I have tried not to be joyful over the illness and death of my political opponents (or of anybody I don’t like), or to rejoice at their deaths. Yes, I wish Donald Trump was gone, but not via some horrible illness. After all, these are human beings and have feelings as well as families who (by and large) love them, and those people will suffer, too. Further, as a determinist, I realize that these people couldn’t have done other than what they did. That doesn’t mean I excuse their doings, for I am so constituted as to excoriate them, and excoriation (and reward) can change people’s behavior.
But I’ve heard many people wish not just for Trump’s death, but for a painful, agonizing death. This is a staple for all Republicans on certain odious websites, one of which celebrated Mitch McConnell’s illness
The only optimistic news I’ve seen is that Mitch McConnell, one of the architects of the conservative dominance of the Supreme Court, may be dying.
. . . . So maybe a slow, miserable death…but not too painful, since his mind is probably mostly gone. We’ve got time to get some champagne and caviar before his demise! The most generous thing I can say is that I wish he’d retired to the happy bosom of his family and a life of relaxation a decade or two ago. As it is, he overstayed his tenure, and to what end? The poisoning of his beloved Republican party.
Now McConnell is still sitting in the Senate, and it’s fine to wish him gone, and even to say that you’re not very sad if he dies. But to wish for a “painful agonizing death”? I’m sure that if by some magic had the power to inflict that, they wouldn’t think twice.
These are the same kind of people who applauded Luigi Mangione for killing Brian Thompson, which is an even more odious behavior.
Now you can explain why people’s death have removed a deleterious element from society, as Hitchens did for Jerry Falwell, but I see that as different from wishing them to die or suffer while they’re still alive.
But you may feel differently. Let’s take some polls!
and a related one:
I think it would be good if Vladimir Putin dropped dead of a heart attack. But I’d be fine with it being quick and painless.
I voted “no” because doing that is bad for ME to do: my doing that harms my own mental health
At the risk of seeming trite: “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche
People wishing death– specifically, violent non-natural death– on political opponents is a moral bridge too far for me. It’s also a strong indicator that the person lives in a partisan echo chamber.
A friend, who lives in a self-curated media/social media bubble, said she wished Trump were killed. I responded simply, “I don’t believe in murder.”
Do you really mean that Republican websites cheer McConnell’s death? I know Trump hates him, but it sounds to me like it is odious Democratic websites you are referring to.
“…excoriation (and reward) can change people’s behavior.” This is true. But when the people doing the excoriating do it for the fun or profit of it, they aren’t trying to change behavior for the better. They actually want the behavior to be worse. It is what they get out of it. It becomes about them. I do not think this applies to any one on this site.