# Hey guys, since we're so sure we're right, why don't we violently slaughter our enemies? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 1, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780 "2010-10-01T22:22:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/21 "2010-10-02T01:04:52Z")
Well, alright then. If anyone needs me, I’ll be over here, backing away slowly from **smiling bandit**. ---
**Author:** ![heatmiserfl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df705f/32.png) [@heatmiserfl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heatmiserfl)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/22 "2010-10-02T01:11:27Z")
It’s English! You know like Monty Python’s “How not to be seen.” ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/23 "2010-10-02T01:58:46Z")
It was still a stupid video, good to see it was pulled out but this org will not get any support for a long time from me. Meanwhile, just to make sure you don’t get the idea that the big problem is not there, the points of the deniers still suck as all the recent accusations against the scientists have been shown to be baseless. > **[Another exoneration: IPCC head cleared of financial wrongdoing by KPMG](http://nothing-new-under-the-sun.blogspot.com/2010/08/another-exoneration-ipcc-head-cleared.html)** > > To go along with the recent string of exonerations that have been given by public enquiries concerning the hacked CRU emails and the vindi... > [@](#): > > Another exoneration: IPCC head cleared of financial wrongdoing by KPMG > > To go along with the recent string of exonerations that have been given by public enquiries concerning the hacked CRU emails and the vindication of Michael Mann’s conduct by PSU, now accusations of financial impropriety made against Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC, have also been refuted in an investigation by KPMG. The Sunday Telegraph, which first broke the story, has removed it and offered an apology. > > Dr Pachauri has received a sum total of £0 for his work as IPCC chair (yes, far from a socialist plot to install world government, the IPCC is a tiny group co-ordinating the work of thousands of scientists that can’t even afford to pay its own chair). And his entire income is under £50,000. More details are found here, with intelligent discussion here. > **[Report clears IPCC head Pachauri, UK paper apologises](http://hot-topic.co.nz/report-clears-ipcc-head-pachauri-uk-paper-apologises/)** > > Back in March I posted on IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri’s stout defence of the IPCC report against the attacks to which it was being subjected by hysterical denialism.  But he has also had to def… ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/24 "2010-10-02T03:45:45Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I think you’re taking the ad campaign a wee bit too seriously. :rolleyes: What if there were an ad campaign where people were asked who was committed to getting abortion outlawed, and those who said they weren’t got blown up? I assume you’d be perfectly OK with that and wouldn’t think it was weird at all? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/25 "2010-10-02T04:08:07Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > :rolleyes: > > What if there were an ad campaign where people were asked who was committed to getting abortion outlawed, and those who said they weren’t got blown up? I assume you’d be perfectly OK with that and wouldn’t think it was weird at all? I didn’t say it wasn’t weird, and I didn’t say it was okay. I just think that comparing a failed attempt at an edgy ad campaign about carbon emissions to The Night of Long Knives is a bit over the top. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/26 "2010-10-02T04:22:27Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > > [@Miller](#): > > > > I think you’re taking the ad campaign a wee bit too seriously. > > :rolleyes: > > What if there were an ad campaign where people were asked who was committed to getting abortion outlawed, and those who said they weren’t got blown up? I assume you’d be perfectly OK with that and wouldn’t think it was weird at all? If it was funny, like these ads were clearly intended to be funny. Of course the fact that actual anti-abortion supporters have set off actual bombs and killed actual people, it would be a harder sell. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/27 "2010-10-02T04:31:48Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Of course the fact that actual anti-abortion supporters have set off actual bombs and killed actual people, it would be a harder sell. In fairness, so have environmentalists. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/28 "2010-10-02T04:44:53Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > I mean that a lot of very smart, hip young people over the years have happily, eagerly gone off to support horrible, horrible tyrannies. The Fascisti, the Nazis, the Bolsheviks, Mao - the smart set were all the rage. I aim to make such discourse utterly unthinkable in the hopes fo nipping any such sentiment in the bud. As is so often the case, you’re wrong. The Fascisti, the Nazis, the Bolsheviks, and the Maoists all based their support on the working class. Smart, hip, young intellectuals and counterculture types were the kinds of people these movements killed. