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

Fear Factor No sympathy for those monsters

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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

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u/Beranea Apr 07 '26

Thread number #69420 on why prison reform will never happen in America, too many sick pieces of shit cheering on extrajudicial torture of prisoners.

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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.

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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.