this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2026
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The guy who first came up with abolishing capital punishment had an idea: what if, instead of killing convicts (which makes us seem barbaric and instigates rebellion), we imprison them for life and make them work as slaves? Dying can be noble, but wasting away doing prison work takes away all dignity, so other criminals will not be tempted to emulate them.
This was one little step in the long progress that lead to the fine-tuned fascism machine the USA is today.
What I'm trying to say is, capital punishment is bad, and it looks especially bad because it's flashy. It distracts us from other forms of punishment, which are just as inhumane (if not worse), but go unnoticed.
So capital punishment absolutely needs to be abolished, but that is only the first step of many.
I can assure you that it didn't go unnoticed in most civilized countries that put reintegrating above punishment.
Yes those are the ones we should strive to emulate!