On Penn State and the madness of "mob justice"...
...so, I'm back.
What drew me back? Not her. In fact, the dearth of anything from her is kinda making me nervous. But that's another LJ post six months from now.
No, what drew me back is the idiocy of the people who advocate vigilante action against Penn State and its supporters, for the awful crime of deigning to support Joe Paterno in the face of overwhelming evidence that he not only knew about Jerry Sandusky's little problem, but covered for him.
...Yes, to these people, if you don't think Joe Paterno is burning in hell right now, you are a supporter of child rape. If you don't think we should dig up his corpse and have a Cadaver Synod for a new milennium, you support child rape. And if you don't think that the sanctions against Penn State weren't enough, or even if you don't just take it up the arse like a good little Penn Stater, you support child rape.
...all of a sudden, I'm seeing a link between these folks and the PZ Myers brand of "feminists" on FreeThoughtBlogs. There's a truly sad case of believer-think, because it comes from people who should know better than to use it. Most of them were driven out of the church by it. They know that the church uses it to shame fence-sitters into compliance, and to demonize whatever opposition there is,and to make merely asking the question enough to make you part of that opposition. These are the tactics of Scientologists and cults and mobs, and they have no place on a site that touts itself on its free thought.
...but it is also being used by an actual mob: the anti-Penn Staters, and it leads to dumbass comments like this:
I'm beginning to wonder if I would shed a single tear if someone "Bane'd" the entire PSU football stadium on opening day.
...and suddenly, even trying to justify why I still go to Fark is getting flimsy.
Because this sort of shit is rife over there. There are actually people over there that go as far as to say that people who had no involvement in the rape or the cover-up, and in fact probably resented the program a little, who nonetheless pipe up that the NCAA sanctions might have gone a little too far, because they hurt their business, deserve everything they get. Those pipe-uppers are not defending Jerry Sandusky (which no one has, and anyone who tries to say anyone has can be lumped in with the witch-hunters), or even Joe Paterno, but themselves. And that can't happen in Fark-land. Oh no: If you're not taking it like a little bitch in Happy Valley, you deserve everything you get. So say the Farkers that had never even heard of Jerry Sandusky until the scandal broke and have no connection whatsoever to Penn State.
However, even those Farkers no longer hold a candle to Magorn (and yes, I'm outing him) for that comment.
If there is a more efficient way to show that you don't care one whit about the victims of two different atrocities, I'd like to know it. This guy doesn't care about anything but his own twisted need for "justice". He cares less about the victims of Penn State than Jerry Sandusky did, and he cares less about the victims of Aurora than James Holmes did. Quite frankly, I'd be more scared of leaving my kids (if I had any) in the hands of Farkers like Magorn than I would leaving them in the hands of Sandusky or Holmes. Because Sandusky and Holmes are more predictable than Farkers, and that's saying a lot about the latter, a guy that booby-trapped his own apartment and shot up a bunch of people using tear gas as a cover, apparently just because he could. And yet, he's saner than the Farkers who are trying to blow up Penn State.
And why is this? Because they dare to not want to hate Joe Paterno for his actions. Funnily, many of the people who express this rage are also evangelical Christians, who believe that the world was made 6,000 years ago, that a global flood wiped out all but a boatload of organisms from the planet, and that a small book written ages ago by Middle-Eastern sheep-herders is the word of God. A God who, in said book, condoned rape, pedophilia, slavery, and murder. Yet, many said Christians still worship him, even knowing all of these things. Even worse, many still defend his actions, something that no one in the Penn State scandal is doing. They are hypocrites in the highest order, and I say unto them, now they know how atheists feel about them.
To sum this up, this is what believer-think actually leads to: Vigilante mobs who will not be satisfied until every man, woman, and child at Penn State is scrubbed off the face of the earth, because they deserve it for merely following a man. Their actions are analogous to lynch mobs, witch-hunters, and Crusaders the world over. Their believer-think is soaked up, sadly enough, by people who should know better than to fall for it, because it's justice for child-rape, and it's okay. Just like lynch mobs thought it okay because they were those evil darkies; just like witch-hunters believed it okay because "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"; just like Crusaders thought it okay because the heathens had Jerusalem. That an atrocity is okay because it's an action for another atrocity. Quite frankly, it sickens me to see that there are groups of people with this thought in the 21st century, who would not hesitate to fly a banner over a school saying "TAKE DOWN THE STATUE OR WE WILL"...y'know, for the children. Who have gone on countless boards proclaiming that Penn State got off easy by merely being crippled for four years and fined $60 million, and should've gotten the Death Penalty...y'know, for the children. Who say indefensible shit like Magorn wanting PSU to have a massacre like Aurora on a stadium level, and being cheered for it...Y'know, for the children. And who demonize all who say, hey, maybe you might want to tone it down a bit, maybe you've gone a little overboard, and maybe some of the people being punished don't deserve this by calling them pedophiles or worse...Y'know. For the children.
