One of the ways the the democratic discourse takes an unfortunate turn is when those against the death penalty characterize those who are in favor as idiots and blood thirsty orcs from Lord of the Rings. I have seen a number of this social rhetoric in social media and heard a few conversations.
This statement quoted above from the book Is Death Penalty Just? by Carla Mooney gives you an idea that your pro-death-penalty opponents are also after justice and an efficient justice system in the country.
It is all too common in democratic discourse dito sa Pinas to see people present CHARACTERIZATIONS rather than ARGUMENTS. You characterize when you just portray a dissenting view (and oftentimes dismiss him/her as lacking intellectual virtue); you argue when you present conclusions based on premises.
The great French Renaissance philosopher Michel de Montaigne said,
I find I am much prouder of the victory I obtain over myself, when, in the very ardor of dispute, I make myself submit to my adversary’s force of reason, than I am pleased with the victory I obtain over him through his weakness.I do not for a moment affirm that there are no trolls and irritants. Of course there are. However, I hope it is not the case that we imbibe the vices of our opponents and then start a domino effect -- displaying our rage as the end-all-be-all of our existence for people to see despite the presence of competent counter-argument.
The award-winning American writer Neil Stephenson, author of the critically acclaimed novel Cryptonomicon where he humors us with this,
Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game because they almost always turn out to be—or to be indistinguishable from—self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time.
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