LOL! “these “fathers” were irresponsible thugs”. As opposed to all the “responsible” thugs I guess. Good example would be the dying words of sixpac shakur after he was shot in Vegas. The first cop on the scene (Vegas strip bike cop) asked sixpac who did it. Sixpac’s final two word to the cop. FU. Yeah, and he’s celebrated like some sort of hero. Nope. Dead zero.
Actually, from the particular issue at point, there have been, or at least used to be, a lot of “responsible thugs.”
The Italian and Jewish gangsters who dominated organized crime in this country for most of the last century were renowned for their devotion to their families. They didn’t abandon their sons and daughters to grow up by themselves. Their peers would have ostracized them, or possibly killed them, if they had.
Whether growing up with a “responsible thug” for an active father is a good thing or not for the child is a good question.