Yeh, I feel that. As much as I try to be hippy here, I can't disagree with that.

When I say, “It is difficult to think of how they could coexist”, I mean if they refuse to be kind and coexist with others, meaning that they’ve truly refused to coexist and thus renounced that right.

I agree there need to be consequences for being horrid, I just think human rights need to be considered in those consequences as not to become horrid.

Also, I sort of view human civilization as a whole through the lens of Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. In many ways, we’re still in the pre-conventional stage where we still behave based on punishment and reward, and for humanity to survive long term (if we can), we need to strive as a society towards the post-conventional stage where we are largely beyond pain and punishment. We will likely never attain the post-conventional stage much like a circle can never be perfectly round, but we must approach it the best we can.

And another comment, since my other comment is so long: your criticism of the availability heuristic (making conclusions based only on what you’ve seen) is pretty based.

It’s the availability heuristic and the concept of in-group homogeneity that I think have caused a lot of our societal problems; quite honestly, it’s probably the source of almost every human-made problem in history.

Thank you for reminding me not to succumb to that.

When I say “demons”, I mostly mean the kind of people who you wish you could go get a time machine and kill Hitler when he’s 5 or something because his actions are so horrifying (a criteria I think most Republican elected and appointed leaders have been fulfilling for a long time now).

And of course, the kind of Republican voters who kick their kid out of the house because they’re gay or trans are likely on that list (well, except maybe you want to avoid erasing some queer people from the timeline with the aforementioned time travel method, but you get the idea).

I can see what you’re saying, so I want to be clear that I do not absolve Republican voters of their crimes, and my concession is neither a denial that action needs to be taken nor a suggestion that a lot of people don’t deserve consequences. “Not demons” is pretty much the bare minimum for me, of having the minimum shred of decency left in you that allows you to still deserve life.

If my initial words appear to falsely morally equalize both sides, that is not my intent.

I also just view a lot of these people as stuck in a Plato’s cave; they’ve been conditioned by their environment to do what they do, and while it doesn’t make what they do right, it is nonetheless sad to know maybe they never had a chance at doing the right thing and never will.

(Of course, it is incredibly arrogant to assume I’m not in some Plato’s cave of my own; perhaps I am.)

True. It really drives me nuts when people whine, “I DOEN’T WACH NUTREK CUZ IT SO POLITICAL”, not realizing the only reason older Trek doesn’t seem political is they watch it out of its contemporary sociopolitical context.