Ask Lemmygrad

Thanks for the context on how China does it. As far as the rest of it goes, I'm in total agreement that the damage done by some of these people is extremely egregious. I am specifically disagreeing on the idea of fear as a tactic, especially as it relates to the death penalty, in a general principle way. There may be some contexts where it makes sense, but if we're talking about it in the abstract, it just comes off like the usual punitive philosophy on crime that is common in, for example, the US. Surely there is far more to it than fear of punishment that helps deter the capitalists in a place like China - that's kind of where my mind goes with it. I don't think fear is generally a healthy mechanism to be using against a populace and I'm doubtful that it does much as a deterrent, especially without negative side effects. But there is also the ideal and the conditions, and sometimes the conditions demand things that are not the ideal to get through. So that's where I try to emphasize that I'm talking about the idea of it, not trying to judge how existing socialist projects do things, especially without understanding why.