As an example of what I mean, remember that judge who was caught on camera beating his daughter a while ago? She is/was an SA member. Her father apparently just got reinstated and you can find the
SA discussion of it here. Well, I say that, but the thread immediately got derailed into talking about how she and her lawyer are weirdo furry freaks and she obviously deserved it. Once goons spy one of their favourite obsessions they forget everything else... humanity, common decency, you name it.
With due respect, there were plenty of people saying the opposite - that, yes, shoe seems pretty messed up and none of the players in the drama are particularly likeable but no matter what she did not deserve those beatings. The scariest people of all in that thread were the ones saying "well, it's Texas and beating your kid is legal there, so what's the big deal", as well as the "one mistake shouldn't ruin someone's career" chorus.
In the original thread, the reason why people were telling her to delete the furry stuff and the bestiality-related stuff was because if the media got hold of it she would lose a lot of public sympathy and her father would use it to portray her as crazy. It wasn't - for the most part - "ewww, furries" (an attitude which definitely does exist on SA, for reasons I don't totally understand) in that particular instance. She made some terrible judgements in how she handled the attention she got at that time and people were trying very hard to stop her from digging herself into an ever-deepening hole. Goons being goons, they weren't happy when she ignored that advice and started pissing in the well.
She is actively disliked by many now, mostly due to the racist comments and the bestiality stuff (which she now claims was trolling but if that's the case she was trolling a lot of places). That doesn't - and never should - excuse or in any way be used justify the beatings she received as a teenager.
She's started a new thread on reddit and it will be interesting to see whether that deteriorates in the same way the reddit threads did last year. Hillary and her mother are seeking donations to establish a foundation for abuse victims.
http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/11telw/in_the_wake_of_domestic_abuser_judge_william/