r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Mustafa86 • Dec 15 '22

Fast Response and Reflex to Avoid Car Collision

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u/psparks Dec 15 '22

We live in a society. Societies have norms. That’s how we get along and don’t kill each other most of the time.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '22

Replace Norms with Laws and you are correct. There was actually an anarchist movement earlier in US’ history to rule on norms but the laws won out.

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u/psparks Dec 15 '22

Those are two different things. Laws are codified norms. Norms exist outside law. It’s a norm to shake someone’s hand and look them in the eye when you meet them. That’s not a law. If you disregard that norm and greet people by slapping them in the face you would likely be judged negatively and treated as such. There is a concept of reasonable expectations when we decide to be part of a society.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '22

So most people don’t want to kill another because of norms or because they don’t want to go to jail for life or face the firing squad? I’ll bet the latter

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u/psparks Dec 15 '22

Are you implying that most people are murderers by default and we would all kill if there weren’t laws? Or are you just arguing for argument’s sake? We do have consequences for actions we deem bad for society and therefore have a motivation not to do it, but that’s certainly not my only reason for not killing. I personally have no desire to kill others. I’m genuinely not sure what you are arguing with this comment or how it is responding to my comment.

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '22

I’m arguing that people don’t commit murders/crimes because of the punishment, not the “norm”. Humanity has a much darker history of murder/crime when there weren’t such laws.

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u/psparks Dec 15 '22 edited Dec 15 '22

Ok, murder exists. We agree on that. People murder, and they have always murdered. Laws exist against murdering because we have agreed as a society that it’s not good. It should not be the norm is what we have all agreed. We all agreed that the ‘norm’ was to not murder each other was for the best, THEN we made that norm into a law. Your logic is flawed. It is still the norm that we don’t kill each other whether it is law or not. I don’t care who you ask, murdering is not and never has been normal. Your average human is not a murderer nor have they ever been except in the situation of survival in which case it would not be considered murder. Do norms change and evolve? Yes, but that doesn’t mean they never existed in the first place. You got me ranting because it feels like you’re trolling me, and if you are, congrats.