The idea that hypocrisy makes a crime objectively worse is sometimes difficult to defend, philosophically. On the other hand, when I read about a fringe anti-abortion protester being arrested for molesting a 15-year-old at the “home for troubled girls and women” he runs, my first inclination is to find a particularly lingering and painful death to inflict on him, possibly at the hands of the sorts of folks he’s alleged to have abused. Something distinctly cruel and unusual. It’s uncharitable of me, but so be it.
There is some comfort, I suppose, in knowing that “Our Father,” after whom he had the gall to name his shelter, probably has an even less comfortable fate in mind for him.
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Have you found that, since becoming a father, this type of behaviour bothers/enrages you more? Must be the parenting instincts kicking in?
Both yes and no. I had plenty of reason to be outraged by this sort of thing before becoming a father. And I don’t actually project Katherine onto teenagers — yet.
But I do find myself a lot less patient about such episodes, over time.