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Do you really care about victims of sexual abuse?

By Scott Tibbs, July 2, 2018

If your very first response to a revelation about sexual abuse of children is to point to another person or organization guilty of committing or covering up sexual abuse, then you do not give a crap about the victims of sexual abuse. This is not an occasion for a childish game of whataboutism.

(I am intentionally not being specific in this post, to not distract from the overall principle.)

Yes, hypocrisy exists. There are plenty of people who love to denounce abusers only when they have an axe to grind. Then they excuse or want to show "grace" when it is an organization, church, or politician they support who has been found guilty of abuse. When we see this hypocrisy, it is appropriate to point it out.

But we should not pretend that those people playing whataboutism are actually concerned for victims, when they spend all of their time distracting from sexual abuse by shrieking "look over there!" When you cannot even bring yourself to recognize the crimes committed by an organization you support because you are too busy pretending to "care" about other victims, you do not care about any victims. You are playing defense.

Folks, evil is evil. Why can't we just recognize evil instead of always trying to distract from it? Why can't we advocate that victims be protected and predators be punished instead of constantly playing a morally bankrupt game of whataboutism? Are we really this childish and petty as a people? If someone you love was victimized, how would you feel if someone started shrieking "look over there!" to distract from the abuse?