# The RCC now has zero tolerance for child abuse. Well, except... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 25, 2014, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492 "2014-08-25T20:11:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/201 "2014-09-02T10:50:18Z")
> [@VarlosZ](#): > > I’m pretty certain you’re wrong (depending on just how much wiggle room you’ve made by expanding your argument to include “willful blindness”). For a few reasons, but let’s stick with this: it makes no damn sense. Where’s the motivation? They’re pissed off at Cardinal Law, they want to see him put in prison, so they’ve decided to … make claims on a message board that they know are easily proven false. > > And if, in your heart of hearts, you really think they’re lying in this thread, then why are you still arguing the point with them? > > You’re debating with ElvisL1ves and elucidator, two posters who, whatever their virtues, are not known for facilitating the most useful political debates. To those who are willing to listen you’ve made your point, but those two were never going to agree with you. Picking at that scab and then claiming that theirs is a symptom of some liberal disease is not the most dignified thing I’ve seen this week. Or should I go hang out at Free Republic and start making some diagnoses? I have **ElvisL1vis** on ignore, and have for years. I assure you I am not debating with him. The problem is not elucidator, who as you correctly divine is useless at debate. The problem is that for casual readers like **Enola Gay** , idiocy spread by **elucidator** and those who follow his play book is pernicious. That’s one of the worst parts of this place: **elucidator** is useless, and everyone agrees he’s useless, but when posts, since his opinions are agreeable, people tolerate and even welcome his brand of bullshit. “Why don’t you call him out?” I ask. “Because it’s not fun. I post here for fun,” is the answer. But what is the result when stupidity is left unchallenged because it’s liberal, and conservative arguments are subjected to harsh critique? The same result as two Petri dishes of bacteria, with one liberally (ha!) dosed with antibiotic and the other permitted to grow unchecked. A few hardy instances might survive the antibiotic. But it’ll be sparse. The other dish will …dare I say it? Teem. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/202 "2014-09-02T13:06:05Z")
Welcome to the Pit. The place with 10k pits about popish idol worshippers buggering our bundle of joys. 0 pits about British labour council members, police officers and Paks buggering white trash kids. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/203 "2014-09-02T13:34:26Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > Welcome to the Pit. The place with 10k pits about popish idol worshippers buggering our bundle of joys. 0 pits about British labour council members, police officers and Paks buggering white trash kids. So start one. It would certainly be amusing to see all the people who are slagging off the Church over this tie themselves in knots trying not to do the same to Muslims, because racism. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/204 "2014-09-02T13:51:08Z")
I can understand where you’re coming from, **Bricker**. Just in general I’m very annoyed by the fact that people spend 99% of their energy criticizing the folks on the other side and maybe 1% correcting or reining in the people they broadly agree with. I think the latter is actually a much more important and effective thing to do, but, sadly, humans just don’t seem to be wired that way. But it’s not a liberal thing, nor, except as an expression of the board’s underlying demographics and structure, is it an SDMB thing. I think. I mean, maybe it’s possible that if a relative handful of high-volume posters changed their behavior it would have a trickle-down effect on the board’s culture as a whole. But even if that happened it would make this place the exception and not the rule. I don’t know what to tell you. Try not to let it get you down, I suppose, and also try to remain skeptical of any impulse to generalize about the personality flaws of “liberals” or other such groups. Everyone \*has \*those impulses, of course, but they’re rarely accurate, never verifiable, and never helpful (IMO). ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/205 "2014-09-02T15:44:50Z")
One of the most annoying features of this board is all the tut-tutting from some individuals who fancy themselves to be above it all, and deplore all the other posters who seem to them to lack the same prissiness. Here, arguments stand and fall on their own merits, and nobody needs to police anybody else to make that happen. IOW, screw. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/206 "2014-09-02T15:49:55Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > It would certainly be amusing to see all the people who are slagging off the Church over this tie themselves in knots trying not to do the same to Muslims, because racism. Is the Rotherham scandal the result of The Muslim Church’s official activities, something that the organization has abetted for years? Since that organization does not exist, apparently not. So is it the result of Muslim culture, something that embraces the practice? You could make your first post establishing that, if you can. Or maybe it’s Pakistani, or a particular tribe, or something that they only started doing when they got to the UK? Or just a group thing by a few guys who know each other? Or what? Your desire to declare equivalences, as in everything else you’ve claimed here, needs a more factual basis than you’ve shown an interest in providing. But I do look forward to seeing your new thread. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/207 "2014-09-02T16:20:06Z")
Thanks for proving me right so quickly and effectively. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/208 "2014-09-02T16:22:52Z")
Still looking for your thread. Let us know when you have your OP up, would you, there’s a good lad. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/209 "2014-09-02T16:27:18Z")
