Alabama has elected a Democratic senator

[palou]

VGPolyglot said:

palou said:

I think, then, you are not trying hard enough.

 

I could certainly think of several different moral schemes that could lead to that. While I don't personally support death penalty, I do support prison sentences, in some cases, for example. That does not mean that I think that locking people up is generally fine, just as he doesn't necessarily think that killing people is generally fine. It is perfectly reasonable to view actions differently based on context.

 

Also, the correct course of action, when you don't understand something, is to ask the person for insight, not make your own malicious conclusions.

Do you support locking people up as a punishment? I don't myself, I support it as a means of rehabilitation and not as punishment. Now, I guess I should have gone about other means of conversing with him, but I assume my conclusion would have rested the same.

Indeed, I do not see it as punishment. For me, a sentence (monetary, or prison) can have three functions:

 

a) Rehabilitation, strictly in the interest of the convict;

 

b) Immediate risk management, measures to assure that a convict does not represent an immediate risk to society;

 

c) Disincentivization, measures to make committing a crime less appealing (example: a parking fine).

 

I think it is obvious that all three of these functions should legitimately be considered by our judiciary system, as a minimum. While a death penalty fails at the first, it is undeniable that it does fulfill the second and third, to some degree. I do not believe it to be the most effective method, and have other qualms with it's application, however, that is a complex topic that cannot be so simply dismissed. It certainly does not give you the right to judge another, without further inquiry on their belief system.