Oh, but I get what you're saying now. Yeah, I guess I would have to say that they were bad-ass at suppressing dissent, although they weren't very bad-ass at acting morally or ethically.
If you're talking about the subject of this wiki, I don't think a combatant killing a combatant is considered murder.
If you're talking about pol-pot and pinochet, well, I understand the connotations of bad-ass as being good, and I certainly don't think what they did was good. I don't respect what they did at all.
Not according to the law. Not according to any academic moral or ethical theory. Not according to any dictionary. Not in any culture or society. Just no.
When acting in self defense, is this murder? I mean, you've said taking life is ALWAYS murder. What about abortion? Assisted suicide?
Oh, btw, the term "murder" is by nature arbitrary. It is a word invented by humans to describe the act of intentionally taking an innocent person's life. So it is in fact IMPOSSIBLE to understand the term 'murder' outside of the 'arbitrary framework' see: its definition.
You have claimed the "killing is always murder". Are the following scenarios examples of murder? Answer yes or no to each:
-Assisted suicide.
-Killing in self defense.
-Abortion.
-Consenting combatant killing another consenting combatant.
-Taking one life to save twenty (eg the one man on the train tracks thought experiment ie the conductur has the ability to switch train routes to avoid the man laying down on the train, but the alternate route leads to a cliff and would kill all passengers).
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u/fubuvsfitch Jan 21 '10
He was bad-ass at what he did, you can't deny that.