>

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
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.