TLDR version: I don’t like the vibe of this situation, either from Cesarios side or from the increasingly fervent pitchfork wielders.
You think that doesn’t go on currently even with non-paedos?
This internet witch hunt makes me glad that most of you are only Internet tough guys, and that men generally only get a hard stare or cold shoulder in real life when the paranoia sets in. The people who claim they would rip apart any man who even glances at their children generally would not go through with their boast unless they thought they would not get in physical or legal trouble. And in reality they would most likely trust or submit to the most dangerous predators because they are either slick enough to pull it off or big enough that all your boasts of defending your children will disappear when confronted with someone who actually works out.
But on a message board being backed up by your homies, it’s another story. I’m afraid that all of this knee-jerk hatred is in danger of spilling over even more than it has into real life.
I thankfully have probably run in to far less of this witch hunt in real life than most men have, due to having a below average outgoingness quotient. But my few encounters with coldness or innuendo has convinced me that the cycle generally goes like this in many peoples minds:
- There are some people who are pedophiles
- Pedophiles by definition are the most evil things possible in the world because of who they are. (i.e. original sin/scapegoat)
- Any random man has a good chance of being a pedophile.
- Therefore, it is best to assume that every man you meet or are somewhat acquainted with is a pedophile, and act accordingly in every way. (Note that if you kill every random man you meet on the street you may run in to legal or physical complications, but remember, we are under the assumption that they are a pedophile.)
Steps 2 and 4 are the weakest, obviously. I don’t think #4 can be helped as that is the nature of the witch hunt once it has a target. So if I can convince people to treat potential predators with due caution rather than with a moral panic and scapegoating, then step #2 may be broken and people can use common sense instead of looking around and seeing evil lurking everywhere.
I actually cry a bit when I think about the possibility of getting married and having children and all the crap I would get when I am out with them alone just due to my gender. I have spent quite a bit of time with my younger sister when she was a child (who was young enough to be my daughter.) While small situations only happened a handful of times that I am aware of and they were not huge, they were the most firmly established case of shunning ever, because you should have seen their eyes light up and relax around me when my sister recognized me (proving that I was not imagining things when I thought they suspected me before, after all they could have been having a bad day or were a not generally pleasant person.)
If I were a father I would spend much more time with my child than I did with my sister, providing for an order of magnitude more opportunities to be shamed for being born with a penis.
Now I am also grateful that I did not have to suffer through molestation, but one often thinks more about the dangers ahead than the ones already experienced.
Lastly, if we turn our outrage meter to 11 all the time we miss out on actual warning signs. For instance, I have noted something in Cesarios posts that moved me more into the camp of thinking he is a danger if real, but it was only recent. Everyone else was crying wolf, and this mega-skeevy post remained undistinguished amidst the general outrage whenever he posts.
