The Asshat Thread

[Socnorb11]

I'd say that since the kid was 14 years old, and there was no intercourse (only fondling), I'd be pretty surprised if he was put on a sex offender list even if the authorities had been alerted immediately.

The law specifically designates 14 as the age when people are considered "old enough to know better" when it comes to sex crimes. We know he was molesting kids at age 14 and 15, possibly longer. I'm not prepared to just believe there was no intercourse, since this is the family's version of events that was never thoroughly investigated. Their track record with the truth is kind of spotty. The girls were never examined by a medical professional as far as I know. Even if this is the true and full extent of what he did, molesting multiple victims repeatedly over the course of years is kind of the definition of a sexual predator is it not? What else does he have to do to qualify in your eyes?

I wonder what the reaction to this would be like if he wasn't a prominent christian.

You don't have to look very far to find that answer. See Lena Dunham. Nobody even cares that she molested her younger sister. At least I haven't seen any outrage here. I know she's not on a sex offender registry.

[go birds]

Lena dunham is a fat white feminist which mean she is untouchable.

That's why there isnt any outrage.

[sighyoung]

Nobody is referring to me in particular, but I'd like to mention that it would be false to assume that I watch those programs or follow news about their "stars".

[cardsfansince82]

Lena Dunham got plenty of [expletive] from the breitblazers of the world, but I'm sure you guys already know that that's where you'll have to go to get real hard hitting journalism. She didn't get any from me because I could not care less about her. When I heard that story I just assumed she made it up to sell books or be "edgy". If it's true then she's pretty terrible, but it wouldn't make any sense for her to be on a register since she's the only person that knew about it for decades. The reason I care about Josh Duggar is because a whole bunch of adults beyond just his parents knew what was going on as it was going on, and helped cover it up by enabling and excusing his behavior. And then he went on to spend his entire adult life passing moral judgment on others while continuing to do who knows what with more children. Surely you guys can see the difference.

[Socnorb11]

I wasn't aware that adults knew that it was going on, as it was going on.

If that is the case, then I doubt if that behavior is exclusive to Christians. My reaction to the whole thing has nothing to do with their Christianity. Things like that should never happen, but they are going to. I would hope that anybody who is guilty would acknowledge how awful their behavior is, be remorseful, and hopefully not go there again. You can't "un-do" it, but you can certainly try to get on a better path, going forward. I'm not sure why you're assuming that the Duggar guy went on "to do who knows what with more children" in his adult life. Seems to me as if you're embellishing the outcome to fit your agenda, but maybe I misunderstood. The truth is that juvenile offenders rarely turn into adult offenders.

To be honest, I think Lena Dunham's behavior is worse, simply because she doesn't seem to understand as an adult how reprehensible her behavior was, and doesn't seem remorseful. In fact she seems almost giddy about it.

[lukethedrifter]

Lena dunham is a fat white feminist which mean she is untouchable.

That's why there isnt any outrage.

i remember the first time i heard that white males had it the toughest out there. it was my mom. i don't think she believes it any longer.

[cardsfansince82]

If that is the case, then I doubt if that behavior is exclusive to Christians. My reaction to the whole thing has nothing to do with their Christianity. Things like that should never happen, but they are going to. I would hope that anybody who is guilty would acknowledge how awful their behavior is, be remorseful, and hopefully not go there again. You can't "un-do" it, but you can certainly try to get on a better path, going forward. I'm not sure why you're assuming that the Duggar guy went on "to do who knows what with more children" in his adult life. Seems to me as if you're embellishing the outcome to fit your agenda, but maybe I misunderstood. The truth is that juvenile offenders rarely turn into adult offenders.

I find it absurd (and terrifying) that people can so quickly forgive and forget a guy molesting a whole bunch of children simply because they share his religious or political views. If that qualifies as having an agenda then I guess I'm guilty. I'm not assuming anything with regards to what he does now, I'm simply not willing to take his word that he is suddenly cured. No one, including Mike Huckabee, has any idea what that guy does when he is alone with children. Wouldn't it make sense to err on the side of caution? Would you let Josh Duggar watch your children? You have an awfully low bar for what qualifies as remorse. Was he remorseful when he was cashing those checks pretending to be some kind of moral authority all of these years? The only reason we know any of this is because someone besides him brought it to light. He issues a boilerplate statement about praying real hard and learning and changing and suddenly everything is ok? I can't get on board with that. If he was truly remorseful and changed we would all already know this story and he would use it as an example in his work. But I guess money is more important than that.

