HOI4 is an interesting choice for an analogy here.
It’s unanalagous in that HOI4 sanitized itself of the Holocaust specifically so people wouldn’t be able to roleplay committing xenophobic genocide, unlike the game in question which is specifically designed to let you roleplay a pedophile rapist preying on the already abused.
However it is tangentially analogous in the sense that anime tends to have a bit of a Nazi bar issue with pedophilia thanks to people (who I’m gonna have to assume are well intentioned) unintentionally making room for pedophiles to exist and operate with arguments just like the ones you’re making here.
Of course video games don’t cause violence. The only people interested in the pedophile rapist roleplay visual novel, though, are very likely people with an interest in pedophilia. The government is right to monitor and remove people who acquire CSAM instead of going to therapy from society and it isn’t overreach to protect children in this way. Is there a potential for such a system to be abused by the government? Yes, of course, but such is true of any system. Preventing government abuse and corruption is separate from stopping the distribution of CSAM and protecting children from predators.
KatakiY@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Yeah sorry but people who jerk off to the pedo rape game are definitely pedos.
trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I am a good thought haver and I signal this by telling everyone bad thought havers should be executed
bastion@feddit.nl 1 month ago
yeah… …there’s something so fundamentally fucked about conceptual suppression, and I don’t think it makes the real issue - actions that harm others - better.
Like, I keep thinking of how deeply Christianity and Catholicism want to get in your pants and tell you what and when you should and shouldn’t be thinking this or that. …and it ends up making a system that helps to obfuscate and provides cover for that very thing.
Now, in tits following example, I absolutely am not suggesting that being gay is bad. But, in religions (Christianity being the prime example) where it is considered bad, it’s always the loudest, most virtuos signallers that end up being found to be involved in closeted gay relationships.
I guess, in some ways, there’s just no better cover than to signal that you’re a good thought haver, and that bad thought havers should be executed.
Pandantic@midwest.social 1 month ago
And pedos deserve to be in jail because they looked played a game? Or in general? Shouldn’t we just save the taxpayer’s time and send them to the camps?
delcaran@feddit.it 1 month ago
You are right, but being a pedofile should not be a crime. It’s a sexual deviation from the norm, maybe a disgusting and/or dangerous deviation, but it’s nothing different than coprofilia.
If the pedofile do not act on his/her desires and there is no illegal material or action involved, just let him/her be.
Keep an I on him/her, of course, seek counseling, but act only of and when the perversion is growing out of control.
Same thing with drugs: if you can afford them, good for you (and welcome to high society). If you can’t afford them and you screw your relationship over it, fuck you and seek counsel. But if you start to steal, kidnap, or hurt people in anyway, that’s where the line must be drawn.
TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Sorry, but pedophilia is vastly different than coprophilia and other outlandish fetishes in the scale of harm to others and the inability for it to ever be consensual.
I could talk about how pedophiles also tend to seek positions where they hold power dynamics over children, even ones who don’t act on their desires, increasing the likelihood of abuse, but I think your point is moreso about a hypothetical pedophile who doesn’t act on their desires, doesn’t acquire CSAM, doesn’t surround themselves with children and simply struggles internally with their fetish and actively seeks professional help on how to maintain a safe life for themselves and others.
Yes, I suppose that person doesn’t need any government intervention in their lives outside of the monitoring you suggested.
That said, this particular article is about a man who did seek out, acquire and consume CSAM instead of seeking therapy. The government detected this and removed him from society such that he cannot be a threat to children. That sounds about right.
bastion@feddit.nl 1 month ago
I don’t know… don’t all people with extreme sexual fetishes that aren’t culturally acceptable end up, by fear of cultural reprisal, attempting to control the circumstances by which they fulfill their desires?
Like, a necrophiliac (not that that’s really that common) might work in a circumstance where they could get away with that. If someone were to fine out, they would try to control the outflow of that knowledge (probably unsuccessfully).
…and if someone only got off on animal shit, they would try to get an animal to shit on them. …and if that animal was like “I suddenly learned to talk”, the person would be compelled by fear of cultural reprisal to gain a position is power over the animal to silence the animal, if the animal also couldn’t be trusted to keep their secrets.
I’m not saying that to mitigate pedophilia, but I just don’t think the underlying drives are dissimilar. I do, however, think the circumstances are dissimilar. That is to say, I think the underlying drives are similar to other fetishes, but the stakes are massively higher for all parties involved, and the odds of your secret coming out are massively higher.
I don’t think pedophilia is uniquely “evil”. like, I consider extreme NPD, Sexual Sadism Disorder, and coercive paraphilia to be far more “evil”. …and people with those disorders coins potentially choose children just because of their vulnerability, and not even due to any intrinsic attraction to children. but that’s not pedophilia.
But, I do think that pedophilia is uniquely high-stakes for all parties involved, and that the cultural demonization of it simply raises those stakes. Of course, we still need to stop it as a culture. It can’t be culturally accepted. But, I, for one, on the receiving end of that, would have talked to people had the societal reaction not been so extreme. As a child, I knew how grave it was societally - and couldn’t talk to anyone because I knew the resultant social explosion would only further erode my own sense of personal autonomy.
I mean, I didn’t think of it in those terms, but my heart correctly felt the social situation. …and I navigated it alone, except for one random person in my neighborhood that I was able to talk to, once, who just listened, and talked to me about it, and prioritized my feelings. Their consideration of me would not have been societally condoned at the time, and now verges on being illegal, but I will be forever grateful to them for standing up for my autonomy, and helping me understand.