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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   25773 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 11, 2025

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I mean I'm more sympathetic to the latter for sure -- but "thou shalt not kill" has a little more weight of history behind it than "two weeks to flatten the curve" or whatever.

In my heart-of-hearts it's probably that it smells like a sales-job, as much as anything -- and I hate those.

Moses brought back "thou shalt not kill" from Mount Sinai, it had more exceptions to it than any rule stated so fundamentally should possibly have. It did not apply to people from other tribes -- killing the kids of enemy tribes was fine. It did not apply to people found guilty of any of the numerous crimes which were punished by stoning. Or being willing to sacrifice your kid if God gaslighted you into thinking that this is what he wanted. And don't even think about non-human persons.

non-human persons

Is there such a thing? I mean, AIUI, unless you're talking about the legal construct that is the "legal personhood" of things like corporations (and I don't think you are), modern US law says humanity is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for personhood; and, also AIUI, most countries aren't much different. (I've seen this discussed in the context of legal issues surrounding potential future contact with intelligent alien life, including the claim that the branch of the US Federal government with the proper legal authority over such contact would be the Fish and Wildlife Service.)

Killing people just because they ask you to has always been kind of fraught though -- particularly doing it exchange for filthy lucre.

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