583
submitted 8 months ago by lemmyreader@lemmy.ml to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 55 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

No, that's the scary thing about ideology. Nearly anyone can be convinced to become a killer. Psychopathy isn't required.

A psychopath can kill a child and be fully cognizant of their innocence and humanity. They know it's wrong and just don't care. That's not what most are doing.

Ideology acts as a buffer, so these occupation soldiers don't even acknowledge the children as innocent or human. Just "animals" - the soldiers truly don't believe they're doing anything wrong.

They all deserve to be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity, but they aren't psychopaths. They're just like us and you have to reconcile with that.

[-] llamapocalypse@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago

Yeah you're not wrong, that's why I put the "and/or".

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 22 points 8 months ago

I guess I can't argue that they're shitty people, cuz like, they are. That kinda dodges my point about ideology, though! They're normal people and that's what's scary about fascism - they grew up learning to hate Palestinians and dehumanize them, and now they're acting on what they learned.

They need deprogramming. Preferably in prison.

[-] llamapocalypse@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

I guess part of my stance is that my definition of a "shitty person" includes those who would rather outsource their thinking to someone else, whether that's a political, religious, or some other figure. Although a lot of that does get down to good education (whether formal or not), which not everybody has access to. Even with my relatively privileged upbringing I've had to unlearn a lot of crap over the years, and not everybody has that luxury.

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 5 points 8 months ago

Ideology is actually an internalized process. They think for themselves, they aren't just mindless fascist zombies, but their ideology makes their thinking take this shape. It would certainly require a lot of unlearning!

Also, their ideology acts as a shield against the trauma of their own actions. Someone who snipes children needs that ideology to survive, because without it they'd likely kill themselves (or frag a superior officer, like sometimes happens when soldiers empathize with civilian victims)

this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024
583 points (96.8% liked)

World News

32286 readers
519 users here now

News from around the world!

Rules:

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS