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Notes -
Turning to some good news:
Article link
This is a WSJ article about the rise in justified homicides in the US in recent years. Much of it is about "Stand Your Ground Laws." I'd be interested to hear the thoughts of the more lawyer-brained Mottizens on those kind of laws and their proliferation over the past decade or so.
On the culture war angle, this article is maybe the starkest example of "erosion of trust in society" that I've come across. A few of the anecdotes are pretty hair raising. They're cherry picked, I know, but the idea that a kid loses his father over an argument about a a fence and a property line made me sad. The "road range" incident they cover in detail seems like it was unfortunate but when one guy levels a gun at another, there's only one reasonable reaction.
Violence must be tightly controlled for a society to function. This is something that's bone deep in humans. We've developed methods of conflict resolution that fall short of violence for our entire existence as a species. Even within the context of violence, there are various ways of controlling it. Duels and so forth. Even informal ones; basic Bro code dictates that when one guy falls down in a fight, the other one backs off.
But this article hints at the idea that people are zooming past any of that to full lethality. It's impossible to compile the stats to determine if that's actually the case or not, but the larger point remains; in a society with plunging basic trust, you're going to see levels of interpersonal violence spike. How should state laws governing violence respond to this? Stand Your Ground is something I generally still support, but my mind could be changed if simple Bad Neigbor fights end up with more orphans.
The furor over "stand your ground" remains silly, as it's not really implicated in most of these situations. Bashing SYG is a way of introducing a presumption of flight to every civilian interaction, which is ludicrous.
The fundamental question being asked seems to be if self defense is worth some single-digit number of edge cases per year in a country with more guns than people.
The answer is yes.
The better question is how much better or worse off the country would be with several thousand more "justified homicides" per year. Is not having to uselessly prosecute a lifetime felon for the umpteenth time worth some fractional enabling of a more tragic scenario? What's the optimal ratio?
We need something different and more proactive. When a guy has been picked up by the cops for random violence and felonies and given the catch and release run-around for the umpteenth time, maybe the state should give him a shit test. Ask him point blank if he's released if he will punch/stab/shoot some one for dissing him or stepping on his new sneakers. If he answers yes throw him in the slammer for a minimum of 2 years and then ask him again before he gets out.
Same for racialized(I hate that word) violence. Is whitey the devil who should be killed, quick and easy yes/no question. Is the solution to not getting your EBT on time a justified looting? Congrats, you just bought yourself a trip to prison.
I appreciate the sentiment behind the idea, but this sounds about as brilliant as the American embassy asking "are you a terrorist" on a visa application.
Asking "are you a terrorist" is there so that if you say no and turn out to be a terrorist, they can deport you for lying on your application.
Back when I was young and innocent I'd ask "...w ...why can't you deport them for being terrorists?", but after the seven zillionth undeported child rapist in Europe, I might need to sit this one out.
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Here's the neat part. Some of them are stupid enough/unable to plan for the future and have a sort of honor culture where they will rather claim to be tough/hood/gangster/not gay or whatever than suffer the 'social' consequences of coming out week.
"Honor culture" doesn't mean you can't lie to the authorities to get a shorter sentence, what are you talking about?
Honor culture means you are obligated to lie to the authorities to get your buddy a shorter sentence.
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Stupid enough honor culture does mean that.
Honor culture means that when someone insults your honor, for example by calling you a "retarded faggot", you are compelled to retaliate in order to restore your honor. If you're quick on your feet and have sharp wits, insulting the other party even more might suffice, if not your fists may need to get involved. This is contrasted with "dignity culture" where you would show yourself to be the bigger man by letting the insults slide off you.
Even if members of honor culture did find it insulting for you to point out their statement to the cops (and honestly I think most of them would just YesChad it), all that means is that they'd kick the shit out of you for pointing it out, not that they wouldn't do it.
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