First off, there really isn't anyone on here who goes after pedophiles harder than I do. Not a single other user ITT has ever done anything to actually shut down pedophiles. I have, and I still do on a regular basis. That's the #1 thing that I was known for in prison. I do not fuck with pedophiles, and I make that very much known.
Every single bit of time and energy spent on going after lolicon is time and energy that could be spent going after ACTUAL CHILD ABUSE, and it is a complete waste of time and resources. There is also zero evidence that lolicon has ever resulted in higher rates of crimes against real children - quite the contrary, in fact. Rates of child abuse in Japan have actually gone down as the proliferation of lolicon there has increased. If pedophiles are whacking it to cartoons, they are much less likely to go after real children. And, if someone is a pedophile, I would certainly much rather that they live out their sick fantasies through cartoons than through genuine child abuse.
Checks and balances on the legal system exist for a reason. You cannot arrest someone simply for saying "I am a pedophile". They have to actually commit a crime against children in order to be arrested. That's why it's legal for organizations like NAMBLA and Prostasia to exist. The First Amendment protects their speech, as vile and disgusting and unpopular as it is.
Last I checked, the US government is not silencing political dissidents, but giving the US government greater power to censor speech in the name of fighting pedophiles (or anyone else) will inevitably lead to silencing of dissidents, because any censorship power granted to any government is always 100% guaranteed to be abused.
If we are going to ban fiction because it supposedly leads to crimes, then where do we stop? By that logic, we should also ban gangsta rap because it supposedly creates demand for gang-banging. Gangsta rap is vile too, but it's still fiction and it's still protected by the First Amendment. Should we also ban violent video games because they supposedly cause mass shootings? Because that's the road that you're going down by treating cartoons as if they are the equivalent of actual CSAM. They are not. They are pure fiction - disgusting fiction, yes, but still fiction.