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.