Death penalty

[Chantellabella]

you state 'people's opinions are formed by their life experiences' living in a right wing society (USA) may have affected your opinions, that is all

And not living as many years on this earth as I have may have affected your opinion also. Let's have this conversation 40 years from now, ok? On a Tuesday. :-)

I am now asking you to stop "telling" me what's wrong with my opinion and go back to the subject. Thanks!

I truly have no answer why you or anyone else in this thread believes the way they do. It doesn't matter to me. What matters is the way I feel. Coffee asked. I answered. I don't feel broken or uninformed or in a close minded society.

I am me. Just me.

Oh but hey, thanks for listening. It means a lot.

[life]

chantellabella, im truly sorry if i offended you

[WintersTale]

I'm starting to be against the death penalty, too. There are just so many factors that could be wrong.

[Trendsetter]

Against it. The justice system can be corrupt at times, and the worst case scenario would be the death penalty given to the wrong person, and that can be an irreversible act

[Chantellabella]

chantellabella, im truly sorry if i offended you

No problem. Sorry about the age crack. Please forgive me. It was rude for me to say that.

[pam]

you state 'people's opinions are formed by their life experiences' living in a right wing society (USA) may have affected your opinions, that is all

Hey, I wouldn't say we (the whole US) are a right-wing society! (says the girl from NY) . Each state, such as TX and NY have their own reputations for being more conservative or not. I am very liberal and have lived in 2 liberal states, CT & NY. Yes, Texas has a bad reputation, or I should say, has a reputation for being very FOR the death penalty. Also Bush was from there which really doesn't help. Not that that matters.

During elections one can see it mapped out that when you look within each state, on the county level, you see that in the more populated places, it generally goes democrat, and in the less populated areas, it goes republican. Population and education seem to be higher in more liberal areas. So you can look at NY and think the whole state went for Obama, but really it was that he got more votes within the state, even if they were all concentrated around the 5 major cities.

I'm pretty sure that the death penalty is technically legal in NY, but we just don't use it/don't execute people.

I think the death penalty is used as revenge, which is wrong. And that life imprisonment is good enough to keep serial killers, etc. separate from the rest of society. It's just not necessary to kill them.

[Chantellabella]

Hey, I wouldn't say we (the whole US) are a right-wing society! (says the girl from NY) . Each state, such as TX and NY have their own reputations for being more conservative or not. I am very liberal and have lived in 2 liberal states, CT & NY. Yes, Texas has a bad reputation, or I should say, has a reputation for being very FOR the death penalty. Also Bush was from there which really doesn't help. Not that that matters.

During elections one can see it mapped out that when you look within each state, on the county level, you see that in the more populated places, it generally goes democrat, and in the less populated areas, it goes republican. Population and education seem to be higher in more liberal areas. So you can look at NY and think the whole state went for Obama, but really it was that he got more votes within the state, even if they were all concentrated around the 5 major cities.

I'm pretty sure that the death penalty is technically legal in NY, but we just don't use it/don't execute people.

I think the death penalty is used as revenge, which is wrong. And that life imprisonment is good enough to keep serial killers, etc. separate from the rest of society. It's just not necessary to kill them.

Having a reputation, stereotype, residency in a state does not mean everyone who lives in that state agrees with it. Just fyi.

AND as unbelievable as it seems, I believed the way I do decades before I moved to Texas.

Can we avoid the prejudiced comments about Texans? Just asking.

Also

"The percentage of those who identified themselves as Democratic declined from 48 to 34 percent, while those who identified themselves as Republican rose dramatically from 19 to 33 percent. The number of independents, meanwhile, stayed consistent at about 33 percent. This data confirms one simple reason Republicans have made dramatic electoral gains during this period: a larger percentage of citizens consider themselves Republican than at earlier times.
Polling conducted in October, 2012 by the University of Texas at Austin in conjunction with the Texas Tribune revealed a roughly evenly divided electorate in terms of party identification. The numbers of self-identified registered voters who identified as either Republican or Democratic were nearly even, though somewhat more independents said they leaned Republican (15 percent) than said they leaned Democrat (10 percent). The overall number of independents was 12 percent-- returning us to the neighborhood of independent number in the historical data from recent years."

Texas Politics: 6 May 2013
© 2009, Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services
University of Texas at Austin
3rd Edition - Revision 34

[WintersTale]

I don't believe that every Texan is someone who is a stereotype.

I get stereotyped because I'm from Cincinnati. Which is stupid, because I am not a hot dog loving sports fan who guzzles beer and cheers on the Bengals. I'm not even a Bengals fan!

