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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023

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I have a bit of a weird stance on vigilantism. I think it's morally justified... as long as the vigilante immediately turns themselves in, pleads guilty, and accepts the punishment meted out by the court. That allows for redress of extreme injustice by someone with sufficient conviction to accept the result of their actions, but prevents an endless cycle of retaliatory extrajudicial violence.

In theory, at least. I'm sure it's a terrible idea in real life.

I don't understand this position.

If you have to render justice yourself, it means the current sovereign is illegitimate because it refuses to do its duty. Yet if you submit to its authority you in deed show yourself to believe it is still legitimate.

Either you're morally justified to break the law or you're not. "I can just ignore it because I really feel like doing so" is exactly what leads to the endless cycles you bemoan. Whether or not people get imprisoned afterwards.

sovereign

Well someone could just not believe in a Hobbesian theory of the state or morality. If you want other theories of political and moral legitimacy there are reams available in all stripes.

Well sure, but I guess I'm asking how OP conceptualizes it.