Many on here like to wish suffering on bad guys like rapists & terrorists, but this is ape thinking. Even the most heinous of human monsters are merely malfunctioning arrangements of matter, and therefore as deserving of suffering as rabid chimps or glitchy TVs.
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Replying to @G_S_Bhogal
Second post I've seen from you with remarkable compassion. When i find myself hating someone thats done something truly awful, I remind myself that at some point they downloaded some horrible malware, naively. Lock em up, but dont take pleasure in watching them writhe. Non bene.
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Replying to @CavaraEnzo @G_S_Bhogal
It’s always easy to be compassionate when the subjects of your compassion haven’t hurt you. Let’s see how he (or you) thinks about this matter when his daughter is raped, or his brother stabbed to death. In a way suffering is a matter of justice. Payback is thing.
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Replying to @trissteenn @CavaraEnzo
I predicted your argument, and wanted to include a preemptive rebuttal but didn't have space. The thing is, if someone hurt someone I loved, I might get mad and act rash. But this fact only further demonstrates that getting mad is an emotional (and thus irrational) reaction.
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Replying to @G_S_Bhogal @CavaraEnzo
And I predicted your counter-argument. I understand your point but I argue from a ‘justice for the victim’ perspective, you argue from a societal (?) perspective. But the victim is the victim here, not society, and therefore in my opinion the victim getting ‘justice’ matters most
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Labeling things as ‘revenge’ is also deeply unhelpful & simplistic. Like I said, payback is a thing, it’s our nature, a gut-feel reaction of what’s fair. Taking payback away from victims is marginalizing their feelings and may create a huge sense of unfairness on their side.
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Replying to @trissteenn @CavaraEnzo
The belief that something is good because it's in our nature is a fallacy known as the appeal to nature. And we can't run society based on the feelings of individuals, or else we would soon descend into chaos, because emotions by their very nature are capricious and irrational.
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Replying to @G_S_Bhogal @CavaraEnzo
Your attitude is precisely what leads to populism though. You deny people their (natural) feelings, rationalize them away. You are blind to the fact that if many people don’t share your view that implementing such a view undermines the social cohesion and structure of a society.
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This isn’t a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ issue, what is ‘fair’ is all subjective anyway: nature knows no such thing as fair. I take a pragmatic point of view; what is society most likely to approve of vs what will undermine cohesion. Intellectuals arguing against punishment is the latter
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You misunderstand me. I'm not arguing against punishment. I believe punishment is necessary as a deterrent. What I'm arguing against is the desire to inflict suffering on those who cause suffering *simply because it feels good*.
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And the claim that my line of thinking leads to populism by hurting the feelings of the people is like saying that not buying a child candy all the time leads to tantrums. It doesn't really invalidate the truth.
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Replying to @G_S_Bhogal @trissteenn
I agree here. And factually speaking, not buying a 4 year old candy does lead to tantrums! But caving in leads to even more!
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End of conversation
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