>

It’s an intersting topic for me. I used to love old splatter movies. The gorier, the better. My childhood also included some rather violent situations at times and maybe the gory movies or soldier of fortune type games helped me be kinda allright with the crazy situations I’d seen. Or maybe not? I wonder why so many young men tend to basically laugh at gore, I used to do it and even I don’t necessarily know why. 
Possibly I laughed at the over the top nature of it. Kind of like laughing at an absurd joke that doesnt quite make sense but comes out of the blue with such energy that you cant help but laugh, kind of out of confusion rather than for the reason that it’s funny. 
Since I’ve gotten therapy and made some moves to be a bit more present and feel my feelings rather than dissociate, I find violent and gory movies or games very difficult to watch. Even the funny ones tickle me the wrong way these days.
This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.
Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!"
(For an explanation of what a "showerthought" is, please read this page.)
Rule-breaking posts may result in bans. >

People just think villains in stories are often cool.  They're also not killing real people.  The people who actually think really killers are cool are the psychos who are writing to death row inmates and excitedly following their career. >

We have to remember that everybody loves Darth Vader as a villain when he's literally space wizard Hitler. The character is amazing for how it is designed, but nobody can ever really idolize the character itself or their actions. >

Space wizard Himmler: he’s not in charge and he’s not even loyal. >

Palpatine is apparently Nixon. >

Yeah, George Lucas made it very clear in interviews that star wars in about vietnam, not ww2. >

Mythologized assassins are cool, calculating professionals, often with near-superhuman skill and grace. Real life assassins are often just desperate, violent people who don't give a shit about others. >

I was going to say movie assassins are cool, suave and spy like like James Bond. I don't think anyone in real life would meet a cartel hitman or mercenary assassin and assume they're suave and cool. I believe government assassinations these days are contracted out to private mercenaries for various reasons, although obviously I don't have proof of that it's just something that comes up when I've read about the role of private armies in geopolitics.
On a side note, the show Barry does a good job of portraying what an assassin would actually be like in real life in my opinion. Detached, lonely, and unable to relate to people for the most part. >


Detached, lonely, and unable to relate to people for the most part.

TIL all Redditors are assassins. >

I mean they all assassinate their social lives >

You can't kill what's already dead. >

Assassin: I efficiently kill people for money 
Public: Wow, how evil!
Assassin: ...but never children or parents of young children 
Public: Damn that's so cool. You have principles! >

"Dad, I'm an assassin, not a crazed gunman, ones a job, the others mental sickness!" >

“I’ll be honest with you, my parents, do NOT care for it.” >

Maybe they just believe assassin's only kill bad folks so it's not so bad >

Like John Wick.  In the movies, he only kills other assassins and organized crime bosses.  Who did he kill before he chose to retire?  His past work haunts him, but not the kills in the movies. >

He kills about 500 henchmen.  You know, Joe Mafia bodyguard, grinding out a living.  Until John Wick kills him over a dog. >

He came out of retirement, but we don’t know who he killed before he “retired”.  So NOT counting who we seen him kill, who did he kill before we first meet Wick? >

At this point it's honestly believable he only killed other assassins somehow. They went from basically being the Russian mob to being an entire damn shadow government. They got assassins crawling out of the woodwork, ain't no way there's enough legitimate targets to employ that many unless half of them are working day jobs. Like half the homeless population of New York is a damn assassin. >

john wick gets cut off in traffic
"this guy must be an assassin" >

Anyone who didn't think assassins were cool mysteriously died. >

Finally, something on Reddit that made me laugh >

I don’t think rational adults think real-life assassins are “cool”. >

Most people haven't met a real life assassin >

That they knew was a real life assassin. >

At least, they didn't know for very long >

Murder is not universally despised when it's done people who deserve it. Pretty much every video game and movie about assassins are about killing people who deserve it and that's what makes it cool. >

Which is to say, people are largely ok with murder so long as they dislike the target enough.
'cause judging people as deserving is frequently as much about those doing the judging as those being judged. >

No, do we want Kardashians to die? Nah. Do we hate them? Absolutely >

That's not what I was saying. Just because someone is hated doesn't mean they deserve to die. >

I remember watching a documentary about a Russian sniper from World War 2. He was 80 or more, and even all these years later, his hands were literally shaking like a leaf when he recollected his experience. He was forever scarred, you cannot just murder another person and be left unscathed. Real life is not a videogame, humans are not NPC's, when an NPC dies you know they're just one of thousand respawning blobs without personality. When a human being dies, a world loses something valuable that can never be replaced. >

Being a sniper is essentially being a murderer backed by a government. >

Lol who idolizes real life assassins? From fiction yeah maybe but they are characters not real people that went around murdering. >

A ton of people support the death penalty, a ton more thing that other bad people should be killed. We fight wars, we support troops(who murder people), etc etc. Human's don't "universally despise" murder at all, we actually love it. We just want it to be certain people that are murdered. >

Not the same >

Killing is killing my dude. It’s just a matter of whether or not you think it was justified. >

That's not an assassin though Look for the definition of it. Also so all the Ukrainians that are defending the invasion of their land cant be considered heroes for putting their life on the line to defend their country and their people? >

All I am saying, is that taking another humans life, is not “universally despised” like the OP says. You are proving my point by listing killings that are acceptable. The special forces team that took out bin Laden are assassins and almost everybody in the United States approved of that. >

Well you just demonstrated that murder isn’t universally despised, given that we make exceptions. I’m sure everyone could make a list of people whose murder they wouldn’t disapprove of >

Yes >

glances nervously at the number of serial murderer documentaries >

Yeah, I don't support feeding that stuff to the masses. It glamorizes them and young or sick people idolize them. 
The only way I can protest is to never watch them. The more people that watch, the more they will make the movies. >

Same thing could be said about the mafia, military, cartel, gangs, pirates, pimps, violent video games, etc.
It’s the difference between enjoying a “fictional” character versus despising an actual act against real people >

War is just a series of murders for a collective purpose on behalf of the government. Many national governments (US included) are guilty of killing civilians in the act of war too, even if unintentional. I personally don’t have anything against the military, but your comment is just proof of OP’s showerthought. Murder, which is universally despised, is “part of war”, but you’re shrugging it off because it’s somehow justified in a war. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t, but it’s not like the military has made righteous decisions 100% of the time. Yes the military is much more noble than gangs and whatnot, but they still commit murder nonetheless. >


War is just a series of murders for a collective purpose on behalf of the government.

