So use this thread to pastebin any analogy that you can think of between past situations and our current predicament and its development.
I'll start with re-posting here my more recent and latter post:
In other words, you want someone to do the devil's advocate on your position that today's pedophobia is an underhanded way for norms to gain the upper moral ground in society to gain a new perspectives.
In that case, we would need to look at each case that you mentioned (witch hunting and pathologisation of homosexuality) individually:
While there are many aspects of pedophobia that share commonalities with witch-hunting and fag-bashing, whether it's false accusations often being made to get back at someone or the scientification of old taboos, there are a few key differences:
- Witch-hunting: Revolved around specific accusations of women (often old and isolated from the local townspeople) engaging in witchcraft. Although feared, such trials weren't as persistent as one might think, as many women could prove their innocence and it wasn't unusual for judges to be sceptical of such cases, and most cases of such trials occurred in the early modern era, in regions where Protestants and Catholics would compete for power.
Pathologisation of homosexuality: Mostly began as a reification of European homophobic attitudes that originated with the early church's calls for banning sodomy, which would then spread across the world eventually. The main concerns were with curbing degeneracy and any non-reproductive sexual activity, as well as stamping out what was then seen as a corrupting influence on society plus keeping out a generally disgusting practice. The fears of homosexuality preying on boys is a more recent one, and wouldn't come up until the late 20th century or so as narratives of the evil pederastic molester gained currency (see 1961 short film Boys Beware).
To conclude, while general homophobia and fear of witches has often been used to enforce a particular morality, or exploited by individuals for their own personal gains (such as getting away with unethical behaviour, revenge, kicking a subject of envy down in the social ladder, or unleash violent impulses to acceptable targets, enforce double standards, etc...) much like pedophobia, the hatred against MAPs is ultimately distinct from the others and goes beyond mere power-grabbing and morality crusading in the protectionist discourse its entrenched in, and the fact that, unlike adults, the subject of pedophobia is an actually-vulnerable class know as children. Another factor is also the relative modernity, as the origins of modern pedophobia that we all know and hate goes back to no least than a 19th century outrage campaign Victorian London over child prostitution.
- Contrary to popular myths, witch-hunting wasn't as prevalent and judges of then would often express skepticism of individual cases. For example only 25% of those accused were executed in early modern Englandhttps://www.english-heritage.org.uk/lea ... raft-myths. In contrast, few if any judges are willing to go against CSA accusations, and more often than not such trials end in prosecution. Also, if the accusations of witchcraft were often consistent and used to curb on what was deemed as anti-social behaviour, accusations of CSA are often vaguer and are based on an ever-expanding criteria of behaviour deemed "inappropriate" under the "grooming" umbrella.
With the pathologisation of homosexuality, while it's purpose was to reify and provide a scientific basis to homophobic prejudices and reaction formations that informed it, it should also be understood that minor attraction was far more normative than teleiophilic homosexuality, and that the stigma against homosexuality didn't have as much to with protecting men, in the same way that pedophobes ostensibly claim to protect children. While both pedophobia and homophobia are often informed by disgust rather than logic, homophobia does differ in the overtly protectionist nature of pedophobes.
There are also other things like how society now hates MAPs more than gays or witches, but another factor at play is how at the heart of it all is how sex is viewed as being exceptional, which makes it almost impossible for any casual and objective discussion pertaining to adult-child sex to take place. That every human society has some sexual taboo does lend credence to this ideal.
So to conclude, there are two things that make pedophobia distinct:
How recent it is when compared to the scale of human history
The protectionist motive
Sexceptionalism vis-a-vis adult-child sex and child sexuality in general.
The level of hate directed at us, down to discriminatory laws against MAPs.
