I'm not going to take this gaslighting on this specific point. Pedobear jokes weren't this Vito-tier 1-on-1 with a youngster in DMs "I am the pedobear, me, and you are my loli and I am gonna rape you!" bullshit. The joke is at the expense of someone else being a pedo. First of all, look at the defense he gives where he doesn't even have a specific reason for making the comment. He then throws "oh, it MIGHT have been TOPICAL!" What? Excuse me? You molesting a minor might have been topical? Fuck off. Secondly, HE is the pedo in this joke and there's no further joke. How is it punching down on pedos to become the pedo and then that's the joke? It's not.
Whatever you think about who the guy is now (he's probably not a predator), his explanation for who he was at that point and in that situation is bullshit. He's not telling the truth. Disagree, but this wasn't some "'twas the style of the time" jokester stuff people did back then on the Internet. That's psychotic.