Cat Fight, that was my thought, too. I agree that we shouldn’t brand the guy a criminal when he has done nothing, but not because pushing him too far might make him molest a child. There’s nothing, IMO, to justify hurting a child.
I get that. But I just don’t see why the answer to the breaking point should be “molest kid.” If you got really angry and lashed out by…I don’t know, screaming at or assaulting the people branding you “Child molester” when you’ve done nothing wrong, I could sort of get that, while not condoning it. If your answer is “I might as well molest a kid since they already think I’m a monster,” well…then I guess my response would be maybe they were right about you, if there is something in you that could do this horrible thing.
It kind of reminds me of a debate we were having on Roman Polanski. Someone brought up the fact that often people will attempt to bait famous people–apparently bringing them underage kids and then blackmailing them (“Make my kid famous or I’ll say you raped her”). Don’t know how true THAT is, but the rationale that the poster had was that once in a while the famous person may just snap and do the rape anyway when they are placed in that situation. And my response to that was the same…if you were put in that situation, and your response was to commit this heinous unforgivable crime, then I don’t think you have any excuse.
So my only point is to not put them in that situation, I guess. We’re in agreement on blame/lack of excuse once they DO cross the line, but the fact of the line-crossing remains and that’s no good for anyone.