If our courts didn't follow "innocent until proven guilty," we'd be living in a truly fucked up society.

Great news!

"WNBA star Brittney Griner released from Russian custody in a high-profile prisoner swap between the U.S. and Moscow"

Link to article: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/wnba-star-brittney-griner-released-russian-custody-high-profile-prison-rcna60683

Link to Reddit discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/zfyfhc/wnba_star_brittney_griner_released_from_russian/

Reddit appears to hate it, though. They're acting like our justice system is exactly like Russia's, and her being in a literal hard labor prison camp (Russian gulag) means nothing.

Also, in America, you're innocent until proven guilty. This means that we'd rather people who we're sure about be granted innocence instead of possibly throwing an innocent person in jail. Why? Because if we started throwing innocent people in jail, our country would be super fucked up. It's more ethical to let people go if you're unsure than to throw a bunch of innocent people into jail. That's basically what we did with the trade. We're letting someone go who didn't deserve to be in prison (a hard labor prison camp, actually) in exchange for the guilty Russian arms dealer. If it had been the opposite or if the trade hadn't happened, that would be like throwing one innocent person into a hard labor prison camp for every guilty criminal out there. Everyone and their mother would end up in the gulag. That's not fair. That would be a fucked up society to live in.

I think the same logic applies when you're doing prisoner swaps during war. In order to save guys on your side from being tortured and killed, you let some of the guys from the other side go. Even if you're playing by the rules (Geneva convention--war crimes rules), the other side is not. And your soldiers don't deserve to be tortured until they're begging for death. It's my opinion that no one deserves that, but that's a different argument.

I hope they find someone to exchange Paul Whelan for next. I think there's one other American as well.

Strict households and rebellion

Very true for some people.

I think it's like people who grew up in a strict household, then get to college and rebel.

Hopefully this will be studied in the future. A lot of factors probably come into play here.

Edit: Some studies have probably already been done, but I want them to come up with a near-foolproof plan that the mainstream media will pick up on and promote. Even if it involves things like being allowed to drink at home or go to parties as a teenager as long as you find a safe ride home. This is the kind of thing worth researching for future generations' sake.

Link to comic, published on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/comics/comments/zi42bu/triumph_oc

“I feel like this is one of those things that…in the future, we’ll look back on it and be horrified at how racist, classist, etc. everyone in the past was.” -me

My Reddit Comment: Making fun of people’s faces and facial muscle anatomy? Which are directly determined by where your ancestors lived, which was also directly determined by how much money they had?

I feel like this is one of those things that…in the future, we’ll look back on it and be horrified at how racist, classist, etc. everyone in the past was.

Reddit Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/meme/comments/ybzhct/im_watching_you_elon/

 

Torture/Sanctions/The Rights of Prisoners and Everyone to Food, Housing, Healthcare, Fresh Air, Space, Recreation, and a Long Life

I don’t believe in torture, sanctions, etc. I think everyone should have access to food, housing, healthcare, etc. and that short of taking someone else’s organs, even prisoners should be provided with everything to help them live as long a life as possible. That includes fresh air, space, and recreation. But I might be a bit ahead of the times.

Assisted Suicide/Mental Health/Consent/Philanthropy/3-D Printed Organs/Universal Healthcare

Reddit discussion link: Canadians Turn to Euthanasia as Solution to Unbearable Poverty

https://www.reddit.com/r/boringdystopia/comments/x9359o/_

Commenter: How are you going to convince anyone that someone mentally ill enough to not live can make the clear decision to end themselves? I thought Canada was supposed to be friendly? Starting to sound like Texas.

Commenter #2: No, Texas doesn't support a legal framework for self-electing to die. The Texas way is to generally not provide substantial aid or services, including aided suicide.

Texas has it's own kind of awful, but this is a sort of faux-compassionate that Texas wouldn't touch.

Commenter #3: I’m more referring to the fact that Texas likes killing the mentally ill. But yeah.

Me (responding to commenter #1): Also what I don’t understand. Normally, if someone is suicidal and a harm to themselves, we take action (in the US).

I also see a problem with someone choosing to commit slow suicide (by gaining so much weight that they can’t breathe, for example). How is that not classified as a mental illness that warrants intervention?

Say in the future you’re able to get a brain scan and an AI determines that your future is bleak/pain level high enough -and- you’re of sound enough mind to make that kind of decision (or you were of sound enough mind when you made that decision before mental deterioration). Why aren’t other avenues being explored/funded, like pain medication/thought editing/even a full-on brain transplant into a 3 or 4-D printed new body? In terms of effective altruism, this would save lives in a concrete and immediate way, and would continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I thought we’ve had 3-D printed organs for years now. Who’s getting them? The rich? I never hear about this option being offered to the people who need it most. Where’s the funding for the hardware and whatever goes into the refills/“printer ink?” Where are the philanthropies that could help people whose only alternative is assisted suicide? Where’s the universal healthcare that should cover life-or-death care like this?

Sanctions/Gas/Europe/Military Recruitment/Poor People/Universal Basic Income/Third-Party Candidates/2024 Election

I don’t believe in sanctions…I think I’ve mentioned this before. They’re not ethical because they end up harming the people instead of the governments, especially the poor (and more recently, especially in the UK, the middle class). Of course there are good arguments on both sides, especially since we are in the middle of a war, but this, to me, seems like we are just sacrificing the poor in order to gain an advantage. I feel the same about recruiting poor/working-class people into the military. I believe in a Universal Basic Income (UBI), which means that the government pays people instead of collecting an income tax. Like permanent stimulus checks. It’s what Andrew Yang stood for during the Democratic primaries of 2020. Unfortunately, since then, Yang has declared himself a third-party candidate, and I don’t want him to take votes away from Biden’s re-election and the Democratic Party. Also like I’ve said before, I hope he comes to his senses soon and switches back to the Democratic Party. 

It's okay for you to feel pain/torture as part of your punishment. Look at it this way--at least I didnt take away your "rights."

I think ideally we'd have a non-invasive (ELF-wave) mind reader that could interfere before it got to the point where a person could inflict harm upon another person.

Sort of weird how she dismisses this viewpoint with the questions she first asks regarding invasive treatments (if we had widespread brain implants before widespread ELF technology and/or brain implants ended up being cheaper or more sustainable) and pharmacologically-induced remorse. I feel like the point should be to keep people safe, not to impose your own personal sense of justice and appropriate punishment. Remorse, natural or pharmacologically-induced, is not necessary for a society to safely function, in my opinion, and in some people, it may even be impossible for them to feel remorse in a natural, real way. I'm of the opinion that people in general have much less free will than they think they do. Our DNA, the way we were raised, the circumstances into which we were born, and the situations we find ourselves in second-to-second form a feedback loop that causes certain behavior patterns to flourish.

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Link to the author's blog where she expands upon what she said in her interview with Aeon regarding future prisoners serving sentences that either last 1000 years or feel like they do (with the assistance of drugs and/or technology): 

"The future of punishment: a clarification"

https://rebeccaroache.weebly.com/blog/the-future-of-punishment-a-clarification

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One of many articles written based on the author's interview with Aeon (Aeon's link no longer works): 

"Could we condemn criminals to suffer for hundreds of years? Biotechnology could let us extend convicts' lives 'indefinitely'" (written in 2014)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2580828/Could-soon-create-hell-EARTH-Biotechnology-let-extend-criminals-lives-makes-suffering-HUNDREDS-years.html