexual deviants in. Don't like someone's kinks/identity? Just say they're a child rapist!
And we won't ignore the way this harms children, as all that professes to "protect children from strangers" does. More control for the parents, children put in a gilded cage. Age verification on the internet doesn't protect kids from "pedos", it helps parents control what their kids do and don't. and so the bars of the gilded cage are made stronger.
All that to say, change begins with you. It begins with you choosing to stop pointing to the specter of the pedophile as this great evil to be stopped by normal people, by not feeding the machine.
Don't reblog that post calling a transfem a pedophile, even if you think it has a point. In fact, if you think it does, take a long hard look within yourself, because i can guarantee you're probably dagerously wrong.
Don't reblog or make vagueposts, either. The weapon is still a weapon, even when it's not aimed to someone specific. All together, remove yourself from the machine that creates the specter of the pedophile as a danger, a predator. Remove it from your dni, dnis are basically worthless as anything but a virtue signal.
The harder step, the next step, is making sure kids can be safe. Not safe in the parent sense, in the hiding away from the world, in the gilded cage, but safe as in safe to exist, safe to be alive.
Take these steps, or make yourself a danger to others.
