Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared to freeze again Wednesday, this time during a gaggle with reporters in Covington, Kentucky, stopping for more than 30 seconds after he was asked if he would run for re-election.
The Kentucky Republican froze in July at a news conference on Capitol Hill, going silent for 19 seconds before being escorted away from the cameras. McConnell, 81, returned shortly afterward and continued his news conference, telling reporters, “I’m fine.”
When it became apparent that McConnell had frozen again on Wednesday, an aide came up to him and asked, “Did you hear the question, senator?” McConnell continued to be unresponsive.
This is sort of like saying a parent shouldn’t want a punishment on someone who murdered their kid because they need to forgive in order to cleanse their soul or some other religious bullshit.
Perhaps if he weren’t an evil motherfucker, people wouldn’t wish ill of him.
That’s not apples to apples at all. You’re talking about what consequences should happen for an overall system of punishment in a society where you’re detached as a whole.
What an individual feels about someone who has directly harmed them is completely different. Arguing that you should forgive the people who hurt you because it’s the moral thing to do is what abusers do.
No not really but reading a thread of comments from parents about “what I’d do if they did this to MY kid” is VERY VERY disturbing and it makes it seem like being a parent is bad for the soul. Now go ahead and explain to me how mentally healthy it is to actual welcome the opportunity to torture another human being.
[R]eading a thread of comments from parents about “what I’d do if they did this to MY kid” is VERY VERY disturbing …
Saying and reading those kinds of things gives your brain a bit of the experience of those things happening, without them actually happening, and that can be both personally cathartic and generally popular for the same reason. And it’s easy to fall into the trap of coming to believe that you actually would want those things if the opportunity were presented to you, when the opportunity has not been presented to you.
There’s a bit of selection bias, too. It’s far less likely that someone is going to stand up and publicly say that they wouldn’t want vengeance against a child murderer, because the general public has a hard time separating the notions of “not wanting to torture people” and “wanting a just and safe society.” Human societies, to some degree, embrace violence. That’s why prison rape is “funny.” I would like to do better than that; I think that a just and safe society can be achieved without also embracing violence as a measure to accomplish it.
I’m also willing to bet that a significant portion of the people who are doing the “what I’d do if they did this to MY kid” thing are not parents. A different significant portion are doing it as a kind of virtue signalling.
Edit: Finally, imagine a scenario where Someone On The Internet says “I’d cut his dick off and shove it in his mouth.” Okay, the court determines that the appropriate punishment is for the person to have his dick cut off and shoved in his mouth by that Someone On The Internet. Go ahead now, actually do it. I think the number of Someones On The Internet who would actually follow through with that is vanishingly small.
I appreciate your thoughts out response, but I still think the descriptions I have read and heard aloud come from a place of bloodlust. And no not all of us have that.
Welcome the opportunity to torture another human being
Nobody is torturing him (well, except maybe the people who are continuing to prop him up for political gain). It’s the greatest justice there is: nobody is doing anything and he’s still suffering.
I dont need to do a damn thing. I simply need to do nothing and watch as a person who has active contempt for those worse off than him gets a small taste of what his actions have put thousands of people through. Just as I dont feel bad Hitler blew his brains out or Stalin died of a stroke and couldn’t be saved because of his paranoid doctors, I don’t give a damn about someone who has actively caused direct harm to thousands of innocent people.
No, it would be like a parent whose child was murdered wanting a severe punishment because the perpetrator was a “fag.”
If someone deserves punishment, it should be on the basis of what they choose, and not because of something they didn’t choose.
