“Punitive grandstanding” is the most descriptive short phrase I could come up to describe the following concept:
A situation where someone pushes for extreme punitive measures against in immoral act, which in practice “virtue signals” moral superiority and implies people proposing lesser punishment are immoral. This behaviour often goes beyond what is proportionate or productive.
You probably know what I mean. Say there’s a new lemmy thread on a news community, it’s about someone having committed a horrible crime. All the comments end up being a sort of “jerk off contest” for who can propose the strongest punishment and thereby assert their moral superiority.
Instead of taking an approach to actually reduce the incident of said crime, looking at what problems might have led to it, how to care for the victim/family, and how to properly rehabilitate and treat someone who committed such an act, solely focusing on coming up with the most draconian punishment possible.
Anyone who comments something about the justice system ideally being rehabilitative gets accused of being no better than the criminal themselves or “helping” criminals.
I’ve just noticed this general trend which seems to be at odds with anarchist principles. I wonder what you think? Have you noticed this too? Do you think it’s a major problem? What can we do about it?
I see more prison abolitionists here on lemmy then most places. And I do think it’s a problem more generally. People often want revenge and safety from people who might be violent, and we often mistake this for justice. I’m guilty of it myself, cheering over the idea of Trump going to prison for instance (revenge). But, I did time. I know Trump wouldn’t go any place that difficult, anyway. And part of me relishes in the idea of him suffering as I did. But, it’s not the way. And it’s not justice.
Restorative justice is the way, as you pointed out. And I think if we seed more of that model into the larger lemmy community, posting in larger communities like news, politics, science, etc, as well as (gently) in reply to comments like the ones you’re seeing, that people will learn and in turn spread those good ideas. The posters on lemmy are intelligent, and a lot of them do value prison abolition.
It’s fertile soil, just has a lot of weeds at the moment.