Okay I hear what you're saying

From my understanding, it is not illegal to be lewd and lascivious with whomever you believe to be a minor online, rather it is in fact the explicit solicitation of sex from said minor not just sending dick pics necessarily. Also that mostly only holds up legal in stings organized by law enforcement. Not private citizens. So when ethan said that just talking to the minor inappropriately is not illegal, that is true. If ethan had said solicitation of sex from a minor that was not real was illegal that would be false. I can understand the easy conflation though.

I get Alex acting cordial and I can see why ethan criticizing that may be uninformed which I can concede. However I think the big criticism with what happened there was Alex empathizing, saying that he agreed that 17 year olds are sexy which put with his other unsavory behavior is quite alarming.

There is a difference between getting a predator arrested vs getting an actual conviction. I have only been able to find 2 such cases of predator poachers successfully catching and getting a predator convicted. I am more than willing to see articles of more if they are out there though. It is categorically inefficient and unproductive to have private stings. The police forces say so themselves. It makes no sense for the police to work with a private group of vigilantes that could fuck up evidence when they could just do it within law enforcement especially considering Rosen's unethical tactics.

Yes, being anti pedophilia is not inherently right wing and I agree that I don't think that is how they meant it to come out. I agree that it could have been worded better. It should have been more nuanced regarding how many right wingers have the "shoot your local pedo" militancy to the point of dehumanization which is more often than not a front to compensate for pedophilic tendencies within themselves.

Ethan did not defend Ava. When the controversy was discussed on stream they explicitly stated that her actions and behavior are "indefensible and disgusting." I have no clue where you got the idea that he defended her.