No, it isn’t. 

Murder, which is universally despised, is “part of war”, but you’re shrugging it off because it’s somehow justified in a war. 

It isn’t murder and it is justified. 
You think the Ukrainian military should stand down? They should let Putin roll in?
It’s an unimaginably crude moral error to make no distinction between the fire and the fire department. >

Putins side is murder. Ukraine's side is defense against a madman. >

If I bought a gun for my friend, knowing he planned to shoot up a school room, I would be prosecuted as an accomplice. 
If I drove the gunman to the school, with full knowledge and understanding of his plan, again, an accomplice. 
Are you willing to charge Russian armament workers with murder? The railroad men who operate troop trains and munition trains? 
Unless you are, unless you are willing to jail the entire Russian military, the entire Russian armament industry, the entire armament industries of countries that are supplying them, like China and Iran, then you are admitting you don’t regard it as murder. >

Not op but the entire Russian armament doesn't have to be commuting murder for his point to be valid. The Russian soldiers who are shooting, bombing, or otherwise killing Ukrainians are the ones directly commiting murder. Like you said, everyone else is an accomplice.
Edit: armament industry and military. >


the entire Russian armament doesn't have to be commuting murder for his point to be valid. 

No, it does. If you knowingly supply the means for a crime, you’re an accomplice and are punished alongside the others. >

Right, that's what I said. They would be accomplices, not commiting murder. Did you read my whole comment? >

I did miss that part. If you are not willing to charge everyone as at least an accomplice or co-conspirator, then you are admitting it’s not murder. 
The janitor at Murmansk Helmet Factory #2 will be doing 10 years… >

Real life assassins are fine if they kill genuinely, objectively fucked up and evil people. Even fantasy assassins aren’t cool if they just kill good people >

Ehhh…. There are plenty of fantasy assassins that kill good people and are still very popular and well liked. >

Do you have any examples in mind? Because my instinct tells me those beloved evil assassins probably don’t kill any of the beloved good guy main characters; they probably just kill random side characters or characters people don’t care as much about >

Jaffar from Fire Emblem; murdered Matthew’s love interest Leila, and scored an assist on Eliwood’s father.
True Assassin from Fate/Stay Night (murdered Medea, Medea’s master, was largely responsible for Cu Chulainn’s death)
CP9 from One Piece (Technically didn’t SUCCEED in killing any major characters but not for lack of trying)
Francisco Scaramanga from The Man With the Golden Gun (killed the less annoying of the two Bond girls in that film).
Just off the top of my head, give me a bit of time and I could probably compile a much longer list (honestly Type/Moon alone could probably give me a dozen examples if I took the time to refresh my memory on the times Assassins have been villains). >

“Feelings? Look mate, you know who's got a lot of feelings? Blokes what bludgeon their wives to death wi' a golf trophy. Professionals have standards: be polite, be efficient, have a plan to kill everyone you meet." 
~Sniper >

"Now listen up boy! Or else a pornography staring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today." ~Spy >

Controversial comment: I think it depends on how you define murder… >

Agreed >

Terminating a life. >

Not disagreeing here but this is when the definition of murder gets complicated. For example, we don’t charge someone who used self defense with murder. >

only by teens or weird adults who never grew out of their edgy phase >

Explains my ex >

Explains people who support abortion... My current gf... Peoples values are fucked up now a days >

I ended up living next door to a guy that I ended up finding out was a hitman for a local gang. He was a quiet neighbor we lived in an attached house and never really heard him. Only notable disturbance was when the cops came down the block in armored vehicles and helicopters to arrest him. Turns out he had hand grenades in his fridge. Seemed like a normal guy though not an Agent 47 or James Bond type. >

Murder isn’t universally despised. We applaud murder every single day. A special OPs team caps a “bad guy” praise all around. A father shoots his daughter’s rapist in the head, no charges and praise in the press. An “honor killing” is carried out by a family and the community nods… >

Yeah there are literally people who support abortion as a "medical practice"... Actually disgusting >

Just going to plead to anybody who thinks murder, assassins or any form of violence is cool: please stop. Even though movies and games tend to cater to us a selection of decapitations on a per hour basis, lets just be humans and not gobble all that up without a thought wasted. Let’s not be cool with violence.
People who witness actual violence as a part of the armed forces or in the form of domestic abuse or in any other setting, very rarely walk out without a lifetimes worth of mental health problems. If anybody thinks that’s cool, they’re such high level megajerks, I cannot fathom it. Violence is shocking, traumatizing and the most serious thing you can come accross in your life. I wish no one should face it or be in such situations ever. And I truly wonder what’s the point in us being desenticised by games and movies to such an extent. 
Next time some callisto protocol bad guy is splitting your player characters head in half, question how you feel. Is it really awesome to see and act like its all just good fun or are you required to dissociate from yourself just to play a game. Dissociation is pretty nasty business and is not helping you with any real life situation going forward. Doing that kind of stuff to play a game or watch a movie, is a bit disconcerting. >

The stuff in video games is so unrealistically gory and violent I don't actually associate real life violence with it.