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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   30526 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 3, 2023

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There is absolutely no reason why it is possible to perform painless heart surgery but not painless execution.

One to the back of the head should suffice. You don't have to tell them it's coming either. I suppose the only real objection is that it's somehow undignified to execute someone that way. Despite the fact that convicted murders gave up that mantle with the direction in life they chose for themselves. Or I suppose a medical ethicist would throw up their hands at that point and claim that's outside the purview of their expertise.

I suppose the only real objection is that it's somehow undignified to execute someone that way.

On the contrary! Kinetic force is a far more dignified way to die than poison. Physical destruction is the proper end for a being who conducts himself uprightly: the only way I will allow myself to die is in direct confrontation with a strength that is greater than my own. Poison is a ghastly and alien force that works by subterfuge instead of direct engagement; it exposes the fundamental precarity of the biological organism in such a shameful way, it smothers and effaces the vital force instead of allowing it to make a proper last stand.

(I have sometimes meditated on the significance of the fact that female serial killers are more likely to use poison than male serial killers.)

"Deleuze extolled the virtues of becoming-child, becoming-woman, the rhizomatic over the arborescent - but he committed suicide by jumping out of a window. What could be more arborescent than that? A straight drop from top to bottom, a hierarchical relationship. Poison would be a truly rhizomatic way to die - why didn't he use poison? Isn't that the final refutation of his philosophy?"

Your value judgements on manner of death don't make sense. "A strength that is greater than your own" can be interpreted in a great many number of ways.

An adult human is capable of 2 kW from time to time. It's pretty easy to buy sodium lightbulbs that are rated at 1000 Watts. By that logic, it's somehow not-shameful to die to three large grow lights - whether by burning or by a slow increase in heat or some other creative method- but not by one large grow light.

How?

If you're cycling...a Joe off the street, untrained, can probably do around 600 watts. A guy that half-asses cycling and doesn't have much sprinting talent might do 1,000. A solid amateur, 1,300. 2,000 watts is a very high number: a large, talented, dedicated amateur or a professional might be able to put down that much power.

I'll bite the bullet.

Three lightbulbs good, one lightbulb bad.

Have you ever had to put down a family pet? If so, what was the method? If not, what method would you use? I’d be very interested in hearing what type of kinetic force you would use on your dog or cat to relieve them of their suffering.

I don't really share your views regarding poison being some extra evil forms of killing, if I was marked for death I find myself strictly agnostic to the means as long as it's quick and as painless as possible.

I'd still like to know it was coming so I can settle my final affairs.

I mostly agree, but Plato's death seemed to me to be a righteous way to go.

I’m assuming you meant Socrates.

Yes. For some reason, I always confuse which of them took the hemlock.

“Your appeal has been denied. The sentence of death will remain unchanged. Your sentence will be carried out shortly.”

Lol, I knew exactly what this video was going to be before I even clicked the link. Well played.

The punishment fits the crime? I get that the character is sympathetic (and attractive...) but she did spy for a foreign government when she was placed in a position of trust. Sounds like espionage and treason to me.

Hard to argue against it, that's for sure.

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