She Knew She Was Doing Something Wrong

[talon]

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67O1N720100825

The woman who locked a cat into a trash bin said it was an impulsive act. Truth is, it wasn't an impulse and she knew she was doing something wrong. The video showed her looking all around to see if anyone was watching her before she tossed the cat in the bin and closed the lid. If it were truly impulsive, she wouldn't have carefully checked all around her before acting, she'd have just done it.

The time she took to look around would have cooled any impulsive ardor.

While I personally don't see the humor in trapping a cat in an airless, hot trash bin; I will grant that perhaps that sort of thing might appeal to someone else as a passing thought or in a cartoon. To then act upon such a cruel thought moves it from " maybe funny" to "definitely appalling".

I hope she has learned her lesson - you can have all the unredeemingly anti-social thoughts you want, but civilized people don't then act those anti-social thoughts out. There are consequences, and someone (in todays' highly recorded society) will see you. If 4chan gets involved (as they will when it's a gratuitous act of cruelty, especially to cats whom they seem to love inordinately), your life will become miserable. You can't hide from 4chan, they have too many eyes and ears; once they target you, they have virtually no conscience and very little control.

I suppose the bigger lesson is don't become a 4chan hate target.

That said, I have very little sympathy for this woman.

Had her act truly been impulsive, I would have forgiven her and taken her side even against 4chan (it wouldn't be the first time I disagreed with 4chan), but, and this is a very big but - she didn't act impulsively. She was presented with an opportunity, she carefully checked to see if she was observed, and confident she was getting away with an act she knew was wrong and cruel, she did it anyway. She deserves the harassment and focused attention of 4chan; though probably not death threats, very few people deserve death threats. Since the cat is unharmed, death threats seem a lot over the top, even for 4chan.

So, yeah, let her be the target of 4chan's focused ire, let her know, deep in her bones and heart and soul, that one does not act upon random cruel thoughts.

I wonder how many other randomly cruel things she's done in her life? This, mild as it was, was not her first random act of cruelty. Hopefully, all of her previous cruelties were minor ones that ended well for her victims.

The next time, should there be a next time, that an opportunity for a cruel act presents itself to her, I hope she remembers the consequences of the last cruel act she committed and pass it up without a single glance for observers. She'll know she's being watched and judged. What she doesn't yet know is that if she does take advantage of a future act of random cruelty, 4chan won't be as kind as they have been so far.