Pain Invalidates?

I've kept an eye on a certain forum lately, and I've noticed this phenomenon that I've never really seen before. Maybe it's because I haven't been in court much. Maybe it's because I've never seen sex offenders go head to head with victims in a practically unmoderated forum. It's not like the comments on AZ, where we can moderate comments, and tell someone that they WILL NOT talk to a victim like that. It's full-on warfare.

This phenomenon is using the word "pain" as an insult. The sex offender activists very often "call someone out" by saying she or he is in pain. I could find you a thousand screen shots of it. It goes like this:

The victim expresses an opinion about the RSO laws. The RSO "blames" the victim for being in "pain" and "needing help," in order to try to invalidate what the victim is saying.

As if pain makes a person stupid, or less capable of having opinions, or less capable of being RIGHT.

And that's the reason they use it that way. They want to prove that they're right, no matter what it takes. If it takes resorting to using a victim's pain as a tool to try to turn that victim into someone with worthless ideas or opinions, so be it.

What they need to realize is that they're doing it all wrong. For many of us, pain keeps us going. Pain makes us strong. Pain focuses us. It's become familiar, after all.

But, using pain as a weapon? It's manipulative, immoral and it's disgusting. It's insidious, and it's designed to knock the victim back to a place where he or she feels helpless.


We're not, though. And we will prove it to you. Time and again, if we have to.

Sound familiar?