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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   2028 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 1, 2026

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.

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Shower thought:

Is the leftist aversion to punishing bullies, criminals, never-do-wells, evildoers of most types, related to their demand for ideological purity? Do they want the "slots" for who to direct the floodlights against to be filled by only political opponents? Would punishing actual monsters take up valuable energy/time/capacity?

I don't think this is a full explanation by any means, just a small part of it, but it has shown up in my suspicions a few times.

No? That doesn’t make much sense. Perhaps it would be more clear if you posted about specific groups or people instead of the usual bogeyman.

For example, when Minnesota banned the death penalty, was there a demand for purity involved? Were Minnesotans worried about wasting political capital on murderers?

I think it's more useful to go broader rather than more specific in this case. Replace leftist with human.

It does make sense, IMO. People's anger and sense of injustice can only cover so many things at once. Some people might want society to focus on the supposed evils of their political opponents instead of actual criminals.

Sure, they might. What does their existence say about a broader “leftist aversion”?

Just because a mindset is plausible does not mean it’s prevalent. Maybe some Minnesotans were playing realpolitik with the death penalty. Maybe some of them were Communists trying to recruit soldiers for the world revolution. Maybe some were devout Christians. But the prevailing reason, the one that made it into this history books, was that Minnesotans were outraged after a botched hanging. A single “slot” which drew in enough political capital to ban the practice entirely. Using that to make claims about the broader ideological purity of Minnesotans would be reasoning completely backwards.

I've said nothing about Minnesotans or any other specific group. That's really not what I'm interested in getting input on.

I think you’re barking up the wrong tree, and that you can’t explain “the leftist aversion to punishing” by making observations about general human tendencies. There are all sorts of human tendencies. Most of them will be present in a group as broad as “leftists.”

I used the death penalty example for comparison. It would be unreasonable to describe the ban as conserving “energy/time/capacity.” So too with your original question.

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