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A majority of Americans are still for the death penalty. It was close to the opposite before we ran full-force into "tough on crime", mandatory minimums, 3 str

A majority of Americans are still for the death penalty. It was close to the opposite before we ran full-force into "tough on crime", mandatory minimums, 3 strikes laws, the War on Drugs, and so on, and tripled the incarceration rate and population. All of those things ended up being extremely detrimental and set the US back decades, but we're still reeling. http://www.gallup.com/poll/165626/death-penalty-support-lowest-years.aspx http://www.gallup.com/poll/165626/death-penalty-support-lowe... I don't know what it is, but Americans - especially the Bible Belt voting bloc (for lack of more nuanced regional targeting) - feel not only "just" in passing judgement on others, but divinely so, and therefore questioning them is questioning God. It's scary. (It's also the same voting bloc backing Trump. We could chat all day about misappropriated rage and the decline of financial stability and the middle class, but the result of decades of it is where we are now.)

r_smart 10y ago
Wait, are you surprised that adherents to Abrahamic religions would be in support of capital punishment? Each of the holy texts are filled with harsh judgments and abusive punishments meted out by god or god's servants. Also your comment about Americans feeling like divine judges comes off as a touch hyperbolic, and if that's your experience you must live near some pretty extreme Christians.
dsfyu404ed 10y ago
>especially the Bible Belt voting bloc (for lack of more nuanced regional targeting) It's not just them. Take a look at what reddit has to say about "the Bible Belt voting bloc" People in in homogenous cultures are quick to write off those outside it. The "flyover state trailer trash" who live among like individuals have a hard time recognizing the legitimacy of opinions held by "suburban millennials" but the latter group has just as hard a time recognizing the legitimacy of any opinion held by the former. There was a news story about compus carry at state schools in Texas (IIRC) on reddit a few days ago. It was a perfect example of this. Tons of people saying that the sky is falling with occasional locals saying that the law change just makes the status quo legal. People have a very, very hard time objectively considering things that aren't common in their societal niche aren't.

r_smart 10y ago

Wait, are you surprised that adherents to Abrahamic religions would be in support of capital punishment? Each of the holy texts are filled with harsh judgments and abusive punishments meted out by god or god's servants. Also your comment about Americans feeling like divine judges comes off as a touch hyperbolic, and if that's your experience you must live near some pretty extreme Christians.

dsfyu404ed 10y ago

>especially the Bible Belt voting bloc (for lack of more nuanced regional targeting) It's not just them. Take a look at what reddit has to say about "the Bible Belt voting bloc" People in in homogenous cultures are quick to write off those outside it. The "flyover state trailer trash" who live among like individuals have a hard time recognizing the legitimacy of opinions held by "suburban millennials" but the latter group has just as hard a time recognizing the legitimacy of any opinion held by the former. There was a news story about compus carry at state schools in Texas (IIRC) on reddit a few days ago. It was a perfect example of this. Tons of people saying that the sky is falling with occasional locals saying that the law change just makes the status quo legal. People have a very, very hard time objectively considering things that aren't common in their societal niche aren't.