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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8837953" data-attributes="member: 42582">I don't know how well read you are in political theory. But you might know that in your country there are millions of people locked up by the state. The state asserts, and most of your fellow citizens appear to accept, that this is not kidnapping or torture but justified punishment.A lot of ink has been spilled in arguments about if, and under what circumstances, an institution like the state gains the authority to punish, and thus becomes different from a private person engaging in kidnap or torture. Similar discussions address things like the difference between police and vigilantes, or soldiers and terrorist militias.Opinions in these arguments vary widely. But no one who contributes to them seriously thinks that you can just ignore the notion that the state enjoys authority that ordinary citizens do not.There are also parallel, and sometimes even overlapping, arguments about the nature of divine authority.As I posted just upthread, I have published work that contributes to some of these arguments. While I'm proud of much of it, I don't feel any great need to point you to it: a good first year textbook, or the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, will introduce you to the basics if you're interested but unfamiliar.Nor, in an anonymous internet post, do I intend to tell you whether or not I agree with the moral, political and theological framework within which DL is framed. (My state -Victoria - has an election on today, and I'm not going to tell you how I voted, either.) My point is that the moral, political and theological framework of DL is absolutely transparent and utterly commonplace - especially in your country. And it obviously is one that rests on a theory of punishment that does not equate collective divine punishment to genocide. And it puzzles me that you, [USER=67338]@GMforPowergamers[/USER] and [USER=7023887]@Levistus's_Leviathan[/USER], seem incapable of even recognising that.</blockquote>

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