Let's say I'm a cop. I witness a murder and a theft at the same time. I am only one man, so I run after the murderer, essentially ignoring the thief. I am not condoning the thief, merely recognizing I can only solve one problem at a time and prioritizing accordingly.

Just to play devil's advocate to abge, say you're training a dog. The dog decides to chew on your furniture. If you ignore the behavior, you are telling the dog it's OK to chew, effectively condoning the behavior.

Yes, but I think Lando will agree that my scenario is a bit more similar to the question he is actually asking.

But assuming, abge, you recognize the thief and you know where to find him. What then?

Then I would eventually get around to him, when I was done solving murders.

Sometimes:-
Ignoring the behaviour of a 20 strong group of drunk young men in Reading city centre on a Saturday night is a survival strategy, whereas commenting on their behaviour is a sure-fire way to get your head kicked in. On a Saturday night, even the police go around mob-handed in Reading.

But if you could call for assistance with the thief and you knew where he was, couldn't you take care of both?

Let's assume there are, say, 4 cops and one retired cop. Let's also assume there are about 4 murders a day. That keeps everyone rather busy. Oh, and let's also assume these cops don't get paid.

So the 4 cops and one retired cop go into this bar, see, and inside they find the Pope and a dead-on Marilyn Monroe cross-dresser...

All these examples are a bit out of place though. It's a cops responsibility to arrest the thief. It's a pet owners responsibility to train his dog properly. So in those situations, where there is power and the expectation of action, ignoring IS condoning.


A better example would be ignoring a racist comment or something like that, and I say no - ignoring is not condoning. I do not have the responsibility to make sure nobody around me uses racial slurs. Mutejus doesn't have the responsibility or authority to make sure I love Jeebus, and so he's not condoning my hilarity when he mutes me.

YJ - those examples were not out of place. They were just different examples, on a different spectrum of human interactions, but no less valid.

So the bottom line is, the answer to your question is: "It depends on the situation".

Sometimes you are too far removed to make a difference, or unable to effectively interact (sitting front row of an Obama speech and not calling him out when he lies - too far removed politically to matter, unable to effectively make a difference), other times you would be clearly condoning - such as watching your child steal or punch someone and not correcting them.

The other question - and maybe better question: Does you condoning the behavior matter? Not condoning a politicians behavior is like spitting into the wind... Not condoning your child's behavior will (in theory) help you to raise a better child.