It’s kind of a messed up story, no matter how you look at it. It’s too nasty to be really funny (this splinter group was making symbolically-significant, religious-based attacks against others); too surreal to be read straight (since when do Amish get to use electric razors?); and any righteous indignation is kind of tempered by the inconvenient point that there’s an outside chance that the charges could earn the perpetrators a life sentence. I don’t disagree with making a hate crime a felony, and I’m familiar enough with the Holocaust to know that you can seriously mess up people’s heads with something as seemingly non-violent as an involuntary haircut; I’ve just never had to think about where the line is for this kind of thing, that’s all.
So… I dunno.
It kind of strikes me as typical of isolated groups internecine squabbles. So, it’s generally unintelligible to anyone outside the group. That makes it REAL difficult for outsiders to sit in judgement of the accused. We can’t really judge how serious it is, and how seriously it should be punished and so risk giving offense in multiple ways. In short, being PC sucks!
I knew something was Amish. (/joke)