Re: Shooting yourself in the foot.

I think I have the best of both worlds. I do not believe my attraction to little girls is inherently evil. I know my intentions are good. I even believe that for a perhaps very unusual girl and perhaps very unusual man, it could all work out wonderfully. The possibility exists of end-to-end happiness. So I don't say to myself that my attraction is inherently impossible or harmful. I can feel good about it.

On the other hand, I think that the obstacles are varied and enormous to being able to know in advance that any such relationship would work out, and I think very few ever would. Thus I think morality requires us to always abstain. Even if I did have the hunch that with societal changes and the right tests it could sometimes be known to be OK in advance, I would just put it out of my mind. If you want to talk among your friends at GC, it's a unifying belief. If you want to relate to anyone else in the world, it's got several serious downsides.

People hear the claim that little girls can be just fine with sexual activity, and it goes against their most strongly held beliefs about the nature of children. The idea that pedophiles are pushing this and hardly anyone else is sounds like we are dangerously out of touch with reality and/or cynically motivated by lust. It also sounds like we are wildly out of touch with political reality. This all reinforces the idea that we are alien and not like reasonable people. Yet it's all being done for a very distant, theoretical possibility that would only come about when the rest of society decides on its own that a change is needed.

The humble pedophile with pro-contact intuitions could say, "It seems to me like it ought to be OK, but society is full of smart and insightful people who don't think so, and I do seem to have a vested interest in the outcome, so I'll leave that question up to society and concentrate on things like the VP goals."