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Why are people on the internet (and Lemmy) so quick to say someone "deserves to die"

On so many different news items, threads, etc. People are the first to claim pretty much anyone who has made a mistake, or does something they disagree with deserves to die.

Like, do some people not have the capability to empathise and realise they might have been in a similar place if they were born in a different environment…

I genuinely understand, you think a politician who has lead to countless deaths, a war criminal, or a mass rapists deserves to die.

But here people say it for stuff that falls way below the bar.

A contracted logger of a rainforest (who knows if they have the money / opportunity to support their family another way). Deserves to die.

A civilian of Nazi germany of whom we know nothing about their collaboration/agreement with the regime. Deserves to die.

Some person who was a drug dealer and then served their time. Deserves to die.

Like I don’t get it? Are people not able to imagine the kind of situations that create these people, and that it’s not impossible to imagine the large majority of people in these positions if born in a different environment?

lvxferre ,
@lvxferre@mander.xyz avatar

It’s the result of the “bombastic” mix of false dichotomy, assumptions, and social media dynamics.

False dichotomy prevents you from noticing nuances, complexities, third sides, or gradations. Under a false dichotomy, there’s no such thing as “Alice and Bob are bad, but Alice is worse than Bob”; no, either they’re equally bad (thus both deserve to die), or one of them is good.

In the meantime, assumptions prevent you from handling uncertainties, as the person “fills the blanks” of the missing info with whatever crap supports their conclusion. For example you don’t know if Bob kills puppies or not, but you do know that he jaywalks, right? So you assume that he kills puppies too, thus deserving death.

I’m from the firm belief that people who consistent and egregiously engage in discourse showing both things are muppets causing harm to society, and deserve to be treated as such. (Note: “consistent and egregiously” are key words here. A brainfart or two is fine, as long as there’s at least the attempt of handling additional bits of info and/or complexity.)

Then there are the social media dynamics. I feel like a lot of users here already addressed them really well, but to keep it short: social media gives undue exposure to idiots doing the above due to anonymity, detachment from the situation, self-reinforcing loops (“circlejerks”), so goes on.

SnotFlickerman , (edited )
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

“AOC slams Trump.”

They may as well be writing articles that say:

“Trump fucking body slams Biden.”

The rhetorical devices are out of control.

lvxferre ,
@lvxferre@mander.xyz avatar

True that. And you reminded me a tidbit of human nature, that interferes in this situation:

If you mince words to make something look stronger, weaker, better, worse than it is, plenty people fall for it. Because they care too much about how something is said (the words) and too little about what is being said (the discourse).

NeatNit ,

Relevant: www.xkcd.com/2071/

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/indirect_detection_2x.png

(please mentally adapt for Lemmy instead of Facebook)

GrammarPolice ,

Honestly pretty frickin relevant

Doburoku ,

Because they’re a stranger. I don’t know them and probably never will. Oh they did something shitty that cost someone else their life? Good, they deserve to die and I hope they burn in hell.

Because I don’t know them and they commited something I think is evil. There’s no purpose in me humanizing them. I humanize the actual people in life I interact with.

Also its impotent rage

Random123 ,

Thats brainless tbh. Thats the type of mindset that makes everyone a slave to their emotions because they all just react without thinking deeply/compassionately.

Its simply a lack of self control and critical thinking that leads people to lose their empathy

Doburoku ,

Ok. Don’t really care about what some random asshole online thinks I’m just explaining to OP.

I’m not changing.

Random123 ,

No worries bud consider it an explanation to OP to nullify yours

Well thats to be expected. Does a fish swim?

magnetosphere , (edited )
@magnetosphere@fedia.io avatar

Because people use hyperbole and aren’t always serious. How many times have you said “I’m gonna kill you”?

treadful ,
@treadful@lemmy.zip avatar

Never. I’d personally be afraid someone might take that seriously.

Though maybe that one’s cultural and said more casually where you’re from. I’ve heard it in TV shows, I guess.

limitedduck ,

How many times have you said that to a complete stranger? People generally use hyperbole with people who understand the hyperbole - the more extreme the hyperbole the more you need to trust the person would understand it. It’s the social contract

mecfs OP ,

Unfortunately the examples here are serious. In that I end up arguing with the person and they defend their point that the person should die/be killed.

magnetosphere ,
@magnetosphere@fedia.io avatar

Yikes.

breadsmasher ,
@breadsmasher@lemmy.world avatar

anonymity allows people to be not very nice

thouartfrugal ,
@thouartfrugal@lemmy.world avatar

John Gabriel’s Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory

kent_eh ,

There’s a blast from the past.

whyNotSquirrel ,
@whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works avatar

You’re not nice! I wish you were dead!

breadsmasher ,
@breadsmasher@lemmy.world avatar

same

Lost_My_Mind , (edited )

Wait, you wish thouartfrugal were dead? Or you wish yourself were dead?

