naraburns nihil supernum
1yr ago
(text post)
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Israel-Gaza Megathread #1
This is a megathread for any posts on the conflict between (so far, and so far as I know) Hamas and the Israeli government, as well as related geopolitics. Culture War thread rules apply.
I agree that Germany does not today owe Israel (or the Jewish community more generally) any sort of reparations or apologies for the Holocaust. It's an awful history, but it's history.
Yeah - moving some 98yo geezer who was a piece of shit Nazi during WWII from a nursing home outside of a prison to a nursing home inside of a prison doesn't sound like the best use of the justice system's time and effort. Almost all of the perpetrators are dead.
If you're suggesting that the 98 year old shouldn't be jailed because he isn't going to harm anyone, by that reasoning it would also be wrong to jail an ex-Nazi 10 years after the fall of Berlin. It's not as if someone 10 years after the end of the war is going to run another concentration camp, after all, nor is he going to take over the country in order to get himself allowed to build one.
If punishment is to be a deterrent at all, you have to precommit to punish criminals even when doing so prevents no future crimes. Once you have done so, your precommitment forces you to punish them. And "desire for revenge" is how actual humans precommit.
If that ex-Nazi is damn near bedbound and suffering from terminal cancer or ALS or some shit, yeah, I wouldn't want to prosecute him all that hard. He can't commit lesser crimes for shit and he's going to be dead soon enough.
Idk. I can see arguments for clemency if the 40yo nazi in 1955 is quadriplegic or has terminal cancer or needs nursing home level care because he has ALS or something. You are just moving him from a free world nursing home to a prison one.
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Notes -
I agree that Germany does not today owe Israel (or the Jewish community more generally) any sort of reparations or apologies for the Holocaust. It's an awful history, but it's history.
Yeah - moving some 98yo geezer who was a piece of shit Nazi during WWII from a nursing home outside of a prison to a nursing home inside of a prison doesn't sound like the best use of the justice system's time and effort. Almost all of the perpetrators are dead.
If you're suggesting that the 98 year old shouldn't be jailed because he isn't going to harm anyone, by that reasoning it would also be wrong to jail an ex-Nazi 10 years after the fall of Berlin. It's not as if someone 10 years after the end of the war is going to run another concentration camp, after all, nor is he going to take over the country in order to get himself allowed to build one.
If punishment is to be a deterrent at all, you have to precommit to punish criminals even when doing so prevents no future crimes. Once you have done so, your precommitment forces you to punish them. And "desire for revenge" is how actual humans precommit.
If that ex-Nazi is damn near bedbound and suffering from terminal cancer or ALS or some shit, yeah, I wouldn't want to prosecute him all that hard. He can't commit lesser crimes for shit and he's going to be dead soon enough.
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Idk. I can see arguments for clemency if the 40yo nazi in 1955 is quadriplegic or has terminal cancer or needs nursing home level care because he has ALS or something. You are just moving him from a free world nursing home to a prison one.
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