The Real timschochet

No but there certainly is around mental illness.

Well Dexter is only one example. Let’s take two other TV characters. In your opinion: Tony Soprano: good or evil? Walter White: good or evil?

Is this a philosophical question or a scientific question? Or both? Also, I think it’s possible for a good person to commit evil acts and vise versa, without permanently defining them as such.

I don’t think an evil person is necessarily lacking empathy. Some of the worst Nazi murderers absolutely loved their families, animals, small children, etc. That didn’t stop them performing atrocities.

With regard to Charlie Kirk: I’m very sorry he’s dead. I respect the fact that he engaged in peaceful discussion with his opponents. I really admire that about him. And I hope that you’re right about his death uniting us. On the other hand, I reject this attempt I am seeing on the right to paint Charlie Kirk as a martyr or saint. Personally I found many of his views to be not only wrong but morally abhorrent. I won’t comment any more because I have no desire to speak ill of the dead but I don’t and will not regard this man as some sort of hero.

First off please don’t personalize. I never once posted that it is correct to destroy cities. Nor do I know anyone here who has done so. Nor do I know any prominent Democrat, liberal, or leftist who has done so. I challenge you to show me otherwise. I haven’t seen conservatives do it either. I HAVE seen jerks on both sides sometimes cheer for bad results (like when @Horseman responded to the Los Angeles fires with “Fock yeah! Fock California! Burn it all down!”) but that’s hardly representative. I have also seen both liberals and conservatives attempt to minimize political violence (Jan 6 being the most obvious example) but that’s not the same as cheering it on. So I reject your entire premise here.

Well they’re still hoping for the .5 point but will be satisfied with the .25. Me I am really hoping for the .5 as I have an investment property I would very much like to refinance. But I don’t think it’s in the cards now…

You seem to be taking issue with my statement that political violence is not particularly the work of conservatives or liberals. You are a partisan conservative and believe that it is mostly the work of liberals. I don’t think I’m going to convince you otherwise. But I will simply point out that your beliefs on this are largely based on emotion and selective memory rather than on a really objective analysis. IMO.

Between your point of view and @Strike I tend to lean towards his. But again, not sure.

The inflation report is bad. 2.9%. Look for the interest rate cut to be no more than .25 because of this. Not the .5 Wall Street was expecting and hoping for.

Lol. I know. We can always hope though. It’s already led to some, right?

I guess I was trying to make the point earlier that we should define political violence as morally wrong behavior, always unacceptable in a civil society. By chalking it up to mental illness the concern is that we move away from the “wrongness” of the act. But I don’t understand enough about mental illness to properly make that argument.

Good question. I don’t know. Probably. I certainly think they’re evil. I should probably bow out of commenting further on this as I am not educated enough on this issue to comment intelligently.

I guess this depends on your definition. It seems to me that someone who is able to plan an assassination involving killing someone with a rifle at long range and then escaping afterwards is performing a series of rational acts that a mentally ill person would likely be incapable of.

Nonetheless I appreciate that you did.

Thank you. In response: 1. There is a tendency among both conservatives and liberals to point out problems with the other team and avoid pointing out problems with their own team. I don’t think I’m particularly guilty of this but I’m sure you can find instances where I am. 2. During Trump’s first term, I was quick to criticize the use of “Nazi” rhetoric. If you recall I was really bothered by AOC calling detention camps “concentration camps” and said so at the time. I still bridle at anyone who calls Trump evil or Hitler. But I personally have compared ICE to the Gestapo. And I have accused Trump of authoritarianism and consider him a threat to our democracy. Again this is because I honestly believe it to be so. Should I hide these beliefs because saying them out loud might lead to an act of political violence? I don’t think so. If I was being dishonest, and simply out to provoke, then your argument would have more merit IMO. But I am not.

https://www.newsweek.com/nato-russia-ukraine-poland-war-trump-article-4-2127472 No response yet from President Trump.

Let’s put this discussion aside for the day. The news about Charlie Kirk is awful. I won’t pretend I’m a fan but political violence is always wrong. I’m not going to post in that thread out of respect for those who are fans of his. I hope he recovers. In a few days maybe we can return to this discussion.

I attribute high crime to poverty, poor education, single parent households. Minorities suffer from these problems at a higher rate than white people. There are a variety of reasons for this. Racial attributes aren’t one of them.

This is some sick sh!t.

I don’t blame you for the attack. And yes it may very well have been racist. I just don’t think it should be used to make larger statements about crime in our society and how black people are dangerous, etc and white people should be afraid of them. That’s what Trump and MAGA are doing, and that’s what I think is ugly bigotry. And they do this a lot. They blame all black people for the acts committed by one. They blame all undocumented immigrants for acts done by a few. And Muslims. And trannies. And Cdub100 blames Jews as well. It’s stupid, lazy. hateful.

Interesting that you respond to his anti-Semitic post by criticizing me. Very revealing.

Yes

Sorry he did respond on Truth Social: “What’s with Russia violating Poland’s air space? Here we go.” Whatever that means.

They shouldn’t be. But unfortunately minorities need to be afraid of white police. The Supreme Court just made that worse. But it’s never been good.