Dante's gone into Mr. Hyde mode, but for you, Joey:

I hardly invented the idea that pedophiles might argue based on their apparent self-interest. And it's still the best explanation I have as to why so many pedophiles are pro-contact and hardly anyone else is. Dante argues otherwise, and I find his arguments unconvincing no matter how many times he repeats them. I do not say it's due to lust -- it often seems motivated by some idea of positive self-concept (where I see no necessary relationship).

Unless Ethan simply wants a minor victory for him and his select few.

Although it's an aside from the main point, what evidence do you have that we are a select few? A minority of pedophile voices speaking online, perhaps, but that's a heavily biased sample.

Then there's this bit about my attacking other pedophiles. You cite my saying I am disturbed by pro-contact views. I'd say inferring hatred is being very touchy on your part. Use your imagination -- if I was trying to stir up hatred against you and draw a good-evil distinction between us, I could do a far more impressive job than calling your views on a desired change in society disturbing, don't you think? If VP achieved its goals, you would benefit as well. You would at least be seen as people with self-serving beliefs rather than monsters with self-serving beliefs.

You cite the civil rights movement as an example of no one attacking others. Here's MLK on Malcolm X: "in his litany of articulating the despair of the Negro without offering any positive, creative alternative, 1 feel that Malcolm has done himself and our people a great disservice. Fiery, demagogic oratory in the black ghettos, urging Negroes to arm themselves and prepare to engage in violence, as he has done, can reap nothing but grief. In the event of a violent revolution, we would be sorely outnumbered. And when it was all over, the Negro would face the same unchanged conditions, the same squalor and deprivation." (http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/kingweb/publications/autobiography/chp_25.htm) I think that is at least as divisive as my saying pro-contact views are disturbing.