Its honestly even more unfathomable to imagine talking people out of it in the case of what instance is being discussed for defederation here: an instance with a comm for pedophiles who are pro-contact and think children can consent. You can’t fucking debate a pro-contact pedophile out of being pro-contact. I’m a strong rehabilitationist so I wouldn’t want to execute them and would consider chemical castration a last resort (also, whats the science on that? does that even work?) so I would go with isolation from society where they can’t hurt kids and deep, deep fucking therapy, and possibly restorative justice if they have actually victimized anyone. But individuals online are not going to convince a fucking pro-contact pedophile that sex with kids is wrong. And you definitely aren’t going to be able to use debate to get them to stop being attracted to kids in the first place. Like, fuck, if the comm was for anti-contact pedophiles who strictly gather for the purpose of supporting each other in remaining strong in their convictions, then I wouldn’t want to nuke the community from existence (as long as thats ALL its for, and they arent like sharing fantasies with each other and other shit). Still wouldn’t want to be federated with them though. Don’t want to see that shit.