Why is it that men who get the tinniest taste of wealth and power open palm slap the “become a pedophile” button?

I think it’s because it’s not distinct from the typical predatory and pathological sexuality that a lot of men are socialized into, and how entrenched the infantilization of women is in misogyny in general. They already see women as lesser beings to be owned and used as they please, and have internalized the idea that wealth entitles them to do this and protects them from consequences, so it’s a simple matter to expand their range of desired victims from adult women to teenage girls.

And that phenomenon is everywhere in American society and has been deeply entrenched for longer than anyone today has been alive. It’s an integral part of American patriarchy and it’s only in the past couple of decades that there’s been any serious - or at least successful - effort to stamp it out.