when nazi murderers argued they were 'just following orders', we didn't call them victims and give them empathy - we told them that that's not an excuse, and we executed them.

and, i don't think anything has or should have changed.

if your superiors give you orders that you don't want to follow, you break ranks - you don't just blindly follow, and then claim you're a victim. whether that's about killing jews or having sex doesn't matter.

this is a more important discussion, as it has to with concepts of just and unjust laws, of moral conviction and of individualism and free will. we need to reassert concepts of agency, not pretend as though we're all pliable and malleable buffoons.

i'm never going to buy the argument that you lack responsibility for your actions because somebody above you in some hierarchy told you to do it. that abolishes the individual's agency. it's absolutely foreign to our legal culture; complete bullshit.

....and very right-wing, in broad scope,