Really great stuff here. You've summed up my feelings quite well and eloquently.fiestavike wrote: Those are all fair points and I think these are complicated societal issues, especially when society has many different standards within the whole big picture.
I had an ex girlfriend who was raised in foster homes and where boys who misbehaved were forced to spend the day dressed in girls clothing and other similarly bizarre and psychologically abusive punishments. That to me is clearly beyond the pale of acceptable discipline. To me the Peterson crime is a matter of degree. Unless one rejects corporal punishment entirely, I think its pretty clear that Adrian was trying to administer a type of punishment that generally does fall within societies standards but used excessive force and/or an inappropriate item, and/or to a child too young to be disciplined in such a way. I think its fair to criticize him for this and I personally do find what he did objectionable for all of those reasons, but IMO its unfair to label him a "child abuser" based on this unfortunate event. Every parent has made mistakes when raising their children at different points and I don't think his judgement was good but it wasn't so far outside the bounds of what is societally acceptable that he deserves some of the vitriol he has received.
*Mods feel free to delete if you think this is beyond the bounds of reasonable discussion, I tried to phrase carefully and make what I think is a fair response to some other posts in this thread which are more critical of Peterson.
Here's the thing ... even our mistakes have consequences. If I get in a car drunk and kill somebody, I didn't mean to kill that person. My judgment was poor, but I"m not a murderer. That being said, it's a terrible mistake, and it's a mistake that I would have to pay dearly for. Why? Because society has determined that driving drunk is a crime, and killing someone when you drive drunk is worse. You don't get to say, "It's not a crime unless TMZ catches me," or "Others have driven drunk and not gotten arrested."
Obviously Adrian's mistake isn't as serious as vehicular manslaughter, but it's the point that matters. He disciplined his child. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's admirable. But he lost control and took it too far, as determined by society's standards (which, by the way, are TODAY'S standards, not those of some bygone time in history). That action has consequences, and Adrian is facing those. It does not, however, rise to the level of "Adrian Peterson is a child abuser."
