Should Racism be a chargeable offense?

[Freelanderness]

It only seems to be a criminal offense if the victims are of colour for some reason. If a black man for example, walks up to a white man and starts shouting racial slurs like 'honky' and 'cracker' - nothing would be done.

However, if the white man walks up to the black man and starts shouting racial slurs, the left-wing media would go crazy and everybody would be crying racism.

Only whites can be racist, dontcha know?

Kind've. That's another problem with this law: What definition of racism would be used?

For someone like me, our society in and of itself is soaking in racism. We, as individuals, all absorb parts of these racist thoughts and behaviours, sometimes subconsciously without even realising the racist nature of our actions. This why a law against it is completely asinine and impractical. Instead, public discussion of racial issues should be encouraged for the purpose of actively contradicting existing racist paradigms.

[Zottistan]

It only seems to be a criminal offense if the victims are of colour for some reason. If a black man for example, walks up to a white man and starts shouting racial slurs like 'honky' and 'cracker' - nothing would be done.

However, if the white man walks up to the black man and starts shouting racial slurs, the left-wing media would go crazy and everybody would be crying racism.

If, say, Obama publicly called anybody a honky, the media would be all over it.

[Shaggai]

The main cost of the death penalty comes from the system of appeals and special rules for trials, not the execution itself. And don't suggest we shorten the system of appeals or remove the special rules.

That is a good thing.
It ascertains perpetrator's guilt to a greater degree of certainty. Whereas in life penalty the money goes towards the wellbeing of a scumbag, which is an awful, immoral use of taxpayer money.

LwP is cheaper than death. Why should we spend more money if the same effect happens?

[Opuntia]

It only seems to be a criminal offense if the victims are of colour for some reason. If a black man for example, walks up to a white man and starts shouting racial slurs like 'honky' and 'cracker' - nothing would be done.

However, if the white man walks up to the black man and starts shouting racial slurs, the left-wing media would go crazy and everybody would be crying racism.

With anti-racist being a code word for anti-white, what's to expect? We are just trying to defend ourselves from the white genocide that doesn't really exist! We will all die nonexistently! Oh the horror!

Fuck that. I'd hit up a black or asian woman if either of them were hot. Hell, I'd just hit up a hot woman. Why the race, people? WHY?

[Central Slavia]

That is a good thing.
It ascertains perpetrator's guilt to a greater degree of certainty. Whereas in life penalty the money goes towards the wellbeing of a scumbag, which is an awful, immoral use of taxpayer money.

LwP is cheaper than death. Why should we spend more money if the same effect happens?

It's not the same effect. Less money spent on ascertaining guilt logically means higher rate of falsely imprisoned, and there's the whole disgusting effect of using the public's money to keep alive and well a piece of human refuse.

[Shaggai]

LwP is cheaper than death. Why should we spend more money if the same effect happens?

It's not the same effect. Less money spent on ascertaining guilt logically means higher rate of falsely imprisoned, and there's the whole disgusting effect of using the public's money to keep alive and well a piece of human refuse.

We should actually focus on rehabilitation, not punishment. The death penalty serves no purpose other than gratification of personal desires for vengeance.

[Sedikal]

No, while it is disturbing and all around horrible people have the right to free speech and free thought.

[Alyska]

I'm definitely not a proponent of racism, but I strongly oppose makeing it a crime to hold certain beliefs, no matter how offensive I might find those beliefs to be.

When you get down to it, it would impossible anyway to prevent people from having the wrong beliefs. The most you can expet is to supress people's expression of those beliefs. But when you do that, the beliefs don't just go away. That is partly why I am a strong advocate of free speech. If racism or other dangerous ideas exist in society, it is better if people can freely express them out it the open where they can be countered and delt with, rather than have them fester beneath the surface.

[Central Slavia]

It's not the same effect. Less money spent on ascertaining guilt logically means higher rate of falsely imprisoned, and there's the whole disgusting effect of using the public's money to keep alive and well a piece of human refuse.

We should actually focus on rehabilitation, not punishment. The death penalty serves no purpose other than gratification of personal desires for vengeance.

I see nothing wrong with making those who perpetuate suffering upon the innocent for their gratification suffer. In fact, it's a great thing.
What is wrong is trying to rehabilitate human refuse like that , since their victim never got a second chance.

[Great Kleomentia]

No, freedom of speech, racism is just a view that doesn't hurt anyone, it would be unenforceable anyway, etc.

[Shaggai]

We should actually focus on rehabilitation, not punishment. The death penalty serves no purpose other than gratification of personal desires for vengeance.

I see nothing wrong with making those who perpetuate suffering upon the innocent for their gratification suffer. In fact, it's a great thing.
What is wrong is trying to rehabilitate human refuse like that , since their victim never got a second chance.

Why do you like crime and dislike having productive citizens?

[Madenia]

We should actually focus on rehabilitation, not punishment. The death penalty serves no purpose other than gratification of personal desires for vengeance.

I see nothing wrong with making those who perpetuate suffering upon the innocent for their gratification suffer. In fact, it's a great thing.
What is wrong is trying to rehabilitate human refuse like that , since their victim never got a second chance.

Amen to that.

I think it should be done through a bullet to the head or hanging though.

Electric chair and injection is too expensive.

[Genivaria]

I don't really care for the idea of though crime thank you.

[Auriga]

Is being racist bad and morally wrong? Yes.

Should it be a crime? No.

Why? Because enforcing such a law would be nothing more than completely ludicrous. Just try to imagine that court case:

"And what makes you believe this man is racist?"