[life]

imho The USA compared to most of europe and the world is a very right wing society, even the democrats can be argued to be more to the right than most political parties in europe and around the world (that doesn't mean everybody in the USA holds those views), but as a whole the laws, political system and social mores are to the right of most of the world, USA is the only 1 of 2 developed countries that executes people (except japan) no country in the EU executes anyone, why do people think the USA has a higher crime rate than most of the rest of the world and how does this higher crime rate affect the number of people sentenced to death

[pam]

Wow, I was just trying to explain to someone outside the US that we have a variety of states and that we aren't all the same, and that not everyone here is "right-wing". I am certainly in the minority, because I am probably more like the Europeans that they mentioned--my politics are like theirs from what little I've heard. You know--anti-gun, anti-death penalty, anti-American empire building. But I live here so I'm not the majority. So what? It's a free country and I can be as liberal as I want.

But I see now that you explained it that from outside the US we look right-wing. I guess I was just saying that their are people within the US who are just as frustrated with the right-wing too. (It was meant in a light-hearted joking way. Maybe it didn't come across that way)

I wasn't trying to insult anyone--not here and not in Europe. The fact is....well, when is the last time TX went dem? Just like when's the last time NY went republican? We don't live in "battleground states". So my "stereotype" is based on some fact. Generalized facts. That is NOT being prejudiced.

[Chantellabella]

So..............

What I gather from this conversation is................

If somebody believes 100% in the death penalty there must be a reason why they would think so "illogical" (life).

Oh yea, she lives in Texas! That explains it!

They're all poorly educated democrats (I mean after all, they DID elect Bush as their governor). Oh and every one of those dang crazy people own a gun and want to shoot anything that looks at them crooked. I guess it's all that heat and cactus and cow methane that makes those rednecks like that.

Ok................


Now you educated liberal worldly people continue on with your conversation. I get it. People who think differently than the majority have something wrong with them. It just COULDN'T be their own personal beliefs. Of course it's where I live!!

I see that now.

Thank you all for pointing out WHY I am so for the death penalty. I was thinking for the last 30 years that I was just crazy.

Oh and fyi.................I'm a Republican with two Masters Degrees and I believe that everyone who shoots or rapes another needs to be punished to the degree they inflicted harm on another.

Now let me go chew some tobacco, hunt me a deer and rustle some cattle. After all. I AM a Texan now. You know.............those stupid uninformed folk. Oh but that's one step above, being from Louisiana. We so stupid down there that we had an election for governor between a convicted felon and the grand wizard of the Klu Klux Klan.

See? My opinion can't possibly have any meaning or importance. My genes are just too damned stupid and ill informed.

[life]

chantellabella you state 'If somebody believes 100% in the death penalty there must be a reason why they would think so "illogical" (life).' way to bring up an old disagreement that i thought had been settled

[pam]

So..............

What I gather from this conversation is................

If somebody believes 100% in the death penalty there must be a reason why they would think so "illogical" (life).

Oh yea, she lives in Texas! That explains it!

They're all poorly educated democrats (I mean after all, they DID elect Bush as their governor). Oh and every one of those dang crazy people own a gun and want to shoot anything that looks at them crooked. I guess it's all that heat and cactus and cow methane that makes those rednecks like that.

Ok................


Now you educated liberal worldly people continue on with your conversation. I get it. People who think differently than the majority have something wrong with them. It just COULDN'T be their own personal beliefs. Of course it's where I live!!

I see that now.

Thank you all for pointing out WHY I am so for the death penalty. I was thinking for the last 30 years that I was just crazy.

Oh and fyi.................I'm a Republican with two Masters Degrees and I believe that everyone who shoots or rapes another needs to be punished to the degree they inflicted harm on another.

Now let me go chew some tobacco, hunt me a deer and rustle some cattle. After all. I AM a Texan now. You know.............those stupid uninformed folk. Oh but that's one step above, being from Louisiana. We so stupid down there that we had an election for governor between a convicted felon and the grand wizard of the Klu Klux Klan.

See? My opinion can't possibly have any meaning or importance. My genes are just too damned stupid and ill informed.

No one said all of that stuff. You are saying things that I've never even heard of (like the cow gas reference).

If you happen to agree with the death penalty, and you live in a state where they actually use it and like to use it, then what's the problem? Why are you getting defensive? I live in a liberal state where my views also happen to match the majority, so call me a bleeding heart liberal, and I won't care.

I don't understand a lot of what you wrote so I don't know what to say.

I guess I was surprised about the thinking that it's ok to execute children. I have NEVER heard ANYone say that before. Never. And from what I know of you, I can't believe you said it. I am quite surprised. I guess that's what is really bothering me. I was trying not to get personal, and so I admit I wrongly brought TX into it. I thought only someone from TX could be so extreme as to think it's ok to execute children. So yeah, that was wrong. So instead I'll tell you the truth which is I cannot believe you think it's ok for children to be executed under any circumstances whatsoever. I'm still so shocked that I think you didn't really mean it....IDK.

[WintersTale]

Life, that's like assuming every Christian hates gay people.

I am Christian (Episcopalian), and I support gay rights. I'm also a liberal Democrat.

If you want to argue that every GOP is like that, you would have a point, because a lot of the GOP are crazy.

[life]

^ please reread all my posts on this thread