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/29 "2010-10-02T04:55:43Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > I aim to make such discourse utterly unthinkable in the hopes fo nipping any such sentiment in the bud. I guess we’re all safe now then.:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/30 "2010-10-02T05:08:59Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > > [@carm](#): > > > > This is so retarded I don’t even know where to start. Do you know who the people in the video were? Peter Crouch and David Ginola are going to start killing people? > > Being an actor, even a good or good-natured one, has not generally been much of a bar to supporting psychotic killers. Who gives a fuck what they’ve done before? This is intensely disgusting, a vile and evil thing to advertise, and those who made it shoudl be deeply, deeply ashamed. Peter Crouch and David Ginola are actually soccer players, although Ginola–now retired–did appear in several commercials for L’Oreal (his gorgeous mane of hair did most of the acting, of course). They’ve both played for Tottenham Hotspur, which is indeed a disgusting, vile and evil thing, and it was disappointing they didn’t all explode. 😛 Seriously, lighten up. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/31 "2010-10-02T05:15:37Z")
Having read the thread, I’d assumed they’d been going for a bitter/sarcastic “Take your time, it’s not like we’re talking about _the end of the world_ here,” theme. That would have been fine. Portraying themselves as cold-blooded murderers of children? That’s just fucking stupid. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/32 "2010-10-02T05:55:51Z")
I’ll say one thing for this video. I’m not bloody likely to ever forget this promotional video. It just keeps running through my head over and over. They’ve managed to secure ad time in my head for real cheap. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/33 "2010-10-02T06:00:40Z")
Wasn’t it Oliver Wendell Holmes who said that at some point, if compromise is impossible, there is nothing to do but to go on killing? When it comes to climate change: Yes, if one has enough reason to believe that inaction would doom us to environmental cataclysm, I think it is morally permissible to incapacitate (lethally if necessary) anyone who would effectively impede corrective action. Haven’t seen the video, can’t say about that. Put it another way: If you are one of twenty persons on a bus going straight toward a cliff; only three of you can even see the cliff; & you have no way to get at you three off the bus; you have the right to take control of the bus; even if it means shooting 17 crazy people who insist there is no cliff. It shouldn’t come to that, but you have to do whatever is necessary. You have to act based on your best understanding, regardless of the delusions of the majority. Even if they say you are deluded. Certainly in something like climate change, there is no reason to believe the majority opinion informed or right. So, yes, if any man is certain that AGW is happening & potentially cataclysmic, & he finds that in order to save the world he has to kill AGW deniers until believers (or at least more cooperative sorts) form a working plurality of the electorate, then he is morally obligated to do so in the most effective manner possible, though the law be against him. But what if he kills to stop climate change & he’s wrong? Well, what if he’s right & does nothing? Better to terrorize one generation for a mistake & kill a few thousand, or a few 100 000 000, deniers, than to lose far more when the tropics become uninhabitable. Oh, & athelas, we are sure AGW is happening. We may be less sure whether deep ocean methane will accelerate it & cause a cataclysm when we reach a tipping point. But why take chances? Pity whoever made this video probably doesn’t have the guts to kill for this; if the science is right, if there’s even a chance, this is the sort of thing worth killing over. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/34 "2010-10-02T06:10:50Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Oh, & athelas, we are sure AGW is happening. We may be less sure whether deep ocean methane will accelerate it & cause a cataclysm when we reach a tipping point. But why take chances? Pity whoever made this video probably doesn’t have the guts to kill for this; if the science is right, if there’s even a chance, this is the sort of thing worth killing over. The problem is, this is the sort of problem for which killing isn’t likely to work, and is quite likely to make matters even worse. So, it’s really almost besides the point whether or not it is justified in the sense you are using, because killing people when it isn’t going to do anything useful is wrong regardless of the worthiness of the cause. