> But the truth is that celebrating the death of other human beings because we hate them or what we think they stand for is absolutely American.
Remember that lynchings were always justified as a form of revenge, too, whether “protecting” white womanhood or deterring criminals. If we say that a health insurance CEO “hit first” and therefore his shooting is somewhat justified, it’s not easy to draw a line where you can say it’s invalid to apply the exact same logic to someone people are certain raped a white woman, committed a violent robbery, is conspiring to groom a child, or stole an election – once people get a sense of vengeance going, they’ll work backwards as needed to justify an emotionally satisfying outcome.
Even in the most sympathetic cases we should be thinking about how make the rule of law better, not bypassing it.
> But the truth is that celebrating the death of other human beings because we hate them or what we think they stand for is absolutely American.
Remember that lynchings were always justified as a form of revenge, too, whether “protecting” white womanhood or deterring criminals. If we say that a health insurance CEO “hit first” and therefore his shooting is somewhat justified, it’s not easy to draw a line where you can say it’s invalid to apply the exact same logic to someone people are certain raped a white woman, committed a violent robbery, is conspiring to groom a child, or stole an election – once people get a sense of vengeance going, they’ll work backwards as needed to justify an emotionally satisfying outcome.
Even in the most sympathetic cases we should be thinking about how make the rule of law better, not bypassing it.