Read on Twitter
I have very mixed feelings about this. (Thread) https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse/status/1328696351497007104
So, like, on one hand, I don't believe in punishment for the sake of punishment. I believe in trying to repair, reduce, and prevent harm.
Sometimes a side effect of that is punishment.
Sometimes a side effect of that is punishment.
Like, if someone's a serial rapist, preventing harm involves not letting them have free rein in the community, which usually means confining them.
So the loss of their freedom ends up being a punishment, but that's not the *point* of it.
So the loss of their freedom ends up being a punishment, but that's not the *point* of it.
And I don't care, honestly, if they're confined at home, or if wherever they have to stay is luxurious. I just want them to not be able to harm more people.
If we can be sure they won't, I'm fine with not confining them. I don't care about them being punished for it.
If we can be sure they won't, I'm fine with not confining them. I don't care about them being punished for it.
I think the whole "you were in jail and paid your debt to society" thing is absurd. It doesn't serve any purpose I can understand.
So on the occasions where I wanted to see someone suffer, I really had to sit back and interrogate why I wanted it.
And what I found was that I wanted them to suffer because I wanted them to *understand* how the people they hurt felt.
And what I found was that I wanted them to suffer because I wanted them to *understand* how the people they hurt felt.
As I got older and realized, then *internalized,* that suffering doesn't automatically teach empathy, I found myself wanting to see someone who'd hurt people suffer a lot less.
So the Trump years have been hard for me bc there were many points at which I *did* want to see that fucker suffer. And not because I thought he'd learn anything. I just wanted to see him hurt.
That caused me some dark nights of the soul, and then--more troublingly--it didn't.
That caused me some dark nights of the soul, and then--more troublingly--it didn't.
All of which is to say, I'm not past wanting to see Trump suffer for everything he's done, and I'm still reckoning with that.
That said, I do understand not wanting to set precedent that an incoming president focuses on going after their predecessor.
More importantly, if I separate how I feel about Trump-the-Person from all this, the point needs to be to ensure the stuff he did can't happen again.
More importantly, if I separate how I feel about Trump-the-Person from all this, the point needs to be to ensure the stuff he did can't happen again.
And on one hand, that needs to involve prosecutions, primarily to establish as fact the details of what was done and, y'know, that it DID happen.
But it also probably doesn't involve Getting Every Last Fucker Who Was Involved.
But it also probably doesn't involve Getting Every Last Fucker Who Was Involved.
Part of me wants it to, but I also realize that we have a short window of time on things like addressing climate change, getting COVID under control, preparing for the next pandemic, restoring agencies that Trump gutted, staving off economic collapse, etc.
So I dunno, fortunately I'll never be in charge of a country and never have to make those calls, but I don't think enacting justice on all the Trumpians *can* be a higher priority than COVID, climate change, the economy, reforming the justice system, etc. It won't save lives.
(And for everyone who's about to come in and say "we HAVE to punish people for committing crimes to deter them from doing it in the future and to deter other people from doing it," we have decades of studies showing punishment-for-punishment's-sake is ineffective as deterrence.)
Also, ffs, I'm not saying don't enforce the law. A commission to investigate this stuff would be a great idea. I'm saying this *can't be our national (or presidential) priority* in the face of an uncontrolled pandemic, climate change, increasing poverty, etc.
