Kantor said:
richardhutnik said:
Kantor said:
I thought you were being facetious with the whole "children being mauled by bears" thing but it's becoming worryingly likely that you're actually serious :/
No, being clawed to death by wild animals is not a valid punishment for bullying, or anything else. Indeed, I don't see that this should result in a criminal prosecution at all. I approve of the suspension of the kids involved, but nothing more.
May I just say, you are a very peculiar liberal. I'm guessing you would oppose the death penalty for murder, but apparently it's okay for a bunch of kids who make fun of an old lady on a bus.
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Take what I say as a person who is currently on the wrong side of things, and see on the internet things with people displaying the worst and most cruel of behaviors, and personally had been subject of such insults. Like, one guy who says I should kill myself so his taxes would be lower. Others, when I saw what was said with Occupy, advocated the use of lethal force. You see political rhetoric like this and a lack of compassion. And in my youth, I experienced a lot of bullying. I have seen a lot of bad things out there, and have issues with things.
Reality is that I am arguably NOT a liberal. You can call my political views peculiar, and they are. I now tend to hang out more on the anarchist side of things. I also have ethics somewhat in line with the Bible (at least core Christian values). They are my own views, one of a person on a journey, likely not able to fully enlighten and inform, but hopefully can get people to ask better questions, and act better to one another.
I am not in support of the death penalty, and my preference would be that people end up changing. I am also pro-life, but non-legistlative, which makes me seem to be pro choice. I don't believe the government is effective at much of anything. So, end result is that if individuals who are lacking in basic compassion get what they dish out, based on their own view of things, it is fitting. Maybe call it a system of justice, based on irony, out of the Twilight Zone. Well, consider it fortunate I am not in government. I also don't believe in artificial constructs like punishment and deterents, the use of more suffering to offset and deter other suffering. So, what I come from isn't punishment, but more a chain of causality consequences.
Oh the last part, I would say it was ok for cruel kids to get mauled by bears, not to mock the old lady. I am assuming you meant to say that as the last part of it but it got cut off short.
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People do those kinds of things on the internet. You shouldn't take it to heart. Good person + anonymity = vitriol. None of the people posting on blogs advocating for violent revolution are actually going to go out there and do it. They're frustrated, and they feel the need to complain and nothing more.
I'm really on the fence about the death penalty. Most people don't end up changing, but if they do, then you'll have killed somebody who would go on to be an honest citizen. On top of that, there is the awful risk of killing an innocent man or woman, and the enormous expense involved. I would agree with you that government is ineffective. However, I would have to disagree with this concept of retribution that you seem to be promoting. You don't know the motivations of people who say and do these things, and you don't know the full story. Neither does anyone else. A jury and judge know more than most people, so if anyone needs to make a decision, it's them.
As for this idea that evil people will somehow be automatically punished by the universe through some sort of karma system, that really doesn't hold any water. Mugabe is still alive well into his seventies, and affluent and powerful as ever. Kennedy tried to make a positive difference and didn't even make it to 50. Isn't it one of the core tenets of Christianity that even God doesn't judge a man until the end of his days? I suppose he does the exact opposite many times in the Bible, but you can't really hope for complete logical consistency, just some sort of general conclusion.
And that's what I was saying: you're advocating a death penalty for a group of children who made an old woman cry. Yes, their behaviour was despicable. Yes, they should be punished. I don't, however, think that they are necessarily bad people, and no, they do not deserve to be mauled to death by a bear. I can think of many people far more deserving of that fate.
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