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The guy's clearly a nutbag, and I consider them both despicable evils. I'd have to say I despise people like breivik more though. Terrorism is (from what I understand) encouraged by others, and while peer pressure is never an excuse for anything, it's a little more understandable than insane people making up garbage in their heads about a Muslim take over of a backwoods country like Norway.

Muslim insurgents are supposedly affirmed by their comrades that what they're doing is right and that they're doing god a service by showing people the true will of Him. Textbook definition of peer pressure, IMO

Mass-murderers are usually easier to catch, so I'd say they're marginally more preferable.

A Town Called Malus wrote:Breivik is pretty much a textbook psychopath, egotistical and highly intelligent (his attacks, though sickening, were well planned) but also totally insane in his views on the world.

As for differences in crimes, I don't think that there is much difference in how appalling it is to kill one person or one hundred if those killings were premeditated. By planning and executing the plan to kill someone in cold blood you have already shown that you hold no value for human life. If you kill more people then you hurt more people but your opinion on the value of human life doesn't change as it was already worthless to you. I can't think of a more wretched and pitiful creature than someone who cannot find any value in the lives of their fellow humans.

I'm with Malus here. Human life should be held as an absolute value whenever possible. The differences between the sentences usually have very little to do with the actual crime commited, or their perceived moral values. My criminal law teacher said that judges take in account multiple factors, like the popular opinion, the need of revenge of the family members, the possibility of rehabilitation, when deciding a sentence. I like to do the same : my feelings are that murderers are horrible beings and should all be shot quickly. But my reasonning is that it would probably not work for the advantage of the whole society, and we should assign a certain value to the crime committed.

It might be controversial to say it, but personally I don't think what he did is as bad as the guy who gouged out his partners eyes so she couldn't see her children again.

Namely, I don't believe that I am a psychopath because I have empathy and feel guilt. I would be able to kill 100 people with a gun if I thought they all deserved it, but I wouldn't be able to tie a man down and pull his teeth out with pliers because I would feel far more guilt about the latter than the former if I could convince myself that the 100 people were dying for a reason.

If the guy is convinced that the current way Norway is ran will one day destroy the country, then he has done what he did with an aim in mind and killed his victims quickly and cleanly with firearms. I think that you could make that work in your head better than if you tortured people to death.

So for me, a terrorist or a mass murder is indeed not as bad (malicious?) as someone who properly tortures one individual horrendously. If the indoctrinated Palestinian suicide bomber 100% believes in his own mind that all the Jews he is about to blow up on the bus deserve it, I think he is far less fethed in the head than someone who methodically tortures a single individual in a lengthy process or simply does sick gak for pleasure.

mattyrm wrote: It might be controversial to say it, but personally I don't think what he did is as bad as the guy who gouged out his partners eyes so she couldn't see her children again.

Namely, I don't believe that I am a psychopath because I have empathy and feel guilt. I would be able to kill 100 people with a gun if I thought they all deserved it, but I wouldn't be able to tie a man down and pull his teeth out with pliers because I would feel far more guilt about the latter than the former if I could convince myself that the 100 people were dying for a reason.

If the guy is convinced that the current way Norway is ran will one day destroy the country, then he has done what he did with an aim in mind and killed his victims quickly and cleanly with firearms. I think that you could make that work in your head better than if you tortured people to death.

So for me, a terrorist or a mass murder is indeed not as bad (malicious?) as someone who properly tortures one individual horrendously. If the indoctrinated Palestinian suicide bomber 100% believes in his own mind that all the Jews he is about to blow up on the bus deserve it, I think he is far less fethed in the head than someone who methodically tortures a single individual in a lengthy process or simply does sick gak for pleasure.

I can understand that. Fighting for a cause is at least something which you can understand, even if you disagree with the cause.

With regards to the gouger, I think it would be interesting to know what kind of background he had. His childhood and stuff like that. There was a program on a while ago about psychopathic behaviour and its causes. Some scientists discovered that there was a gene which seemed to be responsible for some aspects of violent psychopathic behaviour, including massive outbursts of rage. The gene seemed to be "activated" (can't think of a better word at the moment) by a troubled childhood (abuse etc.).

I think he was on PCP, a drug which makes people do some pretty mental gak, like the dude who cut his face off and fed it to his dog, for example...

PCP, is a helluva drug