Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
You are wording this as if the underlying intention behind arguing about the execution methods were necessarily just to muddy the waters, sabotage the discussion or otherwise manipulate the majority into accepting what you believe to otherwise be an unpopular proposition (categorical prohibition on the death penalty). It doesn't need to be. A significant strain of categorical opposition to the death penalty is based on the belief that it taints and corrupts the society that enacts it - every murder you performed, endorsed being performed in your name, watched and enjoyed conveys upon you (whether as a metaphysical taint or a mundane acceptance of killing and torture, which could contribute to antisocial behaviour in extremis) a bit more of the murderer nature, regardless of how deserving the target was.
To be concerned about this in principle is hardly the innovation of an overly soft modern society it is made out to be - in fact, there are examples of medieval societies all over the world forcing executioners and sometimes even butchers to live outside the city walls and forbidding them from freely mingling with regular citizens. But if your primary concern with the death penalty is the psychological effect it has upon law-abiding citizens and you don't have the political power to prevent it outright, it makes sense to at least argue about the ways in which executions may be performed: surely a drawn-out sadistic public spectacle feeds the bloodthirst more than sheepish and clinical backroom euthanasia.
I would say that you are inferring it, instead. Everything you've presented is compatible with what I wrote. You described a plausible motivation for why such a person might take such a strategy.
...there is one quick check one can do, though.
One can simply ask such a person how they would feel about something like the nitrogen hypoxia room method I mentioned.1 Or to describe what they think would be the most sheepish, clinical, backroom euthanasia possible. Their answer (or non-answer) will likely be revelatory of their beliefs and views. It is left as an exercise to the reader to gather data and estimate relative population fractions.
1 - Could even go all Jewish on it and have the room be equipped with a fully autonomous random timer with some expectations on frequency so "no one is pushing the button"; could even just have no one watching the room at all if you want; could just come back to the room after some specified waiting period with some certain or almost certain probability that the deed was done. How sheepish can you come up with? Do you think your solution can satisfy folks who are motivated as you describe?
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link