Moral condemnation is not a zero-sum game. I can (and do) condemn the teen actions of Josh Duggar while pitying him for the environment in which he grew up (and which coddled and covered up his crimes), even as it turned him into the homophobe (among other things) he is today.
I wuold similarly feel sympathy for a kid growing up in an impoverished and violent environment that led him or her to commit crimes of violence, and consider what could be done to protect children in similar circumstances. Indeed, the inability to do so is far too often a trait of the Right, who call for strict responsibility and unconsidering punishment (except when it's a family friend or political ally).
One can condemn actions while pitying the actor. One can feel compassion for the prisoner (or earlier criminal) while still rejecting their crimes.
Of Course We Should Condemn Josh Duggar. We Should Also Pity Him.
A boy grows up in a controlling, cultlike family that rejects Enlightenment values and closes off much of the outside world. He is deprived of any conception of morality separate from a fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible. His intellectual and ethical development is stunted by reactionary, dogmatic views about gender…
