this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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[–] FermionWrangler@lemm.ee 23 points 21 hours ago (4 children)

I always knew there was something wrong with that these people were doing but couldn't exactly put my finger on it and never talked about it because people would've yelled at me and used false dillema arguments like many people who criticized them back them recieved "You support pedophiles you removed"

[–] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 hours ago

Hell, KiwiFarms style tactics is becoming more and more common and mainstream. It's on Lemmy too.

[–] Ghamorra@lemm.ee 8 points 14 hours ago

One of these groups that operate out of the Pacific North West employs psychologists to create profiles on people the contact online. They target non-sex related forums like grief or mental health related support groups online. They’ll spend as much time as needed to hook these men and make them dependent on their carefully crafted online personas and even drive away their outside support groups to isolate them.

Regardless of your opinion of these individuals, going out of your way to exploit a vulnerable person and turn them into something their not is incredibly fucked up.

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[–] boolean_sledgehammer@lemmy.world 34 points 23 hours ago

What this ultimately amounts to is the worst actors using a blanket justification to carry out revenge fantasies against whatever marginalized group they're fixated on.

If you happen to be part of any of these marginalized groups, now would be the time to get armed and get dangerous. It would be great if we lived in a functioning society where this wasn't necessary, but the failure of so many of our institutions is slowly rewinding our social fabric back to wild west times.

[–] ExtantHuman@lemm.ee 25 points 23 hours ago

There's one in the white house. Why don't they seem to care about that one?

[–] StarlightDust@lemmy.blahaj.zone 37 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I monitor far-right groups pretty intensively and a good chunk of Paedophile Hunters are key organisers of said groups.

Its also not uncommon for far-right groups to be family operations where the adults will groom their teenage children into organizing and encourage their children to date other, often older, fascist organisers.

[–] FermionWrangler@lemm.ee 8 points 21 hours ago

Unsurprising as most of the "pedophile hunters" are extremist by nature, so it makes sense why they would also subscribe to extremist ideologies like Nazism and queerphobia.

[–] TheFriar@lemm.ee 12 points 23 hours ago

Look at how much conspiracy content especially after 2016 focused on pedophilia. A lot of it. That carried over into this

[–] mhague@lemmy.world 37 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Nazis: If you support LGBT you're a pedophile. And we're already coming for you.

People, for some fucking reason: Pedophiles get fucked, do what you want to them, erase them at any cost!!

"Please hold this paper target in front of your face while I shoot at it."

"Sounds dangerous but I see you are aiming at the paper so I should be fine."

[–] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 5 points 21 hours ago

Nazis: If you support LGBT you’re a pedophile. And we’re already coming for you.

I'll be waiting.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 96 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (21 children)

There's one more angle to this - apart from the raise in vigilante violence and messing up with police operations which both are very valid.

Just as we stopped getting TV feeds constantly equating pedophiles to child molesters, those guys stepped in to fill the void.

Pedophiles are not inherently child molesters. This kind of equation is not only wrong, it also adds to promoting dangerous behaviors among them.

Plenty of pedophiles will never abuse a single child, knowing full well it is dangerous and harmful for minors to be engaged in such relationships. However, the more we equate pedophiles to predators, the more people, especially in the emotionally vulnerable groups like teen pedophiles, will actually accept themselves in this role. Among those who stands against this anyway, plenty will become suicidal, not seeing an option to live a non-offending life.

Current methods of therapy aimed at reducing child abuse rates go very strongly on this - pedophiles should face message of them not being inherently dangerous, not the message of them being an immediate and imminent danger. Not only this is scientifically correct, it is actually useful in making these people safer for others.

[–] T156@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Not only that, but it both reduces the chance of someone going to get help, because they don't want to be hunted down, and reporting, because someone who knows of them might not want to see them be lynched, and won't report them for that reason.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 1 points 4 hours ago

Absolutely!

[–] fibojoly@sh.itjust.works 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's an interesting and reasonable take.
I'm actually surprised you are not down voted to oblivion!

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 26 points 1 day ago

Guess this is what happens when you meet real people online who are not artificially enraged - a productive conversation!

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[–] RabbitBBQ@lemmy.world 6 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Does a criminal arrest and conviction not matter to anyone before ganging up to take someones life?

You would think an allegation serious enough to take someone's life would be at least charged by some law enforcement agency, many of these crimes require they are reported by law, and a mandatory arrest must happen if it is reported. There should be no way for anyone to be free, needing to be hunted, without a criminal history. No distinction is made between someone with a criminal history and someone without, the allegation has become enough to destroy reputations, careers and lives. History is full of situations where an other type of label and class with no rights or due process is created. Then it is applied to people as needed to eliminate them. With LGBT stuff specifically, you see the lines between these labels being blurred. Even in Russia they have blurred the lines between LGBT, child abuse, domestic terrorism and dangers to national security. It doesn't take much imagination to see it be applied in the U.S. QAnon was proof that anyone can be labelled by a large number of people with real actions taken to harm them, without any kind of formal process or charges. Just rumors that lead to vigilantes.

At some point, there is no difference between that, Daniel Penny, or Luigi Manigone. From every side, we all agree that summary executions are acceptable. The end result of this is a break down of civil society as the justifications for extrajudicial murder expand to include as many things as necessary... Even if you take something like the damage Kendrick Lamar did to Drake's career and reputation, I believe his legal defense over defamation is that it was meant as a joke. How many people would consider using these methods if they saw Drake? A lot of time has passed since that song was released, where are the criminal charges to match the damage done to him?

[–] DicJacobus@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Vigilantism is on the rise regardless, Either because the police are incompetent / carefree about the complaints. or because individuals are overzealous, dont undrestand or agree with the law, and decide to cosplay as the punisher.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 3 points 16 hours ago

Or because the facade of "justice" is crumbling to reveal the truth of heirarchy behind it.

[–] WhatSay@slrpnk.net 45 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I had a friend who was visiting Florida, and this vigilante group from some church setup a Grindr account to catch gay men. They made a profile of a guy in his 20s, had convos and planned to meet, then asked him to talk on some other platform, where his profile said he was underage. Keep in mind, this is just a fictional person. And the Florida court loves to toss LGBT in jail, so beware out there.

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[–] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 74 points 1 day ago (13 children)

Oh. They're just gonna call people pedo and attack them even though they're not. It's extremely obvious.

[–] FermionWrangler@lemm.ee 10 points 21 hours ago

They're going to attack LGBT people and say they're pedos for being LGBT.

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