Another one that hurts

Very well.

Psychopathy (/saɪˈkɒpəθi/), also known asthough sometimes distinguished fromsociopathy (/soʊsiˈɒpəθi/), is traditionally defined as a personality disorder characterized by enduring antisocial behavior, diminished empathy and remorse, and disinhibited or bold behavior.

We did. I was pointing out that it was therefore ironic that you that ended up arguing that ISIS is staffed by psychopaths.

I have never argued that ISIS was staffed solely by psychopaths.

I see.So you arguing that they don't value human life.
That they have lost their emotions of empathy. They are manipulative and antisocial.
But you are not arguing they are psychopaths.

So you are saying a man walking into a public place and detonating a IED , like say the Boston bomber is no different than bombing civillians.Lets examine intent: Boston bombers intent to kill everyone he can.Allie bomb intent: To kill the enemy combatants.Some civilians where inadvertently killed so I guess that means the intent does not matter to you. All that matters is that they are dead. By that logic a Dr. should be put on trail for murder every time one of his patients dies. That makes perfect sense Ringo. Leave God out of it. The salient point I believe is thanks to the people of the Allied forces we do not have the kind of world that would prevent you from taking any political view. Unless you are a fascist you should be able to recognize the world is a better place without totalitarian fascist regimes. The losers of those wars started them.As far as the American Indian is concerned I'd say show me a country that did not kill, enslave conquer and subjugate and I'll show you a enslaved conquered and subjugated country. Btw feel free to donate your current land and property to what ever local American Indian Tribe of your choice. As is your right sir.

Correct. Drunk drivers kill people inadvertently. We still throw them in jail. No. A doctor is trying to save his patient; if he fails, he fails. A bomber pilot is trying to kill people. If he kills the "wrong" people, he's no better than a drunk driver, maybe worse. Maybe war was the only way to defeat fascism. That doesn't justify the bombing of civilians during that war. As I have said before, it's better to lose a war honourably than to win one dishonourably.

My apology was sincere, but since you seem intent on making something of this, I will re-phrase what I said. "I was referring to your statement 'I don't think they're cartoon evil baddies either and I think treating them as such doesn't seem like the path of least blood to me.' That was the opinion with which I was disagreeing." Does that work for you ? This is an example of the selectivity, which I think encourages potential recruits to think "it's OK to affiliate myself with ISIS - I'll be one of the noble and good ones, not one of the vile ones." I think it helps to point out that such a disassociation is both morally (and probably practically) impossible.

So you think we should treating them as if they were cartoonish bad guys? By which I mean, two dimensional. You think we should abandon any attempt to understand these people as complex humans? So I'm prohibited from presenting evidence for my claim that our opponents have human motivations and are not convenient nonhuman fairytale monsters because acknowledging this I would encourage ISIS recruitment?That seems like nonsense to me. It certainly won't be useful in combating ISIS to characiture them in our assessments.

Quite obviously you do not. As you know, I am arguing the opposite We had agreed that it is likely that some are psychopaths. I disagree that ISIS is staffed solely by psychopaths.You've taken a definition pf psychopathy and are trying to apply it to anybody who behaves in the ways that ISIS are behaving. You have an erroneous idea of what psychopathy is.Psychopaths have reduced empathic feelings for others. They are a specific group of people with a clinical condition.You do not have to be a psychopath to brutally murder someone. It is quite possible for people to have demonised others to the extent that they are able to do despicable things to them but still be good husbands and fathers who have feeling for their friends and family. Those operating in the death camps in WW2 were mostly people like that.You ignored the child murderers in the news today. Do you think that those six children who shot and slit the throat of bound security guards as a reward are clinically psychopathic?Enough.

You said there is no difference between a suicide bomber,, who wants to kill innocent non combatants and a allied bomber who accidentally kills non combatants.I said intent is the difference.If you think that a man like the Boston bomber is no different than the man ordered on a mission to bomb enemy combatants then you seem to not know the difference between someone who purposely wants to kill and maim innocents civilians and someone who did it by accident.You then go on to espouse that the accidental killing is no different or worse than a drunk driver who killed by accident.Ok, I guess we dont see it the same.

Personally I see no conflict between denouncing people, their actions and their philosophy and NOT dehumanising them. Why do I have to dehumanise those whom I denounce?I think that as soon as we de-humanise our enemies we fall into the same trap that they, in this specifc case, have fallen into and lose a large part of what I genuinely think makes us morally superior to them.This need to deny that those we oppose do the things they do for reasons that are all too human I find ill considered.

{After posting evidence in favour of it...} You are arguing that they do value human life? I've taken your characterisation the ISIS membership and shown how it matches up with psychopathy. Thus showing that despite your earlier protestations the contrary, you have now made an argument that amounts to the very thing you made such a fuss about before. Exactly the point I was making.Edited by Modulous, : No reason given.

Do you think every member of ISIS is psychopathic?What percentage of ISIS members are psychopathic?What drives those members who are not psychopaths to the actions that they undertake?If you were a Muslim young man in Raqqa - What do you think your position would be on the relative merits of Western bombing of Syria, ISIS, Assad etc?If you were a Muslim young man in Raqqa - What do you think your take would be on the recent attacks in Paris?I ask a genuine question to guage the level of empathy we are capable of achieving here......

I agree. Yup. Well these are pretty high principles that I can't/don't disagree with. But then I'm sat on my couch drinking a glass of wine and watching a movie with my wife. I can afford these ideals - but we're not dealing with people with our values, sadly.

Terrific.