jimmy eat jazz
Well-Known Member
To help take my mind off last night's disastrous game, and ease my black depression as a result, I've decided to take up a lighter topic--torture. Here is a short article on the subject at Vox.com: https://www.vox.com/2016/3/31/11337738/torture-poll.
Let me be on the record to say that I oppose torture, not only because it doesn't work, but also because it is immoral and its use corrupts our national soul and weakens our credibility/moral authority with both friends and allies. While the 'slippery slope' argument is a recognized logical fallacy, this is one case in which I think the slippery slope does apply. Once we start down the road of torture and justify is use, its justification and use will inevitably be applied to an ever widening and ever more dubious set of circumstances, including use on domestic suspects. I do not want to live in a country in which torture is practiced as a matter of state policy.
I also find it a very curious thing that Republicans and (as other polling indicates) particularly Evangelical Christians (you know, the ardent devotees of the deity who taught us to love our enemies) are so strongly in favor of torture.
Given the current landscape, this topic will remain relevant for some time, and I think as a nation, we need to come to grips with it and decide whether we choose go down this road. Hopefully, we will rise up and reject torture as state policy, but the more we observe terrorist acts around us, the more the pressure will ramp up to sell our soul for the perceived quick (although actually ineffectual) fix and the emotional satisfaction of giving the ******** what they deserve.
Let me be on the record to say that I oppose torture, not only because it doesn't work, but also because it is immoral and its use corrupts our national soul and weakens our credibility/moral authority with both friends and allies. While the 'slippery slope' argument is a recognized logical fallacy, this is one case in which I think the slippery slope does apply. Once we start down the road of torture and justify is use, its justification and use will inevitably be applied to an ever widening and ever more dubious set of circumstances, including use on domestic suspects. I do not want to live in a country in which torture is practiced as a matter of state policy.
I also find it a very curious thing that Republicans and (as other polling indicates) particularly Evangelical Christians (you know, the ardent devotees of the deity who taught us to love our enemies) are so strongly in favor of torture.
Given the current landscape, this topic will remain relevant for some time, and I think as a nation, we need to come to grips with it and decide whether we choose go down this road. Hopefully, we will rise up and reject torture as state policy, but the more we observe terrorist acts around us, the more the pressure will ramp up to sell our soul for the perceived quick (although actually ineffectual) fix and the emotional satisfaction of giving the ******** what they deserve.
