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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   8132 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 6, 2026

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So is it ok to threaten genocidal destruction so long as you don't have the capacity to actually carry it out?

From a Banksian perspective, aspirational Fully Automated Gay Space Communism says "yes", but still has to manage "real threats" (ideally non-kinetically, but not always). I don't think we're there (yet?), so I wouldn't call that a fair expectation in 2026.

I don't know how you inferred that from what I wrote, but I want to raise two points.

Firstly, and this is unbelievably important: evil behavior from others does not excuse your own evil behavior. There's a kind of self-conscious human orc who feels the need to justify their own brutal impulses by pointing to the depravity of others, but they don't actually seek to resolve anything.

Secondly, power implies responsibility. The fact that one party can act on their threat and the other cannot is absolutely a reason to care more about the one than the other. You should not be threatening genocide, period, but you definitely shouldn't be doing it when you are currently in the process bombing the shit out of the people you're threatening to exterminate.

Firstly, and this is unbelievably important: evil behavior from others does not excuse your own evil behavior.

I say it does (or rather, that that prevents it from being evil to begin with.)

Shooting someone out of the blue is wrong. Shooting someone in self-defense is not wrong. What's the difference? The difference that makes it okay is precisely that the other guy did it first.

If Trump just picked a random country out of a map and said it needs to be destroyed, that would be bad. But that's not what he did. He picked a country that used similar threats against us first. It's the equivalent of self-defense, only with words instead of shooting people.

You are also ignoring that in the very next sentence, Trump said that he didn't want it to happen, and who knows, maybe it won't happen. When BigObjectPermanenceShill only quoted the first sentence and hoped that nobody would follow the link to see what Trump actually said, the effect was to mislead.

There's also the question of exactly what he meant. He didn't say "kill all the people". I'm sure he wants the regime to fall.

The fact that one party can act on their threat and the other cannot

Come on. Iran has also said "death to Israel". And they absolutely could genocide Israel (through bankrolling Hamas and Hezbollah or through nuclear weapons) if they aren't stopped.

I don't know how you inferred that from what I wrote

You were replying to someone who asked if you raised similar complaints over Iran calling for death to America for decades with the argument that a big difference between the two is that the US is currently bombing Iran and has the capacity to inflict significant damage while Iran currently isn't and cannot. I'm not saying anything excuses anything else here, I'm just replying to the argument you made.

I'm just replying to the argument you made.

No, you're not.

  1. BigObjectPermanceShill raised objections to genocidal threats from Trump.
  2. Jiro responded with whataboutism about Iranian rhetoric.
  3. I respond to Jiro saying that the comparison is off based because the circumstances are radically different.
  4. You imply that I think threatening genocide is okay as long as you can't do it.

The problem is that nowhere in my post do I say or even imply that Iran's rhetoric is acceptable.

The problem is that nowhere in my post do I say or even imply that Iran's rhetoric is acceptable.

But you do say that it's different than Trump's genocidal threats, with Iran's capacity to act on what they said being the only difference you mention. I'm really not sure what you're going for here bro.

I'm really not sure what you're going for here bro.

I could ask the same question. I am attempting to make myself understood. My position - that threats of genocide are more concerning you have the ability to carry them out - is not complicated or ambiguous, so what is the point of asking "So is it ok to threaten genocidal destruction so long as you don't have the capacity to actually carry it out?" Do you actually think I believe that? I suspect not.

I have some uncharitable speculation, but it would be merely speculative.

My position - that threats of genocide are more concerning you have the ability to carry them out - is not complicated or ambiguous

Then you should have stated that clearly at the start of this? Instead of vaguely saying that when Iran says death to America it's different.

so what is the point of asking "So is it ok to threaten genocidal destruction so long as you don't have the capacity to actually carry it out?"

To find out what your actual position is, since you didn't clearly state it.

Do you actually think I believe that?

No, hence my asking if that's what you believe.

It's not okay, but it's self-evidently better. With great power comes great responsibility etc.

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