>

Pirates too. They were a despicable scourge of their time, but now they are funny or misunderstood good guys. Then the mafia became super cool despite the ruthless methods they used to maintain control of their territory. Now gangbangers are making the transition. 
It seems to be a thing where we idolize the bad guys and highlight some obscure trait they may or may not have embodied. Robin hood giving to the poor, mafia taking care of their family and never targeting women or children, gangsters feeding the hungry in their community and protecting the vulnerable. In reality, most of them were selfish assholes just out to take care of themselves and did anything it took to get what they felt they deserved. Any generosity was calculated to benefit themselves in some way.
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. >

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. >

Well, you see, murder is the act of killing a person. However, assassination is the act of killing someone with political power, like those fucking greedy politician pigs. >

Assassination could also be killing someone who is unaware of what's going on. Kind of like abortion >

Well joker is my favorite supervillain but obviously everything he does is wrong, it's just fiction. Another example is John Wick, he's awesome, doesn't mean I think it's ok to kill hundreds of people. >

Assassins in fantasy usually have a moral code and tend to take out rich and corrupt people. 
Murders kill for selfish reasons. >

assassins get to do drugs before murder…so…they have that goin’ for them. >

Murder is not universally despised; it’s just called something else when we think it’s cool.
…could make another shower-thought out of that, actually… >

No one thinks assassins in real life are cool. Fictional assassins are cool because they're fictional. >

Today you have learned the difference between fictional stories and reality. Nice ! >

Murder is unjustified killing. Assassination is   justified killing (at least to someone). >

Ah but murder is justified to the murderer. Both involve killing someone, one is just a hired person carrying out the job >

IDK. If somebody came up to you saying I make a few tens of thousands per hit, I doubt most people would like it. >

So are pirates, and gangsters, and crusader knights... Murderers are often seen as cool. >

Murder is universally despised, but revenge is more popular than ever. Assassin stories always pick up at the revenge part of their careers and forego the murder details except to show how the world’s “deadliest” assassin walked away from a mission because of children or a love interest or something. >

If it was universally despised it wouldn't exist.  Certain groups of people see it as a cost of doing business. >

It really depends on how you define murder as an act, because there were a lot of killings in history that were generally deemed good by most of the people at that time >

It's to do with whether people are justified or not. People don't like assassins that just kill anybody. They do like assassins that kill bad people. In the same way, people don't care as much about murder when it's the murder of a bad person. It's all to do whether people feel the death is justified >

Killing is bad and sex is great so in movies and TV the ratings folks freak out if there's any sex...wait did I read that right? >

It's a thing with many movies, happily we've come to the point where violence is more directed towards humans and supervillains. War isn't posed as a cool and righteous thing. >

In stories and film yeah they’re dope. In real life, most of them are violent and don’t care how they earn money and are sadistic. >

Samurai, mafias, yakuza, war, drugs money fame… it’s all cool and provide an escapism to otherwise dull life styles. >

In the same way so many people deem automatic machine guns and rocket launchers as 'cool'. >

tbf, people don't like back alley killers. Assassins are hired, trained professionals. >

I guess? When I think of assassains I usually think of people murdering politicians or gangsters tho, which isn't really murder so >

Not really, murder of innocent people is despised, kill a despot and you are a hero.
There is a ratio of how terrible to how innocent a person is that can be used to mathematically determine if its a despicable murder.
If someone started killing billionaires, starting at the top, they would be celebrated.
If they kill children, they would be despised. >

Being assassinated sounds far cooler than being murdered. (What am I saying?!) >

Murder of the innocent is universally despised. Assassinating an evil person is good. That dude that killed hitler did the world a service, despite otherwise being awful. >

Murderers tend to be spontaneous and sloppy. Assassination tends to be planned and clean. People respect the effort... >

I mean, if you’re going to do something bad, might as well do it with style. >

This is just like saying murder is despised yet military men are hero’s. >


Murder is universally despised

No it's not. Your premise is flawed and your observation demonstrates that, so not sure how you didn't already see this. >