What drew me back? Not her. In fact, the dearth of anything from her is kinda making me nervous. But that's another LJ post six months from now.
No, what drew me back is the idiocy of the people who advocate vigilante action against Penn State and its supporters, for the awful crime of deigning to support Joe Paterno in the face of overwhelming evidence that he not only knew about Jerry Sandusky's little problem, but covered for him.
...Yes, to these people, if you don't think Joe Paterno is burning in hell right now, you are a supporter of child rape. If you don't think we should dig up his corpse and have a Cadaver Synod for a new milennium, you support child rape. And if you don't think that the sanctions against Penn State weren't enough, or even if you don't just take it up the arse like a good little Penn Stater, you support child rape.
...all of a sudden, I'm seeing a link between these folks and the PZ Myers brand of "feminists" on FreeThoughtBlogs. There's a truly sad case of believer-think, because it comes from people who should know better than to use it. Most of them were driven out of the church by it. They know that the church uses it to shame fence-sitters into compliance, and to demonize whatever opposition there is,and to make merely asking the question enough to make you part of that opposition. These are the tactics of Scientologists and cults and mobs, and they have no place on a site that touts itself on its free thought.
...but it is also being used by an actual mob: the anti-Penn Staters, and it leads to dumbass comments like this:
I'm beginning to wonder if I would shed a single tear if someone "Bane'd" the entire PSU football stadium on opening day.
...and suddenly, even trying to justify why I still go to Fark is getting flimsy.
Because this sort of shit is rife over there. There are actually people over there that go as far as to say that people who had no involvement in the rape or the cover-up, and in fact probably resented the program a little, who nonetheless pipe up that the NCAA sanctions might have gone a little too far, because they hurt their business, deserve everything they get. Those pipe-uppers are not defending Jerry Sandusky (which no one has, and anyone who tries to say anyone has can be lumped in with the witch-hunters), or even Joe Paterno, but themselves. And that can't happen in Fark-land. Oh no: If you're not taking it like a little bitch in Happy Valley, you deserve everything you get. So say the Farkers that had never even heard of Jerry Sandusky until the scandal broke and have no connection whatsoever to Penn State.
However, even those Farkers no longer hold a candle to Magorn (and yes, I'm outing him) for that comment.
If there is a more efficient way to show that you don't care one whit about the victims of two different atrocities, I'd like to know it. This guy doesn't care about anything but his own twisted need for "justice". He cares less about the victims of Penn State than Jerry Sandusky did, and he cares less about the victims of Aurora than James Holmes did. Quite frankly, I'd be more scared of leaving my kids (if I had any) in the hands of Farkers like Magorn than I would leaving them in the hands of Sandusky or Holmes. Because Sandusky and Holmes are more predictable than Farkers, and that's saying a lot about the latter, a guy that booby-trapped his own apartment and shot up a bunch of people using tear gas as a cover, apparently just because he could. And yet, he's saner than the Farkers who are trying to blow up Penn State.
And why is this? Because they dare to not want to hate Joe Paterno for his actions. Funnily, many of the people who express this rage are also evangelical Christians, who believe that the world was made 6,000 years ago, that a global flood wiped out all but a boatload of organisms from the planet, and that a small book written ages ago by Middle-Eastern sheep-herders is the word of God. A God who, in said book, condoned rape, pedophilia, slavery, and murder. Yet, many said Christians still worship him, even knowing all of these things. Even worse, many still defend his actions, something that no one in the Penn State scandal is doing. They are hypocrites in the highest order, and I say unto them, now they know how atheists feel about them.
To sum this up, this is what believer-think actually leads to: Vigilante mobs who will not be satisfied until every man, woman, and child at Penn State is scrubbed off the face of the earth, because they deserve it for merely following a man. Their actions are analogous to lynch mobs, witch-hunters, and Crusaders the world over. Their believer-think is soaked up, sadly enough, by people who should know better than to fall for it, because it's justice for child-rape, and it's okay. Just like lynch mobs thought it okay because they were those evil darkies; just like witch-hunters believed it okay because "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live"; just like Crusaders thought it okay because the heathens had Jerusalem. That an atrocity is okay because it's an action for another atrocity. Quite frankly, it sickens me to see that there are groups of people with this thought in the 21st century, who would not hesitate to fly a banner over a school saying "TAKE DOWN THE STATUE OR WE WILL"...y'know, for the children. Who have gone on countless boards proclaiming that Penn State got off easy by merely being crippled for four years and fined $60 million, and should've gotten the Death Penalty...y'know, for the children. Who say indefensible shit like Magorn wanting PSU to have a massacre like Aurora on a stadium level, and being cheered for it...Y'know, for the children. And who demonize all who say, hey, maybe you might want to tone it down a bit, maybe you've gone a little overboard, and maybe some of the people being punished don't deserve this by calling them pedophiles or worse...Y'know. For the children.