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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 22, 2024

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The second possibility is more pragmatic: if you think their family is likely to want revenge, then killing off all of them makes sense so you don't have to watch over your back.

I've seen this argument made a few times online. One example being Twitter tankies defending the murder of the Romanov children. Another one is (predominantly Jewish) essays defending the divine command to utterly eradicate the Amalekites by pointing out that Saul's initial sparing of the Amalekite king Agag — for which failure to follow God's command Saul was stripped of his kingship — led to Agag's eventual descendant Haman attempting to wipe out the Jews in turn.

"You gotta end the bloodline and prevent any revenge killing."