this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2024
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A Boring Dystopia
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Sure, but couldn't the same be said for many of the literal guards at Auschwitz? A lot of those people were just kids who were drafted and were simply following orders. Even many of those who were there willingly only did such things after being subject to years of ruthless Nazi propaganda.
At some point, regardless of what circumstances led you to that moment, you become responsible for your own actions. There is no set of circumstances that can make murdering innocent civilians justified. And if you do that anyway, you bear full moral culpability, regardless of what may have happened in your life before that point.
We literally hashed this out during the Nuremberg trials. It doesn't matter what propaganda you were subject to. It doesn't matter how you were raised. It doesn't matter if you were "just following orders." It doesn't even matter if you yourself would face execution for refusing to kill innocent civilians. It is never OK to kill innocent civilians, to perform genocide, or commit ethnic cleansing. If you do that, you deserve to hang for it. Full stop. No excuses.
It absolutely could, and should. I'm not saying that the crimes should be forgiven, but it is not a purely black and white area. It is very grey. To ignore the fact that they were ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, just because it's uncomfortable to think about, would be a disservice towards efforts to prevent things like this in the future. People are complex.
They have a choice. They could either kill innocent people or sit in a jail cell. Picking the first one makes you a sociopath.
I guarantee he would face a lot less trauma in jail, especially since he is a trained soldier.
Stop making excuses, "complexity" doesn't justify genocide. Do you also think that our soldiers who slaughtered hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis are just victims? Do you think the surviving family members would agree with that sentiment? That their families murderer is a victim?
It's all the same shit. They are copying us creating more terrorists for the future wars
It's not a justification for genocide, it's a call for empathy. Give what I wrote another read with that in mind.
As for your questions... I think our soldiers are victims. I was there, so I think I've got at least a somewhat informed perspective on things. It's not something you can prepare for. In my experience, forgiveness and understanding come with time, but it will never be the majority.
Empathy isn't just about feeling sad for other people. It is about relating to them emotionally. In this case, we're dealing with people who are professional physical, psychological, and sexual abusers. Empathizing them should mean recognizing these sociopathic traits and recoiling in horror.
If you're feeling pity for a chronic abuser, you're not feeling empathy. You're being exploited. The first response to dealing with a chronic abuser is to separate yourself from them. If you're opening yourself up to their manipulation, you're feeding into the abuse cycle.
How can you even begin to talk about forgiveness as this act of abuse is still playing out before our eyes?