Comments Elsewhere

@Anok: ‘Eh, anyone who uses “crime”, which is a social contract regarding law in place of the word “morality” which is a pretty universal term that applies to human behavior …”

You seem to have some pretty strong views about the meaning of the word “crime,” even though Marcel (among others) is clearly using the word in a way different from the way that you are using it. One way to deal with a situation like that is to say something like, “O.K., well, the important thing here isn’t spelling; it’s clear communication. So let’s distinguish some terms for the sake of communication — ‘moral crime,’ say, to mean what you mean, and ‘legal crime’ to mean what I mean.” Or, I guess, you could just assert that “crime” means what you’re using it to mean, and insist that the way other folks are using it is wrong, and the way you’re using it is right — which is what you seem to be doing here. But if the latter, where are you getting your intuitions about what the term “crime” obviously means? From dictionaries? From common usage? (But, in case of the latter, the fact that a lot of people use it in a different way makes it clear that the common usage is ambiguous…) Somewhere else?

@Anok: “You support abuse.”

I don’t think that’s a reasonable reading of what Marcel said at all.

He didn’t say that abuse is basically O.K.; he said it is a bad thing, but not criminal. Saying that it’s not CRIMINAL is not the same thing as saying that it’s not WRONG — there are lots of things that are vices, but not crimes. (For example, winning chess matches by cheating when your opponent’s back is turned; talking during movies at the theater; plagiarizing a college paper; cheating on your partner; refusing to visit a dying friend for no good reason; etc.) The claim isn’t that these things are O.K., or that they aren’t seriously wrong. Some vices are minor — talking at the movies, say. But some crimes — stealing a grape, say, or maliciously stomping on someone’s foot — are minor too. And some vices — dishonesty, cruelty, faithlessness, etc. — are grave. Cruelty or dishonesty are far more serious wrongs than some things that are crimes, but they are wrong in different ways, and for different reasons, from the crimes. And that that difference may make a difference for the appropriate response.