- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
Summary
President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life without parole, sparing all but three convicted of high-profile mass killings.
Biden framed the decision as a moral stance against federal executions, citing his legal background and belief in the dignity of human life.
Donald Trump criticized the move as senseless, vowing to reinstate the death penalty.
Reactions were mixed: some victims’ families condemned Biden, while others supported his decision. Human rights groups praised it as a significant step against capital punishment.
No, he didn’t. Deluding ourselves of that will just stop the problem from being truly fixed. Just look at how many people’s take away from this is “maybe now CEOs will be nicer and more empathetic?”. I shouldn’t have to explain the problem with that, but I will expand on it by saying that the CEO is really just a scape goat; the real guilty ones are the owners, who are also the people that appoint CEOs, and who the CEOs have to please. This hasn’t solved anything, and without a systemic change things will just go back to the way they were; if only because we exist in a very fast news cycle and the average person will most likely soon forget and just go back to their daily rut.
People want simple easy answers. This is true for everything, and it’s no less true now. It’s easy to sit at home and make memes and glorify someone else who - despite the fact I disagree with his methods - actually took action and did something, even if it meant risking comforts, privileges, or in this case even a death penalty; it makes people feel like they are doing something without having to take any real risks and without really changing anything, but it feels “effective” because it makes a lot of noise and creates a lot of headlines.
If you really want change, then more needs to be done. And sure, one way would be for more to follow Luigi’s footsteps, but - and I won’t even go into the pitfalls of that path - if you have enough people on your side for that to be successful and not be prosecuted/defend yourself from prosecution, then you could achieve similar societal change peacefully by community building and through mutual aid; side step existing capitalist and government institutions. But that takes actual effort; that takes actual willpower to affect real change; that requires people to be okay with losing some comforts and privileges - this is also true for Luigi’s path, but the appealing part of Luigi’s path is that it “only takes a few” (which as previously stated I disagree with) to affect that change, and those few get to be “someone else” and never the “I” in question. The “I” in question gets to remain at home, on their device of choice, talking about how good-looking, and cool, and heroic the “some else” who took the risk is, and make memes about it.
And that’s one reason I feel so bad for Luigi. While the CEO is the scapegoat of the true (or at least more powerful) capitalists, Luigi is the scape goat of “revolutionaries” who don’t really engage in any praxis.
That’s just like your opinion, man.
Fact of the matter is that he absolutely did commit an act of community defence. He even alludes to that fact in his “manifesto”
Did you bother to read anything I said? Saying you did something doesn’t make it true. Trump has also alluded that his foreign tariffs will bring prices down. Does that make it true?
I read what you said. It’s irrelevant. You didn’t bother to read the room.
What’s relevant here and now is that the mass murderers up top are scared shitless, and we need to keep them that way.
Ok, so you definitely didn’t read it. Perhaps you looked at the words, but clearly you did not read them. Cool. So glad to see this place become indistinguishable from reddit…
I read them. It’s the same incremental change grassroots bullshit that the DNC has been parroting for my entire 44 years of life. That shit doesn’t work. Community defence clearly does. Quit being a class traitor and class apologist or get out of the way.
Imagine thinking anything I said is allied with the DNC. Or that said anything about “incremental”. Imagine reading what I said and then calling me a “class traitor” or “class apologist”. You’re either a bold faced liar, have the reading comprehension and politics understanding of a 4th grader, or your definition of reading is the same as that of people who “enjoy reading dystopian books” but complain about books becoming political.
Your high horsed spiel boiled down to two points. 1. The only way to affect real change is with community building. 2. You feel sorry for Luigi because you don’t understand why people are celebrating the fact that he reminded us the only way actual change has ever happened historically.
The people are starting to sing, and you’re trying to argue against the chorus
Let me give you a helping hand.
If I’m wrong and don’t understand, why have none of the millions of people who supposedly back him followed suit? Why are you here instead of out there? Are you getting guns? Are you organizing with other people? Are you doing anything (praxis) towards achieving change in “the only way actual change has ever happened historically”? Or are you just spending your time online talking about it? As I said and will say again, Luigi is the scape goat of “revolutionaries” who don’t really engage in any praxis. The “I” in question (you) gets to remain at home, on their device of choice, talking about how (…) heroic the “some else” who took the risk (Luigi) is.
You also said previously:
I - unlike you it seems - don’t want there to be “mass murderers up top” at all, or in fact for there to be anyone “up top” (totally in line with DNC/s). You say I don’t want change, and that the thing you want is what affects actual change, and yet it seems you want no change other than - as I said in my original comment - for the powerful to be nicer (in this case, due to fear). Yet, somehow, I’m the one defending capitalists and being a class traitor. You also seem to have missed the fact - or just not understand - that the CEO is not the “true” capitalist; those are the owners of the companies, for whom the CEO works.
Lastly, I will reiterate one thing, and add something more relevant. If you have enough people to enact change through violence and defend yourself of the consequences, then nothing can stop you from just creating separate/parallel systems and side step the current one (the DNC totally wants you to do this btw/s). And if you actually want to go further than surface level into history, then go look at all the French revolutions as an example, read about them in detail, and see how many ended with an authoritarian in power.
If that still hasn’t made my point clear, then nothing I say will; I’m ending the conversation here.