deathbird@mander.xyz 2 weeks ago
The obsession with pedos has long struck me as an excuse to generate violence against a target group by naming them as the most unambiguously vile people. It’s the core of blood libel, pizza gate, anti-drag laws, etc. I don’t think the turnaround of “you know who the real pedos are?” is all that effective. I think we need a revulsion to vigilantism that is even stronger than revulsion to any crime, so claims of crime or harm cannot be used to lend support to vigilante violence.
hanrahan@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
They used to be able to do it with gay people and be lauded by the public and had indifference to their violence by governments. They’ve just moved groups, same shitty people.
deathbird@mander.xyz 2 weeks ago
Yeah, but the odds (and advisability) of “normalizing” pedos (despite some movements in the 70’s), similar to how gay people were is…well I think it’s low, for reasons I hope I don’t have to explain. That’s what makes them a useful perennial target, or claim. Universal one too, even people on the left will throw it around as an accusation. It can devolve into arguments about who is or isn’t a valid target for vigilantism (whether they do or don’t fit the category), when the argument should be against vigilantism itself.