Does anyone want to normalize these numbers by population? I haven’t the intestinal fortitude.
Got it, but I did it the other direction as the “official” thread was late.
I guess in these cases I should delete merge requests, as they look weird after merges?
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Yeah but this one won’t time out after 5 days.
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We can talk about executing Nazis forever!
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What’s the point?
I guess, ultimately we’re better off (personally, and perhaps as a society) if we can muster it for the most evil, but do we really need to feel compassionate in order to just not do the wrong thing?
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Integrity is standing up for your principles even when you don’t feel like it.
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Probably not. I think @enso’s point is that how one feels towards monsters contributes to one’s own humanity. This is undoubtedly true, but it’s also undoubtedly true that I don’t think I’m going to do too much psychic damage to myself by considering Roof beneath my own compassion; my heart’s already pretty cold, this won’t measurably lower it’s temperature.
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Wait. Where am I now?
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Rob closed his already. So we will leave this one open. 
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Yes.
Mind you, my threshold for “really bad” is much past where the current legal threshold is in the Carolinas, but I have no argument with that statement.
I am showing as much compassion as I can muster: I want his death to be quick and painless, and not a drawn-out torture. That’s sufficient compassion for someone with his stated goals and proven actions from my perspective.
Please note that I recognize that I am biased in this regard, and I have previously acknowledged that bias as known to me. Being confrontational in tone and attempting to rephrase my statements in such ways is not going to be a tactic that succeeds in doing anything other than irritating me.
EDIT: @enso, I’m referring to your statement that I quoted above, where you attempt to reframe my prior statement in what I can only call a confrontational manner (specifically, I acknowledge that I’m biased in this case, and you attempt to confront me over that hypocrisy with an unnuanced reframe of my statement). Given some of our prior interactions, I figured making that note might be productive.
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Film Crit Hulk wrote a review of Silence yesterday that argues that this is the best kind of case to argue against the death penalty’s existence.
But instead of taking any of those tactics, instead of pointing at all the obvious problems with the system, the film depicts capital punishment at its most justified. There’s a murder at the hands of a true psychopath. The kind of guy who throws rocks onto passing cars. He murders a cab driver for no reason. He is simply driven to do it. He is arrested for it. He admits what he has done. He is very aware of what he has done. No good will come from him existing. In other words, he is everything the death penalty advocates. But he’s also a human being. He is a human being in the simplest, most organic ways that all human beings are. He has his own personal cares, even if warped, and a history behind him.
[…]
Thus the film’s argument rests not in the obvious injustices, but in how it made the best possible case for a man who deserved to die. But shouldn’t have… This is everything for a viewer. When there’s no deeper place to go, that’s when we finally turn inward and examine ourselves. As such, it is not only one of the most powerful films I’ve ever seen, it was actually instrumental in getting the death penalty overturned in Poland. The effect was undeniable. This is what convinces us.
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I’d say the death penalty doesn’t solve anything. It doesn’t even accomplish much in terms of “revenge.”
If there were some way to have the kid work off his debt to society that actually paid back the community he hurt in a meaningful way I’d be for it (now THAT would be a deterrent to any future Dylann Roofs), but I can’t think of any way that would ever happen.
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There are a lot of good reasons to oppose the death penalty.
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or diminishes it.
What about his family? His mother?
Everyone was someone’s child and no one meant to become a monster. It is a societal failing (or a familial one) as well as being him making horrible decisions along the way.
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Integrity emerges from consistent right behaviour. Compassion may contribute to the impetus to right behaviour but surely the right behaviour is the point?
Maybe I’m getting the cart before the horse on this but I feel like having compassion for a murderer like this is primarily for our own benefit and is therefore an ancillary consideration to the central point.
We don’t need to feel anything in order to not do the wrong thing.
The ‘right’ thing, of course, being up for debate as that would encompass what to actually do going forward, rather than to subtract that which should not be done.
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I’m not a fan of the Death penalty but if it applies to any case it applies to this one.
I think most of us would agree in that sense. This is clearly the case it was meant for, legally.
I think a lot of folks just find it to be a barbaric response to a barbaric act is all.
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We all agree that prison reform is essential, but the upcoming administration’s slant on private prisons is only going to make the abuses on prisoners and guards worse.
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I do feel sorry for anyone else he hurt. If his family aren’t like him, then I feel bad for them.
Understand that I am someone who wouldn’t lift a finger for people I consider beneath my contempt, though it takes a lot for people to achieve that level of disdain from me. Roof’s gone well beyond what’s required. I acknowledge that this doesn’t make me the greatest spirit. My compassion is conditional. It’s one reason I’ll never be a Buddhist. But I know enough Buddhists to know where you’re coming from. I respect it. But, with respect, I won’t be changing who I am in the foreseeable future. And I don’t want this thread to derail into being about me and my cold dark heart, so let’s leave it there please.
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