I was on facebook earlier and stumbled across this news story posted by the infamous 'Lad Bible'. The story was that 1 guy had tweeted that he had been driving drunk typing YOLO before crashing and killing himself plus the other 4 in the car. I was scrolling down the comments and was dismayed to see no sympathy for him or any of the others that died. Some comments red "serves the dickhead right, im glad hes dead", "One less scumbag on the street... Bye, bye......" and "That's the best news ive had all day". Most of the comments went the same way.

I know it is no excuse to drink drive but is that really necessary? Do people deserve to die? Obviously it could have been worse had he hit another car or killed innocent people, but I still find the comments sick and tasteless.

Here's the story. http://www.theladbible.c...ladness-gallery?image=14

Edited by moderator 12 September 2012 02:27:06(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

The politically correct answer is 'No' but then that goes into one's beliefs and morals, etc, etc. It would be like writing an essay. Did he deserve to die? Honestly? He was endangering himself and everyone else in that car and on the street. Drinking and driving is just being reckless and selfish because you're not just gonna hurt yourself, you're gonna hurt innocent people. I'm not saying I would sit there and make those comments because that's just poor judgement and very tasteless since I'm sure he had a family of his own, but I think he caused his own death which could have been prevented. I don't necessarily think he "deserved" to die, he just doesn't deserve anyone defending him because he ultimately made an idiotic choice. I hate that saying anyway because it's being used as an excuse to act like idiots since 'You only live once.'

I don't really think anyone deserves to die. What a shame that everyone does.

Seriously though, if you do something stupid, knowing the risks, and die doing it, then I have no sympathy. If you endanger the lives of others at the same time, I also have no sympathy, and actually I feel pretty angry about it. Don't do dumb things in a car on a busy road with passengers. If you die because of that, then actually, you know what, you deserve it. You deserve it because you may well have survived while others died, because of your stupidity.

Maybe this is just semantics, but I don't think anyone deserves to die, but I think some people deserve to have died. I don't think anyone deserves death as a punishment. But hey, occasionally, just very occasionally, something happens and it makes me pause, and I think "you deserve/deserved to die." But that's very rare, and even in those circumstances I know it's misguided to think that vengeance and justice are the same thing.

I'm not a fan of the idea that murderers, rapists and paedophiles automatically deserve death. Rape, for example, is a very complex issue, and I'm not going to go around saying "well, it wasn't a legitimate rape", but there is a difference between a man who rapes his wife and a man who rapes a stranger. Not that it's for me to decide one is a lesser crime than another, but it's clear that you can't claim rape comes from a singular impulse and the only way to destroy that impulse is the death penalty. Likewise, murder. Someone who murders a stranger for fun, vs. someone who murders a man that slept with his wife, let's say, these are very different things.

If there is any place for the death penalty, in my mind it would have to be a situation where the continued existence of that person is a serious and quantifiable danger, and that is very rarely the case. Aside from highly extreme ideological leaders who incite violence, I can't really think of many I would put in that category, and even then it's usually like cutting the head of the hydra.

Osama Bin Laden probably deserved to die because it would be impossible to incarcerate him in a way that would prevent his influence on others. I am glad he is dead. But I wasn't jumping and screaming in joy because he died, I got to satisfaction from his actual death. It kind of creeps me out that people had that reaction when it happened - indeed, Jon Stewart's coverage of it on the Daily Show I found pretty unsettling.

Yes, I mean that. It went on for at least a week, where he'd say something rational and sensible and then be like "Shot bin laden in the face yo!" and the audience would go nuts... And not in an ironic way. Regardless of who it is, they're cheering a guy being brutally shot. I find that pretty difficult to understand.

I never heard about your 8 year old kissing punishment thing, sounds pretty ridiculous, but it also sounds like something made-up.

I completely misunderstood what you said then. But yeah, that guy seems pretty horrible. However, being the Daily Mail, this could well have been a story about a guy who tried to save a cat from a tree, and the editor would still come in and shout "MAKE IT ABOUT HOW PAEDOPHILES ARE BEING TREATED LIKE ROYALTY IN THIS COUNTRY! PRINT THAT PICTURE OF HIM WITH THE CRAZY EYES!"

Basically, what I'm saying is there's almost certainly more to the story than what the Mail reported.

I don't forget that Jon Stewart is a comedian, I just think it's not a comedian's place to goad an audience into cheering about shooting someone in the face. That's not comedy. People are not laughing at the comedy of it, they're screaming in joy at a guy being shot to death, and his body being dumped in the ocean.

The only way it would be similar to Nazi jokes would be if the Nazi jokes were "boy, Nazis suck, but it's a good thing our troops went over and SHOT A BUNCH OF THEM IN THE FACE, LEAVING BEHIND MUTILATED CORPSES, AM I RIGHT?" And the audience cheer because of how much they hate Nazis. No, good Nazi jokes have nothing to do with vengeance or latent hatred of Nazis. As for rape jokes and dead baby humour, well, it sure is hilarious fucking a bunch of dead babies in the ass hahaha, but seriously... That's just about the cheapest comedy of all, because it's pretty easy to say something most people would find shocking and not mean it. Not even sure how that's even relevant, nothing Jon Stewart is saying here is for shock value, it's just pandering to the collective American desire for vengeance.

Comedians do not all make a living off having a shitty life and making fun of it. Louis C.K. does. David Cross doesn't. Comedy is much more diverse than that and Jon Stewart's specific shtick has nothing to do with that. His comedy is largely laughing at the absurdity of American politics and popular culture, and very rarely has anything to do with his own life. Besides, I'm having a hard time working out how the bloody killing of Bin Laden would enter into any comedian's own "shitty life".

Edited by user 10 September 2012 06:05:50(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I'm not talking about not goading people to laugh, I'm talking about not goading them to cheer in celebration of the killing of an actual human being. Two entirely different reactions.

Well okay, maybe they do tap into the latent hatred of Nazis in the sense that the Nazis are almost always the butt of the joke, but at the same time, Nazi jokes are jokes, they're not just pointing out that a Nazi is dead and then getting everyone to cheer about it. Take any Nazi joke and replace the word "Nazi" with "nigger". It's the same joke, but it's not okay to laugh at niggers. It's pretty easy to laugh at Nazis.

I've got no problem with cheap jokes necessarily, they serve a purpose in a larger context, but I'm sick to death of the internet's obsession with trying to come up with the most offensive thing possible in every single situation. It's an intellectual race to the bottom. It's a desensitisation thing, where people are no longer satisfied with a joke about raping a dead baby, that's too tame, now you have to be raping a dead baby in the eye socket after you've flayed all its skin off. It's not even comedy at that point, it's little more than a pissing contest than an attempt to craft actual humour.

Edited by user 10 September 2012 07:48:49(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified