I see all the memes about guillotines for the rich, funny in spirit, but actually building one in the town square is not practical. They take a ton of materials, they are huge, and they do not even work reliably. Would it not make more sense to build one from metal with hydraulic pistons or something? I am not a machinist, but a more mobile unit you could wheel into a square to decapitate a few effigies seems about as effective for sending a message, and easier to remove or relocate if needed.
I’ve seen discussions about the future of automation where people speculate “what will rich people do with the general population when they’re no longer necessary to keep industry running for them?”
Opening up the “let’s just kill the people we don’t like and don’t want as part of society” box seems like a bad idea in a context like that.
It’s already open. They are kidnapping people from their homes and work and sending them to die in foreign concentration camps. It’s already here. They’re already doing it.
Stooping to their level ought to make things better, then.
How would you suggest stopping them then? Fascists on a power trip don’t give a shit about your letters. Or your signs. Or your songs outside their buildings.
Would England have freed the United States without violence? Would Hitler have backed down from controlling Europe if you held a sign for long enough? How about Putin? Or Netanyahu? Or Pol Pot? Saddam Hussein? Hideki Tojo?
There are countless examples from history where meeting violent with violence is the only answer. They bring it. You either fight back or you die.
Put them in jail. If you’re in a position to execute someone, then you’re in a position to imprison them. These are not supervillains who can break out of Arkham Asylum every time there needs to be a new round of villainy.
Why wouldn’t it? It freed Canada.
At these points you’re in a state of active war with another country, execution is not an option. You need to fight the actual war at that point.
Afterwards, though, once you’ve won the war and have captured the leaders and war criminals and such? No need to execute them, the war has been won. Imprison them.
Those aren’t the examples at issue, though. Unless you think a guillotine is a battlefield weapon?