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Polarization increases by assenting to the unwarranted anxiety of the fearful. It’s like an anxiety disorder that expands if you take the fear seriously and become evasive. To end polarization, you want to smash the Overton Window so loudly that it shocks everyone in the vicinity and snaps them into the realization that their chronic catastrophizing is lame and boring. I’ve heard the most “polar opposite” views from friends and family and have never felt this was an obstacle to ties or normalcy or whatever.
I think public executions are a good idea. But in this case, I side with Joe Kent: “death by firing squad is borderline too merciful […] it also gives the terrorists free propaganda”. What I would prefer us to do is use MKUltra propaganda to turn Nidal into an atheist, possibly transgender, and habitual pork and alcohol enjoyer. This is much more aversive to would-be terrorists: the idea that you will lose your eternal reward when you are caught and be turned into an infidel who gets the worst punishment. This is better than making him an international news story, as terrorists are probably motivated by some taste for infamy at the same time that they are motivated by extremism. Also, the theatrics of a firing squad always make the offender look cooler than the shooter. I think about St Sebastian and how cool he looks, and he’s pretty much the firing squad victim of antiquity.
Also, IMO it’s possible this is motivated by the Israel elements of the Trump admin more than anything, given that Nidal is Palestinian, not that this matters for judging whether it is a wise decision.
Unfortunately I think that would actually legitimately fit the definition of cruel and unusual punishment.
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I think that might be making a few assumptions regarding the effectiveness of MK-ULTRA....
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A few leaked videos of a few reprogrammed terrorists getting consensual trains run on them by other inmates would do more to damper the desire to be an Islamic terrorist than 5000 executions.
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Mishima famously stated that "inverts" commonly glommed onto the image of St Sebastian pierced by arrows.
I think it makes sense for a homosexual to latch onto the image of the coolest dude. Perhaps this painting of Sebastian has sufficiently heterosexual undertones, or this one
He still looks... kinda gay?
I wonder if this is one of those things that "everyone knows" that just got passed down orally until the Renaissance when a bunch of painters put it down on canvas?
Uh, renaissance painters were a bit, shall we say ... fruity... themselves, and may have been importing their own preferences into their art.
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I haven't read Mishima in a while, but I assumed it was the act of being penetrated by the arrow that lead to the fascination.
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