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this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2025
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I play Skyrim. In that rpg video game you can be an assassin. After you kill Grelod the Kind, a child abuser, one of the children she tortured says:
"Kill one person, and you can solve so many problems. I wonder at the possibilities." - Runa Fair-Shield.
When does assassination become an acceptable political strategy? I can see how bumping off many crazy men (and right now I can only name male dictators but I guess women could be just as bad) would make the world safer - well, safer if we assume it would not trigger a backlash and WW3.
Maybe we could assassinate Kim and North Korea would rejoice not set off nukes? Maybe we could assassinate MbS and the Saudis would just shrug and appoint a new Crown Prince with a less murderous tendancy towards journalists and dissidents? But could we assassinate Putin, Trump, Xi, or Modi and not release hell?
If I had a red button to press and it would remove Putin, Trump, Musk, Thiel, Hamas, Netanyahu, or other bad guys, should I press the button? What do you think?
Note: this is a thought experiment - outside Skyrim, I never killed anyone, never worked as an assassin for hire, and have no desire to change that fact. I just want to read your thoughts on this topic - I think we've all wondered if there is a shortcut back to normality in face of current events but are we fooling ourselves?
Biggest problem is that all of these people that you and me consider assholes do have a huge support. It's not like a dictator can be a dictator without any support.
Good people don’t become assassins, something bad people don’t have problems with.
It’s never Hitler, Putin, Stalin or Trump who get assassinated. Always JFK, Martin Luther King, Bobby, …
same problem as cops then
We need monsters who fights on the side of the light.
The crusades existed many a day ago, Yahweh's heavenly army battled once before.
A fight must be unanimous however it must be on creeds agreed.
It will be seering light, blinding, and in it - elusidating every facet of darkness among you. Only the wrathful will survive and for what? You must agree in your values to be truly mighty.
See no creed, no color, and no gender. Witness inherent value in existing sentient. We only live when we enact our will.
What is your will? Will you act? Or forever react.
There is an army ripe for the picking. I am trying.
Whatever gets everybody the closest to no violence, including systemic, is best.
A world at peace, true peace based on justice and happiness not enforced by oppression and brainwashing, is my hope. It's what humans need. It's what I need :-) I would prefer democracy, votes, laws, regulations, social norms all coming together to deliver that. Right now, it is others who are 'moving fast and breaking stuff' so my puzzle is how to slow 'em down and mend stuff before it goes too far to save anything good. Can I do that without violence or not? I prefer not but is it my choice? I am not the powerful one here, it's the guys with guns and nukes who are running this show, and they seem hell-bent on violence. Do I let them roll over me or take a stand, however token? I am old enough to remember Tiananmen Square protests and that guy standing in front of a column of tanks asking the soldiers to go back to barracks and not brutalise peaceful protesters. I witnessed the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests. I ask myself have I the guts to do as much? Will I be a coward and let the tanks roll? Just being honest and thinking aloud. And worried, very worried, about where things are headed.
One person? Probably not a lot. 1,000 people? Well that's different.
You can absolutely make a massive difference with just one person. People really underestimate how much importance one leader is...
You do have to worry about the election after any assassination though lol.
Assassination would just make Trump into a MAGA martyr. They would be riled up and energized.
You would end up with MTG as Vance's VP or something equally horrid.
I'd rather he die from a heart attack or a lightning strike on the golf course.
Yes, then the next question is, whom would they rally behind after Trump? We can see a chain of command for the line of presidency, but without Trump, there'd be a power vacuum at the top of his cult. Either it gets filled with an acceptable substitute, or the obligate-followers in his fandom won't know where to direct their energy.
I wouldn't be surprised if such a power vacuum created drama. Would Musk still be pulling so many strings in the government if Vance were president? Would he find a way to usurp even more unconstitutional government power, like how he controls DOGE? Would Vance tolerate Musk's intrusions at all?
Or would his loyalist followers rally behind someone completely different, like a media personality? They're looking for charisma in a leader, after all, and neither Vance nor Musk have that the way Trump (or someone professionally on TV) does. It's possible some right-wing boner rises up through the crowd. Then, since Trumpsters naturally orient themselves toward the biggest dick around, he (Trump's successor would almost certainly be a "he") would get all their attention.
I'm reminded the example of the people's will and the assassination of Alexander II. One person doesn't change a system. On the other hand taking out all the billionaire donors that craft a system, well that might be something else. They could just buy a new leader.
What the fuck is this comment bro? Killing people is wrong. Trying to use videogame logic as your excuse is disgusting.
TIL the allies of WW2 are evil.
Sure, the Japanese invaded my ancestral homeland, done the horrible massacre in Nanjing, but "killing people is wrong" so I guess my ancestors shouldn't have fought back and let them slaughter my people?
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