Your last statement about juvenile offenders is true for one time offenders, but he is not that. Certain factors have been identified as predictors of adult behavior, and those include the age when the crimes were committed and the number and age of victims among other things. The fact that he was doing this as an older adolescent at ages 14/15/16 to numerous kids as young as 5 makes it pretty likely he is an actual sexual predator. Only he knows for sure what he has done or what he is, but I would not be surprised if he has done way worse than what was admitted to and could very possibly be still molesting children. Nothing he has done to this point has demonstrated any kind of honesty so I'm not sure why anyone would choose to believe him now.

[greenback44]

Would you let Josh Duggar watch your children?

Hell's bells, don't give him ideas like this.

[Socnorb11]

If that is the case, then I doubt if that behavior is exclusive to Christians. My reaction to the whole thing has nothing to do with their Christianity. Things like that should never happen, but they are going to. I would hope that anybody who is guilty would acknowledge how awful their behavior is, be remorseful, and hopefully not go there again. You can't "un-do" it, but you can certainly try to get on a better path, going forward. I'm not sure why you're assuming that the Duggar guy went on "to do who knows what with more children" in his adult life. Seems to me as if you're embellishing the outcome to fit your agenda, but maybe I misunderstood. The truth is that juvenile offenders rarely turn into adult offenders.

I find it absurd (and terrifying) that people can so quickly forgive and forget a guy molesting a whole bunch of children simply because they share his religious or political views. If that qualifies as having an agenda then I guess I'm guilty. I'm not assuming anything with regards to what he does now, I'm simply not willing to take his word that he is suddenly cured. No one, including Mike Huckabee, has any idea what that guy does when he is alone with children. Wouldn't it make sense to err on the side of caution? Would you let Josh Duggar watch your children? You have an awfully low bar for what qualifies as remorse. Was he remorseful when he was cashing those checks pretending to be some kind of moral authority all of these years? The only reason we know any of this is because someone besides him brought it to light. He issues a boilerplate statement about praying real hard and learning and changing and suddenly everything is ok? I can't get on board with that. If he was truly remorseful and changed we would all already know this story and he would use it as an example in his work. But I guess money is more important than that.

Your last statement about juvenile offenders is true for one time offenders, but he is not that. Certain factors have been identified as predictors of adult behavior, and those include the age when the crimes were committed and the number and age of victims among other things. The fact that he was doing this as an older adolescent at ages 14/15/16 to numerous kids as young as 5 makes it pretty likely he is an actual sexual predator. Only he knows for sure what he has done or what he is, but I would not be surprised if he has done way worse than what was admitted to and could very possibly be still molesting children. Nothing he has done to this point has demonstrated any kind of honesty so I'm not sure why anyone would choose to believe him now.

I'm not sure what you want the end game to be. If you really want harsher penalties for 14 year olds who are guilty of molesting younger girls, then you should have started your little crusade a long time ago. Like I said, you weren't exactly jumping on board to express how appalled you were about Lena Dunham. Juvenile defenders aren't automatically placed on the offender list. In fact, it's not really that common. In fact, I'd say the majority of the time you'll never even know about it, because they'll never tell anyone that they did it.

As far as forgiving and forgetting, I never suggested that. It's not my place, since I'm not the one he molested. I'm trying to have a discussion about how juvenile child molesters are handled, and you want to turn it into an anti-Christian rant. In every single post you've made here, you've brought up his Christianity, as if there is some link between Christianity and child molestation. You're not so much appalled by child molestation, you're appalled by Christianity, otherwise you wouldn't feel the need to make the connection, and you would have spoken about about other child molesters.

[Vidor]

I'll make the connection. I think there's something connecting the absolutist, fundamentalist Christianity of the Duggars with molestation within their family. That's one of the two reasons why I'm not inclined to simply write off that dude as a child molester--he himself was a child, a teenager growing up in that awful family.