17/Jul/2022

I don't really know how to title this, more of an unprompted rant

When people say stuff like "things you do and say have consequences" in relation to trying to justify punishments to things, 99% of the time they're completely misusing 'consequences' as a justification.

imposed consequences are a scam

There is a big difference between natural and imposed consequences.

With natural consequences, well, they're a fact of reality, if you go off a cliff you'll fall, if you put your hand on fire it's going to hurt, not body actively made it that way.

Then there are imposed consequences, in which the result is based on someone's (besides yours) involvement. If someone comes to you and say "give me money or I'll hurt you", being hurt is not a 'natural' consequence, nothing in the laws of nature say that if you don't give the money you must get hurt, is this person's choice to do this, the same way they could simply not hurt you

And the point is that, using "consequences" as a justification for some punishment makes no sense, as 100% of that punishment is because someone wanted that, they could have simply decided to not apply the punishment in that way

Authority is not some face of reality, rulers are other people that at the end of the day are as fallible as you or me