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>"people who will look you straight in the eye and laugh as they talk about murdering someone" Murdering, or killing? I ask because murder refers to a specifi
by JackCh 8y ago
>"people who will look you straight in the eye and laugh as they talk about murdering someone"
Murdering, or killing? I ask because murder refers to a specific sort of unlawful killing, but it's not clear if you're using the term precisely. Most would probably say there's substantial difference between laughing about killing somebody who was trying to kill you (not murder) and laughing about killing a civilian in cold blood (murder).
- aphextron 8y agoOne person's killing is another's murder. The act is the same regardless. There is no innocent self defense in war.
- JackCh 8y ago> "The act is the same regardless." I think most would say context matters.
- drdeadringer 8y agoLegally, at least.
- JackCh 8y agoI think most people would say that context matters ethically or morally too.
- Viliam1234 8y agoExcuses _are_ important; it's just the reality that remains the same.
- watwut 8y agoWhy is it unclear that he uses term badly? His statement was clear. It sounds more like you just don't want to believe that someone would brag to him specifically about murder.
- JackCh 8y agoThe line "I guess there's a need for that kind of person to exist to do our dirty work." made me suspect he was talking about killing not murdering (I presume he wouldn't say that about murderers.) His response to me seemed to confirm he was using the word murder in a loose sense to include lawful killing.. that's how I read it anyway. Also, I didn't say he used the term "badly", I wondered if he was using it precisely. Maybe you think linguistic imprecision is bad, but my intent was to suss out his meaning, not criticize how he uses language. I'm more interested in the meaning behind the words.