Re: The 'Pedophile Question'

“Consuming child porn doesn’t automatically make you a pedophile. Not even committing physical abuse necessarily makes you one.” This is a new one. Sometimes you'll you'll hear that not every minor-involved sex offender qualifies as a pedophile, but this makes it sound like the article intends to absolve the general population for sharing our inclinations. I guess that makes sense if you want to target "true" pedophiles in particular. "In a secular society, we need non-religious figures to scare our children and ourselves with, and the Pedophile has served this purpose for some decades now." Ah, this old trope. So the hatred of pedophiles isn't really anything to do with society's bizarre hang-ups regarding children and sex, but really about society having some kind of inborn need to just get someone. What utter nonsense. Tribalism doesn't just occur ex nihilo. There must be a perceived threat, whether real or imagined, or else the furor would have no legs. But I think Andersson realizes how ridiculous his position is so he decides to blame it on the crypto-religiosity of an ostensibly secular culture.