With regard to my brain sensation thing, I want to make it clear what I’m discussing.
Firstly, I assume we are more than pure meat. If we are actually just meat, then I cannot see the slightest reason to give a flying fuck about morality/ethics. It would mean that suffering, for example, is an illusion. So torture who the hell you like for any crap reason - you cannot actually say it is wrong.
However, I know that I, at least, feel sensations - and for simplicity I assume that other humans at least do too because there is no real reason to assume I’m special. There is an argument that the sensations themselves are an illusion, but that is a cop out - an illusion to what?
This is cogito ergo sum, really… except with cogito replaced with latin for “I feel”… whatever that may be.
On the other hand, it’s reasonably clear that free will just doesn’t exist. It’s the brain making decisions.
In other words, the brain is seperate from the thing that actually gets meaningfully punished or rewarded.
It’s barbaric to punish something that did nothing wrong. Whatever it is that ultimately feels the punishment, didn’t do the wrong thing. It was the brain that did the wrong thing and it’s very silly to care about a brain. It’s no different really other than in complexity to an anvil that falls on someone’s head.
Your story hurt me as well. I know it must take a lot out of you and I thank you for your suffering. Whenever I think of the weak, the innocent, the good and gentle being abused it enrages me. I know it does a lot of people who wish such assholes did not exist among us. We see the faces of those we love in the scared and scarred. Unfortunately we have to weigh the good we can do with the rest of our lives against the good we might do cutting evil into bite sized chunks. And it would do good in that such would never be able to hurt another innocent. It would save some sweet little girl pain and horror.
It belittles the anguish of those who know of this sort of scum out of jail who may wrestle with such a scale to call this recreational outrage. It is more of a release valve to state it outright. We cannot and should not change the law to lessen punishment for vigilantism. Vengence is wrong. However to argue that killing someone of that sort would not be a protection of the innocent would also be inaccurate. Those that far gone are generally beyond redemption. They will do it again. Therefore the best way to protect the public, those of us whose scales might suddenly tip in the presence of such, from itself is a lengthy prison term for the offender. That protects otherwise good people from doing something bad. So why in hell was this guy out and about?
Knowing that someone is lost in another world doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have a strong protective instinct in making certain that world never touches those of the good and decent, the sweet and innocent. It matters damn one whether it is their fault ultimately. What matters is that they not be able to bring the horror of their world to ours. That is a very heavy weight to place on a scale of any sort much less the small pressure to trip a trigger. Afterall, the sympathy for a mad dog is a bullet. And if ever I am “in the mind” of a child rapist I think it the kindest thing to put me down quickly. Being a flesh eating zombie would be better.
Well, to be fair, they aren’t really in charge of their decision-making; those pesky brains are the ones calling the shots. Don’t blame the innocent people attached to 'em.