"Well, he's wearing a white t-shirt, when everyone knows black is in style."

"Uh huh, and anything else?"

"Well, just look at him, he's as white as the Stay Puff Marsh Mellow Man."

Such a court case would be completely dependent on the views of the people present. Unless you tried to write an arbitrary definition of "racist" which would, again, be subject to opinion.

Not to mention that such a law would only be used to get money out of people for no real reason or to make someone look bad.

[Duvniask]

No, that would be pretty damn stupid.

[Central Slavia]

I see nothing wrong with making those who perpetuate suffering upon the innocent for their gratification suffer. In fact, it's a great thing.
What is wrong is trying to rehabilitate human refuse like that , since their victim never got a second chance.

Why do you like crime and dislike having productive citizens?

It's got something to do with strawmen.
I like justice and dislike scum being protected by the state that failed to protect their victims.

[Shaggai]

Why do you like crime and dislike having productive citizens?

It's got something to do with strawmen.
I like justice and dislike scum being protected by the state that failed to protect their victims.

The death penalty and our current prison systems have been shown to increase crime. You also oppose rehabilitation, which increases the likelihood of former criminals becoming productive citizens. And, also, you appear to dislike justice, as you advocate vengeance. Vengeance is not justice.

[Central Slavia]

It's got something to do with strawmen.
I like justice and dislike scum being protected by the state that failed to protect their victims.

The death penalty and our current prison systems have been shown to increase crime. You also oppose rehabilitation, which increases the likelihood of former criminals becoming productive citizens. And, also, you appear to dislike justice, as you advocate vengeance. Vengeance is not justice.

First of all, just revenge is just. All you present in the post you linked is an absurd ad hominem argument - it'd make us in some way like them so it must be bad.

Second of all, death penalty doesn't increase crime - it's other features of the US law and overall social system which do. It probably doesn't decrease it either beyond removing a single perpetrator from the world - but that's not the point anyways.

[The Tundra]

i can't see race, i have to take it on credit of i a person is black or white

this new law scares me...dog.

[Big Jim P]

It's not the same effect. Less money spent on ascertaining guilt logically means higher rate of falsely imprisoned, and there's the whole disgusting effect of using the public's money to keep alive and well a piece of human refuse.

We should actually focus on rehabilitation, not punishment. The death penalty serves no purpose other than gratification of personal desires for vengeance.

The death penalty serves to eliminate a known dangerous animal.

[Big Jim P]

Why do you like crime and dislike having productive citizens?

It's got something to do with strawmen.
I like justice and dislike scum being protected by the state that failed to protect their victims.

Well said.

[Shaggai]

We should actually focus on rehabilitation, not punishment. The death penalty serves no purpose other than gratification of personal desires for vengeance.

The death penalty serves to eliminate a known dangerous animal.

While LwP does exactly the same, is able to be reversed if the accused is proven innocent, and costs less. Also, rehabilitation serves to also remove someone dangerous, while adding a productive citizen to society if possible and again, being able to allow innocents to go free.

The death penalty and our current prison systems have been shown to increase crime. You also oppose rehabilitation, which increases the likelihood of former criminals becoming productive citizens. And, also, you appear to dislike justice, as you advocate vengeance. Vengeance is not justice.

First of all, just revenge is just. All you present in the post you linked is an absurd ad hominem argument - it'd make us in some way like them so it must be bad.

Second of all, death penalty doesn't increase crime - it's other features of the US law and overall social system which do. It probably doesn't decrease it either beyond removing a single perpetrator from the world - but that's not the point anyways.

Ah, that may not have been been clear from that post, but my point was that suffering is bad. Anything we can do to decrease overall suffering is good, and anything we can do to increase it is wrong. This is a feature of my personal moral system and may, unfortunately, not be agreed with by you. But if something can reduce the overall number of murders, and increase the number of people who add something to society, I will advocate for that. The death penalty does neither. (Also, the context was not the death penalty, it was someone who stated that some people need to "suffer at any cost." So some of the arguments may have been inapplicable here)

As for "just revenge": When does revenge become unjust? When does it become just? What is the line of justice? "An eye for an eye?" Gandhi and Jesus had a few things to say about that.

Edit: Actually, I linked to the wrong post. A much better version can be found here. Again, somewhat context-sensitive.

[Saiwania]

We should actually focus on rehabilitation, not punishment. The death penalty serves no purpose other than gratification of personal desires for vengeance.

Sounds fair enough to me, only the rehabilitation I have in mind is a boot camp. The inmates are given a choice to either shape up and turn their lives around by learning to do what they're told when they're told, until they're deemed to be reformed while the inmates that don't cooperate get sent right back to prison where they serve out their full punishment and have no one to blame but themselves.

[Shaggai]

We should actually focus on rehabilitation, not punishment. The death penalty serves no purpose other than gratification of personal desires for vengeance.

Sounds fair enough to me, only the rehabilitation I have in mind is a boot camp. The inmates are given a choice to either shape up and turn their lives around by learning to do what they're told when they're told, until they're deemed to be reformed while the inmates that don't cooperate get sent right back to prison where they serve out their full punishment and have no one to blame but themselves.

...not quite what I had in mind, but it would be better than our current system. Well, maybe.

[Phocidaea]

"Racism" cannot be criminalized even if one wanted to, because much like "pedophilia" it is a thought, not an action, and also like pedophilia, the criminal charges start once one begins acting on the thought.

Well, unless we get thought police. But we don't yet.