On so many different news items, threads, etc. People are the first to claim pretty much anyone who has made a mistake, or does something they disagree with deserves to die.
Like, do some people not have the capability to empathise and realise they might have been in a similar place if they were born in a different environment…
I genuinely understand, you think a politician who has lead to countless deaths, a war criminal, or a mass rapists deserves to die.
But here people say it for stuff that falls way below the bar.
A contracted logger of a rainforest (who knows if they have the money / opportunity to support their family another way). Deserves to die.
A civilian of Nazi germany of whom we know nothing about their collaboration/agreement with the regime. Deserves to die.
Some person who was a drug dealer and then served their time. Deserves to die.
Like I don’t get it? Are people not able to imagine the kind of situations that create these people, and that it’s not impossible to imagine the large majority of people in these positions if born in a different environment?
All extremists should be killed.
Life is cheap on the internet, because people feel far removed (and/or “above it”). Social media “engagement” algorithms divide and isolate people from each other.
(I think as far as Lemmy is concerned, it’s just spillover / remnant behaviors from that stuff. There’s no engagement algorithm here other than what we bring in ourselves.)
Here are a some studies on it from people a lot smarter than me. (Note these are more about general toxicity and hate speech and not zeroed in on your exact question, but they may be helpful).
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.744614/full
https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/11547/10076
https://scholars.org/contribution/countering-online-toxicity-and-hate-speech
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-021-00787-4
This one looks at the “why” question from a political POV:
https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/2/11/pgad382/7405434?login=false
thanks, appreciate this answer
Anonymity and group think are serious fucking drugs here - a lot of people struggle with empathy normally but even more fail to empathize across the internet. We’re all fucking people at the end of the day but some folks struggle to see other usernames as anything but “the other”.
Additionally this thread + comment system rewards extremism and controversy over reason and nuance - its much faster to absorb a comment of someone dunking on someone else than reading a well thought out of comment… the highest votes tend to go to shorter simpler statements.
Violence is inherently simple and easy to comprehend - it’s extreme and edgy - and it’s something a lot of us constantly see on these devices when playing video games. A lot of people who espouse it on the internet don’t mentally equate advocacy for violence with actual physical violence or can’t really comprehend what actual physical violence looks and feels like.
Oh, also, memes.
I think there’s a part of our brains that treats these stories as fiction—in particular, the kind of folk fiction used to reinforce community mores. The strength of our reaction to such stories signals how strongly we support the standards, not necessarily what we think should be done in real life to those who violate them.
Because they’re a stranger. I don’t know them and probably never will. Oh they did something shitty that cost someone else their life? Good, they deserve to die and I hope they burn in hell.
Because I don’t know them and they commited something I think is evil. There’s no purpose in me humanizing them. I humanize the actual people in life I interact with.
Also its impotent rage
Along with other things said here, people tend to “forget” that there’s a real person on the other end.
I vaguely recall Nicholas Christakis talking about a study they made, where they created a bot which would simply remind people of the fact that there’s a real person on the other end, and they found that it would help. (That study was done in some university platform and is centuries old in internet time, though. I think he spoke about it about 6 years ago on podcast with Sam Harris.)
Idk anyone who can’t figure this out deserves to die.
/s
It’s the one thing we all deserve, the great equalizer. That’s not what you are asking, I know but still.
Because EVERYBODY deserves to die!
Seriously. Have you ever visited anyone who was 105 years old? They aren’t enjoying life. They just exist. Now imagine how much agony you’d be in if you were 500 years old. Or a million years old.
EVERYBODY deserves to die.
I’ve found that people on the internet generally have low empathy. If it’s not animal or child abuse, the responses are all over the place.
Why do so many people post on this community and other “asks” about stuff that I have literally never encountered at all yet purport it to be a rampant trend?
Why do conservatives believe gay, trans, black, brown, Liberals, and the disable deserve to die?
“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
-Gandalf the Grey / J R R Tolkein
This is a great quote and one I often remember, but I would also add this:
“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death or to let live in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
Live and let live works, but only if the other also does so. When one does not allow you to live as you want, because what they do harms you, then that ends there.
I don’t know about others, but I don’t think anybody deserves to die necessarily. It is faaaaar too merciful a fate for horrible people. I believe the worst of humanity - rapists, murderers, child abusers, etc. - deserve to live long, painful, oh so horrible lives.
My choice would be to put them inside of a 3 meter cube of steel, welded shut, with only a hamster bottle for water, a hole in the bottom for waste, and a nutrient paste dispensing chute. When the prisoner eventually dies, it is bury the whole thing out in the desert to be their unmarked tomb.
Very edgy.
This is human nature. It’s the same reason you had 20 year olds sucker punching 70 year old asian women during lockdown. Cowardice and a need to lash out.
No. It may be the nature of some subset of people. Those people should die.
