"'Predators' Review: A Damning Look at the Legacy of 'To Catch a Predator'"

[kane_magus]

Full headline, because it wouldn't all fit up there: "'Predators' Review: A Damning Look at the Legacy of 'To Catch a Predator' Argues that We're All Complicit in America's Perverted Sense of Justice"

An interesting article that happened to pop up in my Google News app.

Disclaimer: I have never seen a single full episode of To Catch a Predator. The most I have seen are short clips on Youtube. And the memes, of course. The memes were pervasive and inescapable for a while, back when the show was on the air, and they're still a thing even now, too. And prior to reading that article, I'd never heard of this documentary, either. I'm not sure I would want to see the documentary, any more than I ever wanted to see the show itself, but... still. An interesting article.

Comments

[scissorsevered]

I'm sure plenty of people online have blocked me for saying this, but I personally find anti-contact pedophiles way more trustworthy than anyone that foams at the mouth at the idea of being able to maim and/or kill anyone they've deemed immoral enough to be worthy of disposal. None of these people care about protecting children, because that would require

1. Understanding that the majority of child sexual abusers are not actually attracted to the child, but simply prey on them because they are easier to manipulate and/or physically overpower, which gives them a power trip.

2. Understanding that a child is far more likely to be sexually abused by their own parents than a stranger in a white van.

3. Understanding that you've probably encountered an actual pedophile sometime in your life who was a perfectly fine person and hasn't (and most likely never will) harm a child, and therefore believing these people are all rabid animals that are determined to rape your children is false and only serves to make you paranoid.

The problem society has with pedophiles (and why people conflate the term with "child molester" constantly) stems mostly from the fact that most people think its the sexual attraction thats bad, rather than the fact that the *action* would inherently involve the violation of a childs bodily autonomy.

[kane_magus]

And (this might be getting a bit off-topic, but) that's not even getting into all the hateful people out there who merge the concept of pedophilia with stuff like homosexuality or transgenderism, using the former as a means to (further) demonize the latter.

"You're homo? That must mean you want to groom little boys/girls!"

"You're trans? Well, obviously, you want to go into the wrong bathroom and molest little girls/boys, so we need to immediately make a bunch of draconian laws to prevent that!"

"You're a Democrat/liberal/progressive/whatever who supports LGBTQ rights? Stop championing pedophiles, you pedophile!"

None of that has anything to do with "perteckin' the chilluns" either. It just serves to make any outgroup one cares to name seem "even worse" in the eyes of "average," "normal" people via the association with an "acceptable target" that "everyone" already hates. And if anyone in those other outgroups says anything at all in their own defense that isn't just "hey, we are nothing like them," then that just "proves" the "point" of the accusers (and also serves to potentially divide the outgroups by turning them against each other, which suits the accusers just fine and dandy, too).