Anders Breivik declared sane

[Truronian]

He made not be insane, but he's clearly wrong in the head.

 

[Borachio]

At the very least misguided, I agree. If you will permit me the understatement.

 

[Arwon]

All he's really done is take the sort of paranoid eurofascist doomsaying he was steeped in to its logical conclusion by trying to violently fight it. Just because a political act is extremely repellent doesn't make it insane.

 

[Borachio]

paranoid eurofascist doomsaying

Um. Your point? You can be paranoid and sane?

 

[Arwon]

Sometimes words are used to mean something other than a clinical diagnosis?

 

[Mango Elephant]

I can't imagine how he's not insane tbh. He might have been misguided, he might have been brainwashed, but to the extent of killing 77 people (I think it was 77) does not make any sense in any rational mind.

I can't find a single definition of insane on the internet that Anders does not obviously fit.

 

[Takhisis]

It's a legal definition. You knwo that something's wrong and understand the concepts of right and wrong as defined by the majority. You know there is also a law against it (beyond the sense of moral rigthness/wrongness) and still disregard this law. Of coruse, there's still something unhinged deep inside you, but what's judged is the capacity to understand the norms and to decide whether to follow them or not. Also remember that good and evil aren't the same as sane or insane, or as intelligent and stupid.

 

[Arwon]

Do you think the Al Qaeda guys are all insane?

 

[Takhisis]

They're evil. Insane? Not sure.

 

[Arwon]

I don't think they are insane at all, not legally or clinically. I think we as a society tend to forget that ideologies of hate and fear and ultimately violence are possible things for sane people to buy into. There it's no rule which says being willing to commit appalling violence for what you believe in is prima facie insane. It just means you are probably not a western liberal...

 

[GhostWriter16]

These are the reasons why we have a death penalty

21 years? Why? I know they can just keep holding him, but still, why is there no actual life sentence?

 

[Takhisis]

Because people change.


Wait, why am I even addressing you?

 

[GhostWriter16]

So less than one year per murder, yeah that's fair

Are they really unable to give him 21 years for each?

 

[Takhisis]

It's a civilised country.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Don't mistake justice for weakness, or violence for justice.

Because that's what he did.

 

[Takhisis]

As I said, Norway's a civilised country.

 

[Dachs]

Can't be that civilized. They have a monarchy, after all.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Because they were too civilized to cut off their royal heads.

 

[Traitorfish]

China managed to dispose the monarch without cutting off his head. It's a lot less fun that way, but it's certainly doable.

 

[ParkCungHee]

To be fair, that seemed to involve a lot of labor camps, so maybe it's not the best example.