Comment by bachmeier
2 years ago
"Ending another human's life" covers a wide range of cases. My recollection of this event, which is now long in the past, is that he was cold, calculating, did not value human life, and was quite comfortable with his kids moving on without their mother. He didn't just do something to her. He permanently damaged his kids, her family, and all of her friends. He made his decision knowing all of this.
Redemption? Possible I suppose, but don't make the mistake of looking at this from your perspective, because he's not like the rest of us.
> because he's not like the rest of us.
He's human and killing other humans is something a humans can do, given the right circumstances.
Yes, but normally you have a fairly high bar to cross before you would resort to such an act, and it would be in the context of self defense or something equivalent. To kill your wife in a premeditated manner is not something most humans can do, even given the 'right' circumstances, most people would resolve a conflict at that level in a different way.
Yeah I don't get how some frame this as a mistake that just happens or how it shouldn't define the person. When, no it doesn't happen!! And yes it absolutely should define how we perceive them? Maybe I just live a sheltered life but murdering your wife is probably a sign of.. something bad in you as a person? And it's super super uncommon and extreme.
GF mentioned having an ex-bf who before they dated had accidentally run someone over and killed them. She said he had this ever present air of guilt about him. Like nothing he could do would make up for that. Then you got Reiser who likely just cares that he got caught and his life is now fucked. Not everyone is the same. But way more people are psychologically like my GF's ex.
you don't know his emotional state, he could have very well passed that high bar internally.
From my recollection, his wife was sleeping with another man, or there was some conflict between the two that was related to another man who I _think_ was supposed to be a friend to them both.
it's been a while, but the point remains, he very well could have been in a state that allowed him to "pass that bar".
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> He's human and killing other humans is something a humans can do, given the right circumstances.
Absolutely not. Average human needs to be ordered to kill and lied to and desensitized throughly to be able to do it. People who can kill out of their own initiative are not like the rest of us. Most cases of killings happen only because humans are so fragile in context of our technology. Intentional killing is something very unique.
you can't define human that broadly i guess
what peop le want out of this word is a decent enough amount of compassion and altruism, something that would prevent that kind of harm to others (but i forgot if there was some heated arguments before he decided to step onto the murder path).
unless passionate crime is what you had in mind
> because he's not like the rest of us
I don't think we can know this, and there's no point speculating. I would say that the letter doesn't read as someone who's imperfectly simulating regret.
Of course - this entire thread is nothing but speculation.
That said, the premeditated murder of someone, let alone your wife and children's mother, is not something that the average person is capable of. It is entirely different than the crimes one may commit out of rage, fear, or passion (i.e. when your amygdala is driving).
I don't believe in capital punishment or lesser forms of punitive justice, but I have a hard time believing that psychopaths can ever be meaningfully rehabilitated. They are just humans that shipped with a fucked up firmware and that's all there is to that.
The letter reads like Reiser thinks the firmware bug is fixable, and it’s more a case of nurture over nature. Don’t know if that’s true, but it’s not unthinkable.
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To be quite frank, redemption isn't really for us to decide. His family, her family, they have a say in it.
We only have a say insofar as we're part of the society that determines the laws that form the judges who will decide when it's appropriate to let him back into society.