Phrasing left your statement vague.

breadsmasher ,
@breadsmasher@lemmy.world avatar

I wouldnt wish death on someone else

Lost_My_Mind ,

That’s horribly unempathetic of you.

Kalkaline ,
@Kalkaline@leminal.space avatar

I’m so glad we’re all on the same page, does this mean we should be friends now?

GBU_28 ,

They are children, or act like them.

mecfs OP ,

https://media1.giphy.com/media/uNgUzhakqXkyI/giphy.gif?cid=6c09b952khatqby4isflbpn7h914eqp3svsiua40j7rynrqw&ep=v1_internal_gif_by_id&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

Lost_My_Mind ,

Because EVERYBODY deserves to die!

Seriously. Have you ever visited anyone who was 105 years old? They aren’t enjoying life. They just exist. Now imagine how much agony you’d be in if you were 500 years old. Or a million years old.

EVERYBODY deserves to die.

TheImpressiveX , (edited )
@TheImpressiveX@lemmy.ml avatar

All extremists should be killed.

/s

sunzu2 ,

who decides what "extremists" means?

netvor ,
@netvor@lemmy.world avatar

/s means sarcasm.

(I myself don’t find this one funny though…)

spankmonkey ,

Moderates

sunzu2 ,

A moderate democrat is the root of a lot of evil in this here land...

spankmonkey ,

They aren’t the root, they just get in the way of clearing out the root.

whotookkarl ,
@whotookkarl@lemmy.world avatar

We judge others more harshly than ourselves or our friends and family, it’s often a tribal artifact of the environment our species grew up and evolved in through its infancy that has in part informed our acceptable behaviors as a social species who relies on groups for survival (justice, altruism, fairness, social contract, etc).

Sometimes it’s hyperbole, sometimes it’s incorrectly treating people different than ourselves as less than instead of different to, and sometimes someone violates common morality so abjectly that capital punishment is a popular acceptable outcome.

MossyFeathers ,

That’s because people are insane and unhinged, and love whipping themselves up into frenzies.

Tbh, they probably deserve to die.

The_Picard_Maneuver ,
@The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world avatar

It’s a psychological consequence of polarization, which occurs when you have too many people in a social group agreeing with each other.

Groupthink elevates extreme opinions.

Random123 ,

It goes both ways when youre too stuck in your bubble reinforcing your opinions or in a group thats equally stuck in their own bubble

NuXCOM_90Percent , (edited )

Part of it is that purity tests are at an all time high. In large part because we are constantly inundated with Content to reinforce our world views (or the world view of the Influencer we glommed on to) constantly. So anything different is not just cognitive dissonance: it is an attack on our very core and a lie. So if someone does something we wouldn’t do? They are the evilest of evil people and are knowingly hurting whoever we care about.

But the other aspect? The internet is a great place to meet people with different life experiences. And in a lot of cases (particularly with certain politicians), we and the people we love have been directly harmed by them. All that steven universe bullshit about needing to love everyone and always finding the good goes out the window when you are increasingly watching organizations try to murder you for embracing who you are and to enslave people and turn them into breeding stock.

And the last aspect is that lemmy has a really bad infestation of tankies. Tankies who, useful idiots or intentional, tend to actively argue for destabilizing The West and increasing conflicts. So advocating for terrorism and murder helps with that.

mecfs OP ,

Appreciated your answers both on this thread and the soviet war crimes thread. Thank you.

Randomgal ,

Because they are behind a screen, and they see life as videogames and hyperbole.

uberdroog ,
@uberdroog@lemmy.world avatar

It’s the one thing we all deserve, the great equalizer. That’s not what you are asking, I know but still.

netvor ,
@netvor@lemmy.world avatar

Along with other things said here, people tend to “forget” that there’s a real person on the other end.

I vaguely recall Nicholas Christakis talking about a study they made, where they created a bot which would simply remind people of the fact that there’s a real person on the other end, and they found that it would help. (That study was done in some university platform and is centuries old in internet time, though. I think he spoke about it about 6 years ago on podcast with Sam Harris.)

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