Then, if we don’t need rules or definitions or reasonable criteria, it shouldn’t be difficult to determine if I am or am not a hobby criminal, for this act of X, where X represents the crime we cannot term.

The line between tough parenting and child abuse, and I am not a lawyer, is defined in every states law, as the later is a prosecutable offense, and a very serious one. Like all moral judgements it is arbitrary (ant least I am unable to think of any that are not) and some may not agree, but this is not some undefined offense whatsoever.

It is very difficult, perhaps impossible, to meaningfully engage with an idea of a moral crime that cannot term the offense, cannot define it, cannot identify any of the boundaries between right and wrong, and for which the moral judgement on which the moral argument hinges appears to be your gut feeling at the moment. It’s not a very logical case, or one another person can do much of anything which. I would certainly not take my gut feeling of distaste for another’s actions to mean they are guilty of a crime, moral or actual, if I cannot specify how.

With that you can have the last word. Good discussion, interesting subject.

This sounds right.

Mark