Considering this happened in my backyard (see OP), and I don’t know what Rune is talking about (as usual), you’ll forgive me if I didn’t start a thread. Just in case, I want to publicly declare that I am against members of any religion – or no religion – sexually abusing kids. Is that enough? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/210 "2014-09-02T16:31:53Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > …That’s one of the worst parts of this place: **elucidator** is useless, and everyone agrees he’s useless, but when posts, since his opinions are agreeable, people tolerate and even welcome his brand of bullshit… This really isn’t your best work… You say “everyone agrees” that I’m useless. And yet, in the very next words! “his opinions are agreeable”, “people tolerate, even welcome his…bullshit”. See the problem? Just ask if you don’t, we are here to help. Then you go on… > [@](#): > > …“Why don’t you call him out?” I ask. > > “Because it’s not fun. I post here for fun,” is the answer… Who are you asking? Presumably, _them_, those liberals previously indicted, you are speaking to them, asking why they tolerate such un- **Bricker** ish behavior. But then you have _me_ answer! Were you asking _me_ why I tolerate **elucidator** ’s dreadful behavior? Da fuq? You should take a little time, a breather, a nice cup chamomile tea, a bit of P.G. Wodehouse or Mark Twain, give your gnarled brow a bit of time to smooth itself out. Then perhaps your posts wouldn’t be subject to spasms and fits, like a meth-addled hamster. Just a thought, a kindly suggestion… And fun? Something wrong with fun? Some reason one cannot express deeply and truly held opinions with levity and a touch of joy? Perhaps you might ponder the question: are you crabby and humorless because you lose, or do you lose because you are humorless and crabby? Putting the horseshit before the cart. So to speak. Hoss. And allow me to accord you a special place, in that you are a consistent, reliable, and predictable source of inspiration. Like Old Faithful, with raw sewage rather than hot water. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/211 "2014-09-02T16:35:02Z")
> [@Mighty\_Girl](#): > > I want to publicly declare that I am against members of any religion – or no religion – sexually abusing kids. Is that enough? For those still laboring under the misapprehension that the core topic is merely Catholic-bashing, not abhorrence of child rape and an interest in bringing perpetrators and their enablers to justice, perhaps not. But we’ll see. I’d like to be surprised. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/212 "2014-09-02T16:50:35Z")
Sometimes you can’t have justice. But if you can get exposure and reform, its a good thing. Struggle for justice, accept change, and teach your children well. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/213 "2014-09-02T16:57:15Z")
If only teaching your children well didn’t have to include warning them about being alone with certain adult men, and what to do if they get bad-touched. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/214 "2014-09-02T17:51:04Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > So start one. It would certainly be amusing to see all the people who are slagging off the Church over this tie themselves in knots trying not to do the same to Muslims, because racism. muslims aren’t a race. But following your thinking, would I be racist if I criticized a Caucasian muslim because of his whacked out beliefs and practices? ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/215 "2014-09-02T18:02:33Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > One of the most annoying features of this board is all the tut-tutting from some individuals who fancy themselves to be above it all, and deplore all the other posters who seem to them to lack the same prissiness. Aside from moderators reminding posters to make their personal insults less blatant, I actually notice hardly any of this. No one stands up for for debate form or etiquette or a lack of hyperbole _as such_, though they might use such concepts to suggest that the person they’re directly debating is a scumbag. I do see how these meta-posts could be annoying, but (A) it’s not as if \*your \*posts are never annoying, and (B) the board might actually be a more pleasant place if there was a sizable faction that was primarily opposed not to liberal arguments, or conservative arguments, but rather to dumb arguments. > [@](#): > > Here, arguments stand and fall on their own merits… Eh, sort of. To the extent that that’s true, **Bricker** ’s arguments have been objectively \*far \*more impressive than the unsourced guesswork of everyone arguing that Law is actually criminally culpable. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/216 "2014-09-02T18:18:17Z")
I believe you were told to screw. Get on with it. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/217 "2014-09-02T18:24:21Z")
Does it matter so much? What could we gain from sending him to prison? Is it likely he will be reformed by the experience, assuming he gets a sentence that does not exceed his life expectancy? Is it likely that such punishment would exceed the effect of disgrace? Isn’t his exposure and disgrace more to the point? Sure, you can point out that the law as it stood would not hold him accountable. What better motivation could you have to change the law? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/218 "2014-09-02T18:30:33Z")
Couldn’t you say that about most criminals, ' **luc**? We do lock people away who aren’t going to be rehabilitated or reoffend, as punishment. Incarceration does have multiple motives and uses. If not punishment, just exposure and disgrace: What exposure and disgrace is Law subject to, hidden away in the Vatican? And what exposure and disgrace are \*they \*subject to, by so doing? ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/219 "2014-09-02T18:32:14Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > One of the most annoying features of this board is all the tut-tutting from some individuals who fancy themselves to be above it all, and deplore all the other posters who seem to them to lack the same prissiness. > > Here, arguments stand and fall on their own merits, and nobody needs to police anybody else to make that happen. IOW, screw. I’m hardly “tut-tutting” you, you brainless invertebrate. Nor do I think I’m “above it all”, whatever that’s supposed to mean. I just find your habit of appearing to popularity while pretending to be more mature than whoever you’re arguing with to be annoying, especially considering you’re one or the least mature people I’ve seen on this board since I joined in 2001. IOW, STFU. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492/220 "2014-09-02T18:36:20Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > For those still laboring under the misapprehension that the core topic is merely Catholic-bashing, not abhorrence of child rape and an interest in bringing perpetrators and their enablers to justice, perhaps not. But we’ll see. I’d like to be surprised. Justice is not served by calling for the punishment of those who have broken no laws, no matter how much you dislike what they’ve done. It _is_ served by changing laws so in future, people who do it can be punished. Fortunately, this is what has happened. But it’s clear you have no interest in justice, else you’d be as outraged at all the other groups that act immorally. Like, every single religious organisation, as they are all (of necessity) based on lies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-rcc-now-has-zero-tolerance-for-child-abuse-well-except/696492.md?page=12)