I think this is about as well as this can be said--failing to teach kids about bad stuff about humanity isn't protecting them, it's failing them.
Similarly my older relatives keep saying “but they can’t do that!” About a lot of what’s happening in the US without realising that they very much can. Because nobody is physically stopping them. The exception is my grandfather, who is an honest guy but says he got in some fights in his navy days and ended up better for it.
Maybe we need to bring back superheroes who beat the shit out of the bad guys.
I want my own daughters to know how to protect themselves with diplomacy-or- violence if the former fails.
Superheroes don't exist and never have. People who work tirelessly to chip away -- often imperceptibly -- at sources of badness exist. That's it.
No.
Two simple questions:
1. Do we want a world without violence?
2. If yes, is public hanging a step towards that world, or away from it?
2. I'm refusing to indulge your strawman. Let's use something like "is teaching your kid how to deal with bullies a step towards that world or away from it"
I didn't say it was possible. I said it's worth striving for, and then you stated the same thing with different words. We agree.
Ah so you think societies that did public hangings tended to have a strong and reasonable sense of justice.
You are wrong.
Justice in the sense of "punishing people who are legitimately antisocial" tends to yield less indulgent punishments because they recognize that true justice must be dealt cold and with solemnity.
Or do you think it's only a coincidence that the most abhorrent justice systems on the planet do public executions and "civilized" justice systems do not?