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Notes -
You’re just using uncharitable framings of the most extreme versions of your political enemies’ beliefs, in order to avoid having to engage with the specifics of my question. Nobody here is disputing that certain low-level elements of the American left’s coalition were, and perhaps will be again in the not-too-distant future, willing to use extrajudicial violence and criminal activity.
What I’m disputing is the plausibility of that element of the coalition gaining significant political power at the federal or state level, such that they could totally remake not only the party apparatus’ official position, but also the common constitutional interpretation of what crimes merit the death penalty, and could then get the Supreme Court to agree with their novel interpretation, and that rank-and-file members of the criminal justice apparatus would willingly carry out such executions. You’re proposing so many moving parts all coming together in a very particular way which, again, seems to have zero analogue in the history of this country.
I just don’t think there’s any realistic through-line via which we get from “some random black felons started fires in some major cities” to “a high-level progressive government official declares that hate speech, and only hate speech, is now a capital offense, and everyone at all levels below this — and horizontal to this, such as, again, the courts — signs off on this and carries it out. The conditions necessary to facilitate a series of developments like this would really only be possible in the case of full state collapse, catastrophic military defeat, etc.
You don’t need to declare that hate speech, and only hate speech, warrants the death penalty- you only need to declare that it too warrants it, then fail to prosecute cases that would otherwise warrant it if against a favoured group.
I live in Canada, not in the United States - we have an extremely activist judiciary here, imposed on Western Canada by Ottawa and Quebec. It would not surprise me in the slightest if they went this route, as we’ve already seen them declare that race and gender must be considered in sentencing. If all you care about is the states, you probably know more than I do, and I defer to your judgement. However, I’m talking about what I’ve seen in non-US systems, where we have “disadvantaged” individuals who have committed stabbing sprees released immediately - I don’t know why you don’t think the left would use this, given that disparate impact is literally part of their public justification for DEI and similar initiatives.
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