Rant, what do you think of this?

Okay I need to talk about this because it’s actually insane. There was a TikTok going around saying if you like toxic yaoi or toxic characters, you’d apparently be into a literal pedophile if he was conventionally attractive. So I made a whole thread breaking down why that comparison doesn’t hold up, the psychology behind fictional dark/toxic romance tropes vs. real predatory behavior towards children are not remotely the same category, and treating them as interchangeable actually flattens a really important distinction. (By the way the toxic yaoi in question was cna, passion, unchanged man, killing stalking, etc.)

And instead of anyone engaging with what I actually said, the replies were just: “you read rape so you’re a rape apologist,” “stop making excuses, you support rape,” “rape and pedophilia are on the same wavelength.” None of that is what I said. Nowhere did I say I condone rape, I made a whole video specifically explaining why pedophilia and rape aren’t the same thing and why fiction isn’t a moral endorsement of the acts it depicts.

I even asked one person who kept insisting rape and pedophilia are “the same thing” to actually debate me on it. Their response? “I’m not arguing with a rapist who supports toxic rapist men.” I asked for an actual debate and got called a rapist. That’s the level of discourse we’re at, zero engagement, all accusation.
Like, what do you think of this? Because to me this isn’t a difference of opinion, it’s people refusing to read past the first sentence before reacting. It became “agree with the take or you’re defending predators,” which isn’t a discussion, it’s a purity test.

And the video had a ton of people agreeing with zero pushback, which is exactly why media literacy discourse online is in shambles. This is genuinely part of why CSA survivors have said online fandom spaces seem to care more about fiction being “problematic” than about how real harm actually works.

I just wanted to share this because it’s genuinely so stupid to me, and honestly it makes me feel like future generations are doomed if this is what passes for critical thinking now.