tl;dr of this post, sensitve topics still mentionedi think a tl;dr of this post is:
i'm sick and tired of people trying to punish thoughtcrimes, especially when it inevitably leads to them also thinking that lolicon = pedophilia = wants to rape kids.
especially when all they end up doing is burying the lede on what really causes real-world child abuse, which is systemic and institutional power imbalances.
but when people make broad sweeping statements, they end up throwing people who would otherwise be harmless, into communites full of people encouraging them to do harm (despite this, it doesn't excuse what they ultimately do in the end, but people pushing them there doesn't help.)
and something else i should add is that people who are all "ACAB" this and "jail systems are bad" that, end up just remaking those in the form of "oh but these people are eternally evil and will never get better", and make those broad sweeping statements about people who are not serial child abusers, which inevitably end up including us cute and funny artists.
sensitive topic discussion, about "pedo-hunters"; a bit lengthysomething i truly despise are people who make "pedo-hunting" their entire personality.
like, don't get me wrong, people who abuse children, and actively seek to harm real-world kids? awful people, i don't want to be anywhere near them.
but people who decide to make it their life goal to be a "vigilante" that "hunts for pedos"... that's just very concerning behavior. especially when, most of the time, they end up, inevitably, making horrendously false claims against people like you and me, who indulge in fantasy art.
and even if they are somehow one of the few smart ones who realize that fictional shit... is fictional, they're still making it an overwhelming part of their identity to just, find "acceptable" targets to say horrifically inhumane things about, by using broad paint strokes.
all that is to say, they love to take the worst of the worst (y'know, real child rapists), and paint an image that any and all people who ever have sexual desires for children, despite their inaction, are also evil and should be purged from society. to put more bluntly, they want to get rid of people for thoughtcrimes.
this kind of ties in w/ my previous post about rule 7 of this instance, in that i am supportive of people w/ paraphiliac attractions... but it comes to a certain limit, y'know? that limit is crossing the boundaries of fiction to reality. but... not everyone is like that, and they shouldn't be painted under these broad strokes.
to do so ultimately harms them, and pushes them towards these abusive communities. it's not excuse what they ultimately become, but... all the same, the only people that accept them... are the ones who are abusive.
ultimately, pedo-hunters "goals" of eradicating and purging all "pedos" ends up creating more abusive and harmful ones, that just become more covert and quiet about their intents.
and they end up burying the lede about what really causes child abuse: insitutional & systemic abuses of power. not some random fucko from twitter who makes troll posts meant to farm engagement, or some japanese artist who draws lolicon in their spare time.
pedo-hunters ultimately end up doing massive sweeping harm because they distract from the greater picture, and end up pushing people who would otherwise not harm, into positions where they end up surrounded by people encouraging them to harm (again, doesn't excuse them for when they do it, but it sure as fuck doesn't help that someone else pushed them there).
once more i have to stress i am against child abuse, of fucking course i am, i was abuse as a kid, i was groomed, and i hate that i have to constantly re-iterate my own traumas just for people to take me seriously.
though that said, i do think i'm ultimately preaching to the choir here, i just don't think posting this on the normal-ish side of fedi would do me well.
sensitive topics; discussions about rule 7just received an interesting email, so let me put this out here:
rule 7 is mainly for the safety of this server, and it's also meant to ensure there's 0 questioning what the intent of this instance is.
MAP flag iconography, regardless of what you want to believe or not, is primarily used by people who illicit intent on harming real-world children. i've had to remote suspend a user from baraag who draws art w/ those flags, in which they also had a verifiable alt-account on a now dead instance which promoted pro-contact (read: wants to harm children) content.
to be clear: i am in support of paraphiles, they can not help their attractions, and frankly the way society treats them is horrific. but with that said, paraphiles who decide to act on their urges, thinking there's nothing wrong with that, are not good people. and those are not the kind of people who will ever be allowed near this instance. those people are the primary bearers of the MAP flag, and are definitely the loudest with it. no matter how hard you try, you can not separate this crowd, so to depict it in your art is to depict a flag used by real-world child abusers.
there is a lot of nuance with discussion like this, and i'm aware there's not a whole lot of it here, but the main point is that flag iconography representing paraphilias are almost always used to represent harmful ideals, even if it's intent by someone else is to just show they have this paraphilia and do not wish to ennact real-world harm.
i do desperately wish there were more fediverse spaces that don't promote horrible ideals about consent while still allowing for paraphiles. but i'm not setting this instance up for that. this instance is for freaky art made by queers, and that's that. if you want that kind of space, make it yourself.
you do not get to demand people bow to your whim about the spaces they make at their expense. if you have a problem with this, again, i implore you make your own space.
and just as an aside, saying you want my instance to be more like ATF in the same breath you're putting into question this instance being a safe space? that is extremely laughable, in the face of that website being extremely queerphobic.
sorry if this was rambly, i'm recovering from a technology-induced migraine.
