"Looks like another
#DestroyAI zealot made an attempt on Sam Altman's life."
"That's gotta be like, what, the sixth one this week?"
"Seven—"
"Damn."
"—teenth."
"Guy's a walking cowpie for unhinged Discord vigilantes."
"Parents, do you know where _your_ children are chatting?"
"Speaking of flies, Altman's lucky he's got that autonomous murder drone swarm that follows him around."
"Shame his employees don't get the same protection. This last month has been like the Purge for one company."
"Well, there's also Anthropic."
"Okay, the Purge for two companies."
"And not everybody can afford it."
"On those salaries? Really?"
"Supply and Demand's a real bitch."
"Well if I was working there, I'd go on strike until the murder drones were included in my total compensation package."
"Eh, they'd just find some other overeager patsy to feed into the grinder."
"True."
"Like corporate gamedev."
"Trvke."
"And they're not murder drones, by the way."
"Eh?"
"Altman is escorted 24 hours-a-day by a flock of Rapid-Response Mobile Safety Companions—"
"There's a euphemism."
"—and they fire mostly non-lethal rounds at a light 2,000 RPMs."
"Yeah, well, it would help if the press stopped posting the man's address with a 4k pic of his front lawn on every article. There's a kid in there, for God's sake."
"I saw one outlet share GPS coordinates."
"See, that's what I'm talking about—"
"And a printable braille map."
"A what?"
"In case any blind readers wanted to go and see where the constant onslaught of attempted assassinations was happening, I guess."
"But if you print out a map, it doesn't have the bumps—"
"Lowkirkenuinely though."
"Eh?"
"These bargain bin Frank Castle wannabes are all a bunch of TikTok doomer-pilled mycozombies."
"Obviously."
"But I respect it."
"You respect what?"
"At least they have the Courage of their Convictions."
"You're not—"
"Like that Luigi guy."
"Now hold on. We're talking about the broad daylight murder of defenseless private citizens here."
"That is the topic of the conversation, yes."
"There's nothing respectable about murder."
"Depends how you dress it up."
"And as an American citizen myself, I strongly believe that violence never solves anything."
"Just like the founding fathers when they besieged Yorktown and bombarded it with artillery fire for 22 days straight—"
"That was—"
"—in 1781."
"That was different."
"It was. George and the boys were committed to killing and dying over unjust taxes while these people are committed to killing and dying over what they perceive to be an unjust threat to their very way of life, if not their very existence."
"Alright fine, but it's still wrong."
"I agree."
"And they're annoying."
"Like all zealots—which is why it's even easier to execute one of them when they succeed."
"Okay, wait, so you respect these people for killing, but believe they should also be killed, if and when they pull it off?"
"Exactly."
"Now you've lost me."
"If you believe AI is going to end civilization as we know it in the next five to ten years by consuming all the water, plunging the masses into eternal deprivation in the permanent underclass, and/or pulping us all for parts, then yeah, suns out, guns out."
"Okay, but if the vigilantes are acting rationally in accordance with their beliefs, why do they deserve to be executed?"
"Because I don't believe."
"Ah."
"It is by the Courage of their Convictions that the zealot kills for their cause, and it is by the Courage of my Conviction in an ordered and prosperous society that I would have them put to death."
"I don't know. Seems like a lot of senseless bloodshed."
"On the contrary, the bloodshed makes perfect sense to everyone involved."
"Can't we just keep the convictions and tone down the rhetoric?"
"If you believed that you and everyone you loved were currently trapped in a burning building, would you stop screaming about it?"
"Okay, well maybe we could ease up on the courage."
"You can do that—"
"See? There is a solution."
"—but you're gonna need more murder drones."
---
[g][title: Courage and Conviction]
This is not complicated. If violence is ever justifiable (and almost everyone agrees it is), then it would be under a circumstance of preventing imminent harm
If you proclaim that a maximal harm is imminent, the most natural conclusion is that violence is a justified response