My friend Arden posted this description of VirPed:
Virtuous Pedophiles (VirPed) – Virtue signaling as a profession. “Have you even considered that maybe not all AMSC leads to harm? You are not welcome!” … “What’s that, you’ve read research that backs up your point? BANNED.” There is no nuance and you can’t voice any contact stance opinion that isn’t “All AMSC is always morally wrong and is always harmful, no exceptions.”
That said, VirPed is very active, and actually has a lot of normie MAPs who aren’t incapable of reason. I’ve met people there with much more nuanced opinions, but they can’t openly voice those opinions on VirPed. The members are more chill than the mods/admins.
VirPed is probably the most accessible gateway into the MAP community, especially for people with internalized shame. People often start there.
VirPed is filling a valuable role in the community, but unfortunately doing it in a rather harmful way.
You can be a good (and virtuous) MAP and break the law. You can be a bad (and unvirtuous) MAP and never break the law. Helping people find strategies to life safely is a goal we can broadly agree on. But loving yourself should go beyond "I promise never to break the law".
