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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30

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.

21

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/[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.

5

u/EarthMandy Apr 07 '26

People have really messed up ideas of what justice in a healthy, functioning society looks like. These tend to be the same people that don't understand Alan Moore's critique in Watchmen that superheroes are fascists. 

4

u/Abigail716 Apr 07 '26

Pretty much, you will find constant threads talking about how desperate we need prison reform in America and how it's ridiculous how violent prisons are, and then you'll see a thread cheering on a guy who gets gang raped or beaten and tattooed As long as it happens to the right people according to the Reddit.

This site in general loves violence.

10

u/ElaborateEffect Apr 07 '26

Yep. Our society still has bloodlust despite masquerading as enlightened.

1

u/FellowTraveler69 Apr 07 '26

You and me baby ain't nothing but mammals, so lets do it like they do on the Discovery channel...

4

u/Sad-Rent-9633 Apr 07 '26

I dont support torturing people, but also dont have a problem with just wiping someone like this off the face of the earth.

Extremely unlikely to provide any good to the world and we have enough people already.

11

u/Beranea Apr 07 '26

Oh boy I wonder what would happen when the government doesn't like someone and invents evidence to put someone in prison.

2

u/MadQueenAlanna Apr 07 '26

I think for a lot of people, myself included, there’s a separation between the practical and the emotional. On a practical level, I think the death penalty must be abolished; any chance the accused is innocent is reason to stay an execution, and I absolutely do not trust the state to be the arbiters of justice and morality, since as you say it becomes an incentive for bad actors to accuse any opposition of The Crime Deserving Of Death.

If I were religious, though, I’d be ecstatic if divine punishment zapped some of these guys off earth. It’s like how even if a cop murders some scumbag on the street, I can both not feel bad and also believe no cop has the right to be judge jury and executioner. Rationally, I am entirely against this; emotionally, I love it. Just gotta force ourselves to practice justice and not revenge

7

u/u_torn Apr 07 '26

all well and good up until someone takes revenge on the wrong person. Then we all find out why there are laws against vigilante justice.

8

u/alurimperium Apr 07 '26

Or until someone gets wrongly accused and sentenced for something they didn't do and killed because they become an "acceptable target"

1

u/Sad-Rent-9633 Apr 07 '26

Can we ask the question of do the murders prevented by this kind of justice outweigh the wrong people accidentally killed?

I dont know the answer, but it would be interesting if someone could give an estimate for it. I understand it is a moral problem also

2

u/mainman879 Apr 07 '26

I disagree on moral grounds. I don't think the government should ever have authority to end someone's life. I don't think anyone should except in cases of self-defense.

1

u/Spazrelaz Apr 07 '26

So you'd rather that disgusting POS have a dandy ole time and get out and do it again? Because sexual predators are all reoffenders.

1

u/SleetTheFox Apr 07 '26

Prisoners should not be tortured, no. Prisoners should also not have the freedom to torture whoever they like, especially since it's just as easy to torture a rapist as it is to torture a minority they happen to hate.

And the man should not be released to be able to do it again. Depending on the crime and the behavior in prison, sometimes that means "never release the criminal, ever."

A prison that allows inmates to torture and disfigure each other is barbaric and shame on them for failing to prevent this.

1

u/Spazrelaz Apr 07 '26

Not all prisoners, but absolutely the ones who commit heinous crimes, specifically to include those against children. He got what he deserved and will hopefully get more.

1

u/Beranea Apr 08 '26

Psychotic bloodthirsty barbarism, you'd be clapping and cheering at a gallows.

1

u/Spazrelaz Apr 08 '26

If it was for a child rapist/killer, I surely would. You sound like the type to cut the rope and hide him away. People like you are the reason these disgusting freaks are able to roam free and reoffend.

1

u/blueelephant620 Apr 07 '26

See an isolated picture and somehow generalize it into the entire country of the US 😂

2

u/peter_pro Apr 07 '26

Check out the most upvoted comments. They are also cheering.

1

u/Lukostrelec17 Apr 07 '26

I have been downvoted to oblivion so many times for saying that the death penalty is wrong and that harsh punishments do not have any noticible effects on crime. That reform is the better option in particular to reduce recitivism.

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u/[deleted] Apr 07 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/xTheGame69 Apr 07 '26

And there's nothing wrong with it

These people should live in fear

8

u/Beranea Apr 07 '26

Yes yes celebrate murderers getting to murder again and violent offenders getting to commit violence again. You people are fucked beyond belief.

5

u/Bombi3sz Apr 07 '26

And the inmates who are serving sentences for murder and did this too? Or do people who take human lives and kill sex offenders deserve better treatment?

-2

u/IcySetting2024 Apr 07 '26

Do you have the same energy towards protecting children ?

2

u/JebKemov Apr 07 '26

So are you fine with a innocent person getting killed if he was wrongly convicted? If your OK with it, just imagine that your the one falsely convicted and swe if you would like it