Probably because many kill big figures not just random people >

A mighty warrior will always be celebrated.. murdering for your gov/country is alright, for personal squabbles it’s deemed irreparable. >

People hate when their stuff is stollen, but we all love pirates >

Real-life murder is one of the worst things a person can do.
Fictional murder is cool as fuck. >

Murder is not universally despised. It's actually quite loved and respected. People call for the death of others ALL THE TIME ALL OVER THE WORLD. Unjustified murder is universally despised. >

The reality is that it's actually good when you remove a long term threat to most people >

Real life and fiction are very different, same reason people love counterstrike but don't love blowing stuff up and killing people >

I don't know if I'm going to explain this very well, but there is a stark and disturbing contrast between socially sanctioned aggression and anti-social behaviour.
While obviously assassins aren't exactly 'sanctioned' the cool trope pretty much frames a narrative in a way which it is - in general we're much more disturbed by a random acts of violence spurred by dysfunction/substance/mental health etc. >

You know, I can’t argue with that. Anyways imma go play assassins creed (I don’t play that >

Because almost all depictions of assassins make pains to at least partially justify the kills they perform, e.g. killing an even worse criminal.
Murder is despised but there's a great deal of killing that some won't call murder, hence the 'pro-life' US politicians with policy platforms emphasizing the execution of prisoners. >

In movies,  not in real life. As I get older I don't like them in movies either. >

I'll bite.
Yes, murder is universally despised, except when it isn't.
You can ask any American if they think the locating, hunting and assassination of Osama Bin Laden in his Home was a despicable act and it'll be like punching Nascar in the nuts in North Carolina.
Assassination is suddenly fine when the target is the bad guy. It's why the US has been able to convince its people it's ok to be at war for 228 out of its 246 year history.
Jason Borne was a CIA black ops agent, or a 'morally bad guy' for most people because he kills based on what's written on a file. When he turns against the agency and starts taking out the people who made him kill, he's 'cool'.
James Bond kills security threats who are very clearly defined as bad guys. They're shown to very obviously and ruthlessly commit crimes that make it that much more satisfying for Bond to finally take down. Add the money, gadgets, smarts and charm and of course, Bond is very cool. 
The Assassin's Creed line of games take famous events in history and relive them through the eyes of an inserted assassin who takes them down in the games imagined version of past events. Like the Bond example, the villains are shown to do very evil things. Controlling the assassin, dispatching hoardes of enemies, stealthing and climbing their way to their target for a glorious kill is very cool.
John Wilkes Booth, on the other hand, while still an assassin, is deemed cowardly and uncool for his assassination of Lincoln. We all agree on this because Lincoln was a beloved national figure and wasn't evil. His assassination wasn't justified. Booth wasn't cool. >

Just like spies, movie spies are suave and have amazing skills and charm. In real life most spies are Tom from accounting, that guy that everybody likes as a coworker but not enough to hang out with.
(Source, have been through an espionage course) >

I think murder of the appropriate people is pretty widely accepted. Remember that guy who shot his kids rapist in the head on live TV and didn't even get jail time? Nobody on earth thought that was the wrong call. >

Whenever I watch one of those “good guy kills infinite number of bad guys” movies, I always think about the red shirt bad guys going through all of childhood, going to their high school prom, getting their first car/job, graduating college, etc. just to get killed in the most callous “you never mattered” way ever. >

Well its honestly more about a well trained professional with high work ethics and discipline is cool, as I'd still consider a government assassin that knows 50 different ways to kill you without leaving a trace is cool if that guy actually exist while a cartel hitman that kill for drug money is pretty lame as a concept, really got nothing to do with murder being a crime or not. >

I wouldn’t say I find them cool, but think about how people who are calculated and skilled enough to (generally) get away with murder without anyone finding out it was them is pretty surprising. Especially when you consider just how much evidence get left from the littlest action.