Poll: The Murder Question

[KissingSunlight]

This was a hypothetical question I asked online about ten years ago. I am curious how much has the people's attitude has changed with this question.

Suppose that your government has declared that murder is legal. You can kill anyone for any reason. The police won't arrest you. You will not be prosecuted for any crime. Would you start killing people?

 

[tippy2k2]

Dear God no.

I feel bad when I kill a bug in my house (poor little guy!), let alone to kill a person who has hopes and dreams and aspirations. Frankly, the only way I could ever see myself killing someone is if I am fearful enough for my life that my hand is forced (in which case, your answer would still be no since I imagine just about everyone would not consider it murder if you are defending yourself).

 

[Saelune]

Only the ones who are trying to kill me. Fuck them. Meanwhile I just try to hold out as we wait for a new government to arise from the now Red House, since all the idiots who made this legal have been summarily executed.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

Is this like that movie Purge, where all crime is legal for a day or something? If that's the case, and I could afford a fancy security system I'd just stay at home, or better yet, I'd leave the country until things got back to normal.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Can I kill anyone? Absolutely anyone? What if I have a list of people across the world? If the law is simply; "As long as you're back before a certain period it's fine, we won't extradite you ..." I might be tempted. It's a far shorter list if it's just domestic targets.

 

[KissingSunlight]

Is this like that movie Purge, where all crime is legal for a day or something? If that's the case, and I could afford a fancy security system I'd just stay at home, or better yet, I'd leave the country until things got back to normal.

It was inspired before the movie came out. I was working somewhere that my bosses were letting customers, figuratively, getting by with murder. No, this is the new way of life in your country.

Can I kill anyone? Absolutely anyone? What if I have a list of people across the world? If the law is simply; "As long as you're back before a certain period it's fine, we won't extradite you ..." I might be tempted. It's a far shorter list if it's just domestic targets.

For you, let's make it worldwide. I am more curious about if people would kill someone, than I do about hypothetical international laws.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Honestly...I'm not sure. There are quite a few people that I think deserve to die that live just here in the U.S. If murder was legal, that's one hurdle out of the way to be sure, but...I don't know. While I would not lose an ounce of sleep if Donald Trump died, or the CEO of the company that makes EpiPen, or that guy that got a 6 month sentence for raping a girl and then was released early (and the judge in that case too), I don't know if I would have the nerve to kill them.
Acting in self defense is one thing, and I would have no problem ending someone's life if they were trying to hurt me or someone I care about, but deliberately hunting down someone just because they're scum and I don't like them? That's dangerously close to a line I would rather not find out if I can cross.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Yes, but only in the traditional Klingon way. The Borta'S'Tay. The Rite of Vengeance. When one has been dishonored, he must throw his blade at the feet of those who wronged him. If they refuse to pick up the blade, they are a coward. If they pick up the blade, they must defend themselves.

This should be the only acceptable way of killing.

 

[Remus]

snipped

 

[FalloutJack]

There are some pretty shitty people out there. If all you needed was a good reason...

 

[Anti-American Eagle]

I'd assume castle doctrine is in effect and immediately fortify for when the people who treat this like the purge show up... so I can purge them.

Alternatively I suppose it would mean being the punisher is a valid career move now that the government's stopped caring about a real crime. Assuming the police won't take advantage of also being immune to murder charges to keep the streets safe, someone needs to. Can't have murderers running around.

 

[Terminal Blue]

So if murder were legal, I'd deeply consider it, but only as a public execution with a listing of their crimes and a psychologist on hand to back the necessity of these individuals to be plucked from the gene pool for the betterment of mankind.

No psychiatrist with any integrity would do that.

I mean, sure, wish death on whomever you want, but if you want some kind of pseudo-scientific justification for the morality of your decisions, then you're looking in the wrong place. Maybe try religion.

Ironically, rationalization of your own justification in hurting others would be (if you actually were to kill someone and were still able to continue doing so) a psychopathic trait. Psychopathy describes people who don't fit in with a society where empathy is valued and where hurting others is frowned upon.

The guards at the Nazi death camps were not "psychopaths", the people who planned the holocaust were not "psychopaths", the death squad members who lined up women and children and shot them into ditches were not "psychopaths", the scientists of unit 731 were not "psychopaths". Don't equate morality and mental illness, a human being doesn't need to be a "psychopath" to commit atrocities without remorse, they just need a way to justify themselves.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

For you, let's make it worldwide. I am more curious about if people would kill someone, than I do about hypothetical international laws.

Possibly, maybe. I mean, I was trained to kill so I think I could kill. But given that I've never killed before it's pretty hard to say how I'd feel about it after the fact. There have been moments in my life where I have met people who I definitiely wouldn't be sorry if they disappeared from the face of the Earth. On my weakest moments, and with means to kill, I may have even taken that step if there was the right (or wrong) combination of emotional triggers, latent baseline anxiety, context of the environment, and then presented with opportunity.

But the thing is, anybody can also say that. But arguably if presented with means, opportunity, the right triggers, AND the right environment (say, a licence to kill) ... then yeah ... I might very well start ventilating their skull. So the question is ... can I kill people? Yes. I have the prerequisite skills. Would I kill? That is a question I don't really want to answer save for the fact that I could see myself killing certain people if all the multitudinal variables fell into play.

I'm not going to lie and say I couldn't kill someone. I'm not going to lie and say I couldn't ever imagine doing so.

 

[Remus]

snipped

 

[Terminal Blue]

Don't judge until you've actually been where I've been, known who I've known.

Why? Are you demonstrating any particular reservation in judgement which I was supposed to have picked up on.

For the record, I'm not claiming to be "better" than any member of the species, save perhaps in one singular regard. I know there are situations in which I would kill people and probably not even feel that bad about it. However, there is no logically defensible reason why one human being can ever claim to know what is "the good of humanity", it the kind of meaningless rationalisation people come out with to pretend that gassing Jews, vivisecting Chinese peasants or sending political dissidents to die in Siberia is totally legit. All for the good of humanity, you understand. Just doing my job! Nothing personal!

If you genuinely want to kill people, don't pretend that dressing someone in a white coat and having them tell you it's okay would actually make it okay. What bothered me was the absolutist implication of wanting to kill people but also needing someone else to be responsible. That deferral of responsibility is, in real terms, far more dangerous than psychopathy, and far less pitiable to boot.

 

[SweetShark]

Obvious answer is no.
However there are sometimes that "normal" laws are against even if you are innocent.

For example in Greece there is a case of a Bulgarian family which killed their daughter and cut her into pieces and put her inside the garbage....
But here is the best part: after a year I think, not only the laws didn't done nothing to get punished, but there is a possibility to get away with murder....get this.....because they couldn't OFFICIALLY TRANSLATE HIS CONFESSION!!
Yes, they now what the father said, but they can't touch him until his confession become official in papers....

With that said, if these bullsh*ts continue in Greece, then f*cking please give me a gun to kill the criminals muself!!!

 

[Phasmal]

No, I'd just get the hell out of there and go to a place where murder was not legal.

I'm not a hateful person, nor do I enjoy hurting people.

 

[omega 616]

I don't really want to but I would take one or 10 for the team. (in no particular order) Trump. Ann Coulter. Alex Jones. Hillary Cliton. You get the idea I guess.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Probably...in that that rule would apply to everyone else and anyone you bump into ever might be trying to kill you for no reason. People would end up getting rather trigger happy. Though, we'd end up with vigilantes murdering people in response to murder and for society to function some kind of legal system would have to develop again.

Though, I'd be dead or in some other country by then.