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/35 "2010-10-02T06:25:02Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > I mean that a lot of very smart, hip young people over the years have happily, eagerly gone off to support horrible, horrible tyrannies. The Fascisti, the Nazis, the Bolsheviks, Mao - the smart set were all the rage. I aim to make such discourse utterly unthinkable in the hopes fo nipping any such sentiment in the bud. So you want to abolish smart, hip youth? And discourse, or at least the discourse associated with smart, hip youth? That will only make society worse. Truly you are a vile small-minded little man. Or is it that you want to abolish the discourse of killing. Twaddle. Will your precious little pacifism stop the war in Pakistan? No, of course not. Killing people over global warming is no more ridiculous than killing them over Islam. Let me be absolutely fucking clear you damn moron: If in fact we are facing cataclysm on a global scale, killing for that is more justified than any action we take to stop the Taliban from its violence against Afghan women. Far more people will suffer & die if the “tipping point” is real. Now, I’m one of those people who isn’t doing jack right now about my carbon footprint. I admit it. I think there are things that have to be done in the halls of power, not just little “do your part!” actions by the masses. But doing your part can make a difference, even if there are free riders (like me, honestly). If these people think I should die, well, fine. Of such ruthlessness are new civilizations made. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/36 "2010-10-02T09:03:26Z")
Whether its effect will be good or bad, this video - which, incidentally, was directed by Richard Curtis (Four Weddings, Love Actually) - has definitely “gone viral”, hence it being posted here. I personally think it’s extremely likely to have been released cynically with a prediction of this response. There’s WAY too much money behind it to be a mistake. Here’s what I posted about it elsewhere: I do think this will be counterproductive in the long run. Not hypocritical per se, as some of the YouTube comments have said, but where a group analogises the inaction of the apathetic to their necessary demise, it smacks dissenters and waverers in the face with a powerfully smug hegemony. Of course all publicity’s meant to be good, and they’ll get a stonking huge upsurge in web stats, but will they actually gain supporters who wouldn’t otherwise have signed up? Will they convert the uncommitted, or ultimately just piss them off? Also a little suspicious. The reuploads of the vids with the controversial critique below are _suspiciously_ high quality. Is [the withdrawal of the initial video and subsequent reuploading on other YouTube accounts] all part of the viral? If so, very clever. I like the idea of the group, and would have signed up, but they’re so smug that I don’t think I will now. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/37 "2010-10-02T12:29:32Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > So you want to abolish smart, hip youth? And discourse, or at least the discourse associated with smart, hip youth? Smart? No, but if we’re thinking of the same classification of “hip”—well, I wouldn’t mind having a button detonator of my own, sometimes. The video is a pretty colossal backfire. I think I can see what they _intended_, but that level of humor and message \*\*FAIL \*\*is something I’m much more accustomed to seeing from rightward sources. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/38 "2010-10-02T14:29:47Z")
An attempt at English humour it may be, but it’s gone down incredibly badly here. I just heard it described as ‘a filmed suicide note’ for the organisation. I don’t find it remotely funny to be honest. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/39 "2010-10-02T15:59:58Z")
> [@pedescribe](#): > > > [@athelas](#): > > > > So reasons this [motley crew](http://www.1010global.org/) of hip climate change activists, who produced a video in which [skeptics are violently blown up](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDXQsnkuBCM&feature=player_embedded), to cheerful music. They were mildly surprised that anyone would object to a video in which 10 year old schoolchildren are **blown up** for the fatal crime of having the Wrong Opinion. The group published a [sorry excuse](http://www.1010global.org/no-pressure) for an apology (“Oh well, live and learn”) that demonstrates that they learned absolutely nothing about the evil impulse towards purging your political adversaries. The echo-chamber moral certainty on display is horrifying. > > From a believer (for lack of a better word) in climate change, I totally agree. Wishing death on people you disagree with is wrong\*. I don’t think they should be running such an ad campaign. And honestly, I’m kind of surprised that I’m the first one to say this. > > \*Hitler Clause is in effect So what is Hitler Claus bringing for Christmas? A nice Christmas Schnitzel? 😃 Wishing death is wrong, but I will admit I’ve done it occasionally. I don’t make movies about it. Sometimes people will make a thing like this for laughs, deliberately making it so over the top. So IF the “superviolence” was an attempt to be comical, then no harm no foul in my book. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780/40 "2010-10-02T16:15:10Z")
I made it about a minute in and stopped; too stupid, didn’t watch (ts, dw - I may be using that abbreviation in the future). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-guys-since-were-so-sure-were-right-why-dont-we-violently-slaughter-our-enemies/555780.md?page=3)