Times where someone / something genuinely changed your mind about a Political / Ethical / Social Issue

^ great post

The War On Terror had a wild effect on me. The Toronto Sun (a conservative rag) ran front page photos of two of Hussein's recently-killed sons bloodied and dismembered, with the caption "WE GOT 'EM!" I saw it and vomited in the gutter, and have resolutely anti-punitive views that are (broadly) universal-- even as these views are challenged by my own recurrent fantasies of seeing 45 and his family publicly disemboweled, I would certainly protest such an outcome were it tabled

Thanks, fgti! I feel similarly about, eg guillotine memes. The idea of retributive justice in general makes me really uncomfortable, even just "as a joke." It feels like a doorway to some really dark places.

this is just a side point to the larger points y'all are making, but one of the nice things about police abolition also inevitably bleeding into prison abolition is that it makes you rethink retributive and punitive justice entirely

having a sense of epistemic humility. Like Branwell said upthread, simply knowing and accepting that you only hold a small piece of the puzzle is crucial.

this is massively otm. i try to constantly check myself with this. in my life experience the biggest sign of intelligence (or maybe to put it better, that i'm talking to someone who i can learn a lot from) is ability to actually admit that you dont know something, or dont know enough about it to have an opinion.

Would like to point out that guillotines are to be used reluctantly, as a last resort, and not for retributive purposes

yuh

same could be said of ICBMs

Some really interesting and thought-inspiring answers on this thread today...

(But I'm also really struggling with my own self-imposed rule of 'do not argue with the opinions expressed on the thread' and wondering if I should take this to a different thread, because I am forever left feeling like I genuinely do have a different piece of the puzzle and there's got to be a way to fit them together.)

I did not understand why Indigenous people did not share a New Canadian's pragmatic attitude toward existing and thriving in this country, and its colonialist structures. My attitude has changed to a point where I find my previous apathy to be execrable and shameful

Wonderfully expressed, fgti, and I’m in exactly the same camp. I still have TONS to learn wrt indigenous issues but I’ve committed to doing the work, & am grateful to work in a company that has an Indigenous network in which I can participate.

Guillotines are a cure for billionairism, not a punishment.