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They literally fired cannons from warships at people protesting the exportation of food when they are starving to death.
by HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
They literally fired cannons from warships at people protesting the exportation of food when they are starving to death.
- genewitch 2y agoCan't have them stealing someone else's profits...
- trhway 2y ago[flagged]
- sorokod 2y agoThe arguments stemming from the rule of law always remind of this: The rain it raineth on the just And also on the unjust fella; But chiefly on the just, because The unjust hath the just’s umbrella.
- er4hn 2y agoThis is very clever and an interestingly adversarial (the unjust steal from the just) take on the quote that came to my mind: “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.”
- sorokod 2y agoThey complement each other beautifully.
- Chance-Device 2y ago> I don't think the officers ordering to fire cannons explicitly wanted those people to starve. While I take your broader point about it being a system level issue - when you’re firing cannon at starving people so you can continue to export their food, you’re complicit, laws be damned.
- Qwertious 2y agoThe guards at Auschwitz were perpetually drunk, because they couldn't stand what they were doing. Were they complicit in the holocaust? YES!
- trhway 2y agoThat is the point - after countless deaths we produced the principle of "carrying out a criminal order is a crime", yet we still see the people committing atrocities and going unpunished because they were just carrying out the orders. And that makes me think that we're still missing something important.
- bee_rider 2y agoWell the folks giving the orders obviously have mixed feelings about the whole idea that their orders could be criminal.
- lamp_book 2y agoSystems don’t emerge from the aether they are composed of by people. In this case the people were absolute bastards.
- Spooky23 2y agoI didn’t have a Hacker News thread where George Pataki is held up as some fenian and British sailors shelling a starving mob are misunderstood, well-intentioned chaps on my bingo card. Yet here we are. Should you ever find yourself up against the wall during the revolution, take solace that the boys don’t take it personally at all.
- Teever 2y agoIt's not their fault. They think it's normal to turn every conversation into one about the homeless in California pooping on the streets. If anything it's our fault for letting them turn every conversation into this one.
- DrillShopper 2y agoReally? "Just following orders"? Did that work in Nuremberg?
- krainboltgreene 2y ago> I don't think the officers ordering to fire cannons explicitly wanted those people to starve. Yeah they wanted them to explode.