Remember When Salon Thought Pedophilia Was the Next Big Trend?

Upfront, I really don’t have enough energy to care about Milo. I certainly don’t have enough energy to care about CPAC. To say that I’m confused as to why a conservative conference would invite a person who doesn’t even claim or pretend to be conservative to keynote is just a puzzler to me from a messaging point of view. After reading all the commentary, I think Ben Domenech gets it more right than most anyone on the subject.

What was strange was the number of decidedly left/crotch-centric persons and outlets who turned on Milo for a very mild hint of something they had given full-throated approval to not all that long ago. When Milo hit the fan this week Salon.com, strangely enough, was particularly gleeful with a story headlined Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos under fire after seemingly condoning sex with minors.

Why do I say strangely? Because there was a time when Salon was actively pushing the normalization of pedophilia. (Read my story.)

Back in September of 2015, Salon ran an article by a critter named Todd Nickerson titled I’m a pedophile, but not a monster. A bit of the article:

My name is Todd Nickerson, and I’m a pedophile. Does that surprise you? Yeah, not many of us are willing to share our story, for good reason. To confess a sexual attraction to children is to lay claim to the most reviled status on the planet, one that effectively ends any chance you have of living a normal life. Yet, I’m not the monster you think me to be. I’ve never touched a child sexually in my life and never will, nor do I use child pornography.

But isn’t that the definition of a pedophile, you may ask, someone who molests kids? Not really. Although “pedophile” and “child molester” have often been used interchangeably in the media, and there is some overlap, at base, a pedophile is someone who’s sexually attracted to children. That’s it. There’s no inherent reason he must act on those desires with real children. Some pedophiles certainly do, but many of us don’t. Because the powerful taboo keeps us in hiding, it’s impossible to know how many non-offending pedophiles are out there, but signs indicate there are a lot of us, and too often we suffer in silence. That’s why I decided to speak up.

That’s what they all say. As it turned out Nickerson was saying pretty much the opposite in pedophile-friendly chat rooms:

…in fact, I’d argue that it’s actually benificial for the child. I will reiterate my swimming metaphor here (though I’ve already mentioned it twice.) Society preventing children from engaging in sex play and romance play is akin to preventing them from learning to swim, but not only that — refusing to tell them anything ABOUT swimming (or swimming pools or lakes . . .) and then, when the child turns 18 or so, taking them to the ocean and tossing them in, shouting, “Well, you’re on your own!” That’s what society does to children in the name of protecting them.

Oddly enough, one of the people speaking up to denounce Nickerson was none other than Milo.

Horrifyingly, there are signs of a new pedophile acceptance movement forming on the Left. Just as Allen West warned, the gay rights movement is being used as a template. First comes the argument that pedophiles are just “born that way,” absolving them of any moral responsibility for their desires. Then comes the argument that pedophiles are just normal people, like the rest of us, but somehow impoverished or victimised by their own condition.

Inevitably, our society’s current ostracisation of pedophiles will be portrayed as an injustice: an oppression from which pedophiles must be liberated, or for which they deserve our sympathy. And woe to the oppressors! Quietly, in progressive columns and academies around the world, progressives are losing their footing and sliding down that slippery slope. Publications like Salon are abetting the turpitude.

Naturally, a lot of us recalled Nickerson and went back to that story. What did we find?

Following Salon's coverage of Milo Yiannopoulos, the site has deleted all of its articles by Todd Nickerson, who defended pedophilia. pic.twitter.com/FCKhnLSILO

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 21, 2017