Vigilante Veterans With Crazy Imaginations

[arthwollipot]

In an earlier century they'd be telling us they'd found definite evidence of a witches' sabbat and human sacrifice and the devil's footprints.

That's not just for an earlier century. About ten years ago, an evangelical group headed up by one Danny Nahllia announced that they had uncovered evidence of a witch's sabbat on top of a mountain here in Canberra. They had a big gathering and exorcism there one day which attracted quite a bit of attention at the time. I covered it for a podcast I was working on at the time.

Their "evidence" consisted of what they claimed were bloodstains from animal sacrifice. The so-called "bloodstains" were in fact rust at the base of a large steel aircraft beacon.

 

[dann]

In an earlier century they'd be telling us they'd found definite evidence of a witches' sabbat and human sacrifice and the devil's footprints.

With "an earlier century", are you thinking of the 1980s and the 1990s?

 

[dann]

Snopes

 

[dann]

Zip ties, I expect. Or maybe just duct tape.

"Trees equipped with restraints." It's probably regular gardening: Tree restaint

 

[ponderingturtle]

Not "vigilante veterans", they are a vigilante mob. And they have guns. GREAT!

Armed violent mobs are the best. A real american cultural tradition.

See the moving testimony here

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/05/31/615546965/meet-the-last-surviving-witness-to-the-tulsa-race-riot-of-1921

Ah when america was truly great. And we can get back to those times!

 

[William Parcher]

Zip ties, I expect. Or maybe just duct tape.

Neither. It looks like some canvas utility straps affixed to tree trunks. Not at all practical for child restraints on a "rape tree".

The skeptical journalist (JJ MacNab) who is working on this says that the police have already interviewed the family that built and lived in this camp.

These crazies remind me of Bigfoot believers. No amount of facts, rationality or reasoning will stop them. Cable TV could do a series featuring these nutjobs - "Finding Pedo".

 

[RolandRat]

The comments section underneath that article makes me wonder how some people function in real life.

 

[Armitage72]

There is something seriously messed up with people who badly want to make up stories about pedophile rape gangs. It seems almost trendy nowadays.

I remember a newspaper article back in the 90s on how to protect your children from becoming gay. One item was the necessity of walking a fine line on where you lived. Big cities were described as being full of homosexuals looking for recruits, while the country was described as being full of roving homosexual rape gangs. They actually referenced "Deliverance", apparently thinking it was a documentary.

 

[phiwum]

If they're anything like some of the people here in the UK they'll probably harrass a paediatrician, or someone riding in a pedalo, or maybe someone wearing speedos...

Surely, it's okay to harass someone wearing speedos.

ETA: Pedalo means "paddle boat" on this side of the pond. Pedalo does really seem more sinister, but still, I'd go for the speedo guy first. (NOTE: "go for" is suggestive in a sense I didn't mean, but "take out" and "focus on" didn't work any better.)

 

[Tolls]

By "paddle boat" do you mean those things with the big wheels at the back?
Over here it's a plastic two-seater boat, possibly shaped like a swan, that you pedal...

 

[phiwum]

By "paddle boat" do you mean those things with the big wheels at the back?
Over here it's a plastic two-seater boat, possibly shaped like a swan, that you pedal...

We use the term paddle boat for both the big guys and the small guys. Never heard the term pedalo before.

 

[Emily's Cat]

Are you sure about that? I've gut a shiny ten baht coin with your name on it if you can prove that.

Prove what? That they seem nuts or that being opposed to human trafficking and rape counts as having one's heart in the right place?

 

[jimbob]

Prove what? That they seem nuts or that being opposed to human trafficking and rape counts as having one's heart in the right place?

The last one.

As TM alluded to earlier, one might say that some witch-hunters had their hearts in the right place too.

 

[Emily's Cat]

The last one.

I'm at a bit of a loss. Can you provide an example where the principle of opposing human trafficking would be interpreted as being immoral or otherwise having one's heart in the wrong place?

 

[jimbob]

I'm at a bit of a loss. Can you provide an example where the principle of opposing human trafficking would be interpreted as being immoral or otherwise having one's heart in the wrong place?

See my edit.

How about

"There is a real problem with White Slavers and the Arabs are the main perpetrators"

 

[Emily's Cat]

See my edit.

Re: your edit... yeah, one could still say that their hearts were in the right place. But their brains and their actions certainly weren't. Good intentions are still good intentions. But bad actions (or even poorly thought out actions) aren't necessarily good because of intentions - bad actions are still bad actions. A murderer who murders a bad guy is still a murderer, and murder is still bad. The murder he/she committed doesn't magically become a good and noble act because the intention was to rid the world of a killer.

How about

"There is a real problem with White Slavers and the Arabs are the main perpetrators"

I don't follow you. Can you expand please?

 

[RolandRat]

Re: your edit... yeah, one could still say that their hearts were in the right place. But their brains and their actions certainly weren't. Good intentions are still good intentions

Is making up stories about finding lairs of paedophiles a good intention?

 

[Checkmite]

I'm not sure calling these people vigilantes is accurate, since they don't seem to have attacked or harassed any other people or broken any laws themselves. Right now it seems to be just a bunch of old people telling spooky stories.

 

[3point14]

It's a good way to go looking for people it's acceptable to assault.

 

[Checkmite]

If someone becomes a vigilante over this, then calling that person a vigilante will be okay. But until that happens, there is a categorical absence of vigilantism here.

I would guess these folks' blatant racism was already enough of an excuse to assault an acceptable target if they were ever of a mind to do so.