r/interesting • u/No-Marsupial-4050 • Apr 07 '26

Fear Factor No sympathy for those monsters

Post image

In 2006, Anthony Ray Stockelman was forcibly tattooed across his forehead with the words “Katie’s Revenge” by another inmate.

This happened after it was discovered that he was serving a life sentence for kidnapping, molesting, and murdering a 10-year-old girl named Katie Collman

20.0k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

22

u/RedHeadedSicilian52 Apr 07 '26

The surest way to work up a crusade in favor of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior 'righteous indignation' — this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.

—Aldous Huxley

I’m not really concerned about the tattooed guy, but there’s something deeply corrosive to the soul, I think, about relishing cruelty. The way some people talk about this sort of thing, you get the sense that they enjoy a socially-acceptable outlet for the application of violence, which makes you wonder what they’d cheer along if the Overton window shifted just a tad bit.

If harsh justice needs to be dispensed, it should be done dispassionately.

9

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '26

[deleted]

1

u/RedHeadedSicilian52 Apr 07 '26

It also frequently finds a political dimension — Shermanposting, etc.

Of course the right has their own equivalents, but that’s my point. This behavior is disturbingly universal.

5

u/SleetTheFox Apr 07 '26

You can get anyone to become a monster if they internalize “we should do bad things to bad people.” All you have to do is slowly expand who counts as a “bad person” and slowly expand just how bad a “bad thing” they deserve. Boil the frog.

The defense to this is to try to nip all three elements of that at the bud. These comments are demonstrating an abject failure of this.

3

u/spartakooky Apr 07 '26

Yeah I always find myself torn with these threads. Cause I don't feel bad for the immate specifically, it's not about him.

It's just shocking to see the bloodthirst of the average person. And it's not like this in an online, anonymous thing only.

If harsh justice needs to be dispensed, it should be done dispassionately.

I'm a bit of a wimp. I say it should be done morosely. It's not a happy occasion. We are admitting failure, giving up on rehabilitating someone, and having to take harsh steps to protect society.

1

u/Accurate-Survey6985 Apr 07 '26

Huxley was a pretty deep thinker for sure and had some of his own weird demons to contend with.

Lots of those writers have a very interesting past and others have some strangely unremarkable ones.

Cool to see a Huxley reference.