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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026

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There is no "steelman" for pedophilia, unlike for racism (freedom of association), sexism (traditional gender roles), and homophobia (traditional sexual morality).

True, which means one merely needs to arbitrarily stretch the definition of pedophilia if one is lacking for rhetorical cudgels to beat the outgroup over the head with. The temptation to wield the last remaining Power Word of the discourse is irresistible, and only grows as the supply of still effective Power Words steadily dwindles. As previously discussed, the headlong rush down the euphemism treadmill will continue until morale improves P-word potency degrades. Sexual taboos are definitely not exempted from this, cf. the meaning of "sexual harassment" going from grabbing em by the pussy to ending up on the wrong side of the Human Resources comic. Mental gymnastics regarding "pedophilia" are already in the water supply too, she was 17y364d old you sick fuck, if you like father/daughter dynamics you are a pedo, child vs. child (Japan), etc.

look, I grew up on early chan imageboards and the unfiltered early 2000s internet so I have a pretty high tolerance and probably a quite warped sense of what's within the bounds of good taste

AFAIK even Nikke for all its overt horniness plays relatively safe around lolis/hebes, the most they have is like Liberalio?, though I'm not that well acquainted with Nikke and there may be more coomer skins. But in any case you don't even have to reach very far back for examples, just imagine something like Shuten-Douji hitting the internet in current_year. I honestly have a very strong vibe-feel that the hysteria around virtual underage females (in gaming at least) is a very recent phenomenon, dare I say even manufactured - people used to just... not really care?, and now even on 4chan you see regular shitstorms on the topic (though that is more an indictment of modern 4chan) - but I have no pwoofs and can't really put my finger on it.