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I don't say this necessarily to judge, but what's the logic behind some people who celebrated Brian Thompson's death in 2024 lamenting the Ayatollah's death in 2026? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 15 hours ago by PatrickStar@sh.itjust.works to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.ca

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Even some of those who said his murder was technically wrong still said they celebrated Brian Thompson's death on the basis that he caused people harm. Admittedly it got to a point where a lot of it was semantics.

"Ayatollah" is the title of the ruler of Iran (or Persia if we want to call it that for historical consistency), similar to how Egyptians had pharaohs or how the Greeks had archons. Until the end of February, the Ayatollah was Ali Khamenei, who was said to have dictatorial tendencies that ended with dozens of thousands of deaths. American president Donald Trump had the military sweep in and killed him. Was the broken clock right twice that day? A lot of people say no and stand by the Ayatollah.

I bring these two people up in particular because the logic seems exactly the same. They caused people harm for their own gains and were killed by someone acting out of their bounds, but [insert political party here] only supports one and opposes the other, and this is what is constantly shared on the news. The types of coverage both get is completely parallel too. The only difference being the sides switched. The parallels are strong enough to a degree where, in the groups of all the people I am associated with (apparently this is a spreading trend), people as a rule often use "Brian Thompson", "Ayatollah", and "Ali Khamenei" interchangeably or refer to both as "Ayatollah Brian Thompson" or "Brian 'the ayatollah' Thompson", often sharing art of Luigi killing the actual Ayatollah or people asking Luigi what his views are on the Ayatollah being killed (someone should do that last thing).

Is there a difference from the perspective of someone who opposes one but not the other?

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[–] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 2 points 9 hours ago

I've yet to encounter anyone who feels bad about either killing, on the individual level. I suppose you didn't ask for someone like me to reply, but I felt I'd add a little traffic to your post.

[–] sveltecider@lemmy.ca 4 points 15 hours ago

"Is there a difference from the perspective of someone who opposes one but not the other?" Yes there is.

I wouldn't want to be friends with Khomeini but I oppose imperialism regardless.

If you are a strict utilitarian and view everything in a vaccuum, your logic makes sense.