Look, I get it. I read through this thread, and I get the point you’re making, absolutely.
Always, always remember that we’re all human and prone to horrible errors of judgement. We don’t know the dude, we don’t know his story that led up to this.
What you seem to be missing is that a past trauma is no more or less likely than a neutral or positive past. None of those excuse assault and battery. You can absolutely judge a person based on their actions. We do it all the time in jury trials. Him having had some kind of suffering related to Palestine or Hamas wouldn’t mean he wasn’t guilty of assault and battery, though it might mitigate things for sentencing.
Would those UNICEF workers now be justified in going somewhere, screaming at some Israeli bank teller and head butting them? No. And I think you know that.
I applaud your compassion. We should always consider such things in forming opinions. We also do not have to forego judgement because of that compassion.
If that poster was being honest about it (a huge “if”) the most logical explanation for somebody empathising with the perpetrator of an assault but not with the victims is that they’re extremelly biased in a tribalist way and hence fully empathise with those of their tribe butnot at all with those a member of their tribe would be angry and violent against.
Or to put things in simpler terms: Nazis can really understand and share the anger that makes other Nazis be violent, never the point of view of the victims of the Nazis.
When seeing a situation like this a normal person tends to empathise with victims quite independently of who they are and not try and imagine reasons to excuse the violence of the bully.
It’s absolutely demonstrative of a bias and that’s confirmed by previous comments the poster has made. Throwaway references to how it’s bad that Palestinians are dying too don’t do a good enough job of masking it.
Look, I get it. I read through this thread, and I get the point you’re making, absolutely.
Always, always remember that we’re all human and prone to horrible errors of judgement. We don’t know the dude, we don’t know his story that led up to this.
What you seem to be missing is that a past trauma is no more or less likely than a neutral or positive past. None of those excuse assault and battery. You can absolutely judge a person based on their actions. We do it all the time in jury trials. Him having had some kind of suffering related to Palestine or Hamas wouldn’t mean he wasn’t guilty of assault and battery, though it might mitigate things for sentencing.
Would those UNICEF workers now be justified in going somewhere, screaming at some Israeli bank teller and head butting them? No. And I think you know that.
I applaud your compassion. We should always consider such things in forming opinions. We also do not have to forego judgement because of that compassion.
Is it really good hearted compassion or is it mental gymnastics trying to blame Hamas for this guy being a dickhead?
Using “maybe Hamas raped someone close to him” isn’t exactly “turn the other cheek” in the context of being kind to bullies
If that poster was being honest about it (a huge “if”) the most logical explanation for somebody empathising with the perpetrator of an assault but not with the victims is that they’re extremelly biased in a tribalist way and hence fully empathise with those of their tribe butnot at all with those a member of their tribe would be angry and violent against.
Or to put things in simpler terms: Nazis can really understand and share the anger that makes other Nazis be violent, never the point of view of the victims of the Nazis.
When seeing a situation like this a normal person tends to empathise with victims quite independently of who they are and not try and imagine reasons to excuse the violence of the bully.
It’s absolutely demonstrative of a bias and that’s confirmed by previous comments the poster has made. Throwaway references to how it’s bad that Palestinians are dying too don’t do a good enough job of masking it.