• afronaut@slrpnk.net
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    2 days ago

    I’m going to be honest, I’m suspicious of every single ‘pedophile hunter’. They are going after a demographic that people will not rush to defend, even if innocent.

    Also, these ‘hunters’ probably have something shady going on in their own lives, and this is some form of projection that they also profit off of.

    • Senseless@feddit.org
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      2 days ago

      I wouldn’t even be surprised if a bunch of them are pedophiles themselves. Projection and such.

    • Grizzlyboy@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      In Norway last year we had a case where 5 16-19 yo set up a sextrap for a guy in his 40s.

      The teens claimed he’s a pedo, beat him, filmed it and posted it online.

      All of the “pedohunters” involved were found guilty on all accounts. The guy is free and getting a big pay out from the teens.

      It’s really unfortunate, but these kinds of people aren’t in it to prevent child abuse. They’re in it for themselves.

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      100%.

      There is an old trope about arsonists, they either become criminals or they become firefighters.

      At least with firefighters, we don’t have to worry about if the firefighter is going to get the fire in a room alone later.

      • afronaut@slrpnk.net
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        2 days ago

        There are cases of arsonist fire fighters which is an even stronger analogy.

        Those who claim to fight fires are often the ones setting them, so they can be seen as the heroes who extinguish them.

        • ameancow@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Really good point and in cases like this we should all be a lot more concerned with people who seem obsessive about a given subject. It’s not a coincidence that so many crackpot Q-anon “save the children from the demon vampires” nutcases were actually themselves pedos who were caught, or that Q-anon STARTED on a pedophile message board.

            • ameancow@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              8-chan was a “less moderated” version of 4-chan where the founders of Q-anon got started, it was a notorious forum for trading child abuse material.

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Also, the almost universal knee-jerk response that we have as a society broadly to child predation makes a helluva mask for trampling on the rights of others and making a scapegoat that will be condemned in the public court long before any charges are brought up. The absolute ease and temptation of creative editing and a thirst for views can make the producers of this content work harder to portray events out-of-context.

      I’m sure there are plenty of actual predators who are worried about being hit with a sting, but I have seen more than a handful clips of these rogue pedo-hunters going after like, 21-year-old boys and their 17-year-old girlfriends, and people who looked genuinely confused and seemed railroaded into meeting someone.

      I know this message will never stick with the wildly reactionary and emotional viewership who needs to hear it, but we make vigilantism illegal for a damn good reason, and just because Dateline managed to stay above the waterline for the most part, that doesn’t mean some operation of randos you know nothing about on youtube have both the best intentions and the legal acumen to actually make a difference. They may well be making the problem worse by setting up situations where stings against child predators could become outlawed.

    • HulkSmashBurgers@reddthat.com
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      2 days ago

      I’m going to be honest, I’m suspicious of every single ‘pedophile hunter’. They are going after a demographic that people will not rush to defend, even if innocent.

      Exactly. They’re violent & hateful peple who found a way to justify it.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I see it as people wanting to commit righteous violence. People have violent impulses, but we usually control them. Some people with extraordinary violent tendencies go looking for a place where it’s “okay” to let them loose. This is not the only example.

    • demunted@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      Normal healthy people don’t plan to commit violent offenses on other people, unless there is a direct connection to the 3rd parties actions. Hunting people they have no connection to for fame and fortune is sickening.

      • sleen@lemmy.zip
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        2 days ago

        There is an excessive usage of the word ‘hunting’. What all those people are doing is admitting that they consider people as animals, or an “acceptable” way of harassment. And just like people who where in the kkk they don’t care who that person is, but that they’re the most vulnerable minority.

    • SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      This type of people exist in every generation, whether forming a mob to enforce segregation or engaging in pogroms.

    • KneeTitts@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I’m going to be honest, I’m suspicious of every single ‘pedophile hunter’

      I find it suspicious that they dont just go for the low hanging priest fruit in the catholic church… this does seem to be a largely religious group of people who conveniently ignore this behavior from their own kind.

      • afronaut@slrpnk.net
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        2 days ago

        The problem is, they are going for low hanging fruit by targeting unknowns with little to no representation.

        Catholic priests have the full force of the Catholic Church to protect them from legal attacks that some dinky YouTuber will not be able to combat.

        Also, Catholic priests do not need to go on dating apps or websites where they could potentially get lured because they are most likely targeting the children in their parish, under their direct control.