I think it definitely matters when a person has such fantasies.
The same doesn't go for acts of violence. You can quickly think "I'm gonna kill this person", but it doesn't make it so. Most people have such a quick thought, which basically makes all of us killers. This is considered normal, because most of us are that way. Most of us do not fantasize about sex with kids or corpses, which makes it abnormal.
Yes, but simply being those things isn't something they chose any more than gay or trans people chose to be what they are. Unlike gay or trans people, acting on those fantasies would be wrong, but there's nothing wrong with just having them. There is a difference between being a pedophile and being a child molester.
Do you have any idea how many people have rape fantasies? The vast majority of them never rape anyone or want to be raped for real, it's just something that excites them sexually. Are we to condemn them as well? How about those who harbor fantasies about slavery like the aforementioned Larry Garfield?
> You can quickly think "I'm gonna kill this person", but it doesn't make it so. Most people have such a quick thought, which basically makes all of us killers.
To you maybe, but to those of us who realize there is a difference between fantasy and reality it doesn't mean much of anything. Also, perfectly normal people often play games about murdering people for hours on end.
> This is considered normal, because most of us are that way.
Is your problem that it is amoral or that it is abnormal? Or are the two the same to you?
It is indeed not a crime to have them. But I would strongly suggest that those people do not work in places where they have power over kids. (teachers, tutors, youth clubs, etc)
We have a saying "putting the cat next to the milk". And that is exactly what is going on here. If you hire a teacher, and you know this person has sexual feelings towards kids, you are really some dumb fuck. You should also be punished for negligence when shit hits the fan.
I don't know why this concept is so difficult for some people. Fantasy and reality are not the same thing. Millions (if not billions) of people occasionally have fantasies about strangling their boss, or murdering people they don't like, and they never actually do those things because they're abhorrent. Add some "think of the children!" into the mix and otherwise rational people are suddenly very much in favor of lynching.
However these days Twitter is the pack and "cancelling" is the nip. What's missing is a pack leader or at least a sense of what is truly "right" or "wrong" at this point in humankind's development.
So it might seem heavy-handed or a knee-jerk reaction, but I'm on board with this simply because it aligns with my moral views. It's a choice.
And to make it obvious: yes, yes you should find this and the notion that someone would fantasize about it utterly gut wrenching.
I don't. Theft is obviously immoral, should I condemn people who enjoy heist fiction? People who enjoy roleplaying soldiers in a Civil War re-enactment? People who murder people in video games?
There is a difference between fantasy and reality.