@sun_eater @eris I mean this same dynamic takes place with elites (politicians, CEOs, celebrities, etc) who either directly engage in pedophilia and human trafficking or at the very least associate with people like that and turn a blind eye to it. violating some taboo like pedophilia creates cohesion of the worst sort within a group of people where everyone has to defend each other because otherwise if someone comes forward who is involved in all of that and isn't themselves a victim, people will start asking questions about why they knew these things were going on and continued to associate with these people if not say anything sooner

it's fucked up but it also doesn't really surprise me that this takes place on fedi because it happens way more often in society than people realize. a lot of the glue that holds society together is the threat of mutually assured destruction from it coming out that people in a hegemony or position of power are abusers or complicit in abuse in some way.