The Animist

I doubt I will ever understand murderers. I struggle to understand other people in general to begin with, but murderers make even less sense to me than others. I don't even know where to begin with this topic. Hmm... okay, I'll start with "why in the fuck would you ever tell anyone else you had done a murder unless it was because you were turning yourself in?" The number of times I've seen true crime shows where part of it was talking about someone in the killer's life, like a friend or family member or even just a cell-mate in jail, was able to testify that the killer bragged about killing someone... it just makes no sense at all to me. Especially in the cases of people who have no remorse for their crimes. Like seriously... I could never kill anyone, I think. I empathize with trees, and when I was a kid, I thought I killed a baby bird once. Remembering that makes me sad every time I think of it. If I did kill anyone, it would most likely be by accident, and I would be one of those people who immediately called the cops about it while crying.

But if for some reason I decided to be stupid enough to try to get away with it, the last fucking thing I would do would be to tell anybody about it or write it down anywhere; it would be listed in my brain as "information you couldn't torture out of me." I don't even understand deathbed confessions of such things because what, you kept the secret for decades and now you're gonna blab because you might be dying? Well great, that's commendable of you, but this raises the question: what if you're wrong? What if you're not actually dying? What if you finally confess after all these years, and you then get better and live another decade or three? I have anxiety brain; I would absolutely worry about that, no matter how close to death I was. I could be torn in half and gurgling my own blood out of my mouth, and still be thinking "but what if I get better?" Yet all too often, these morons blithely brag about it instead.

I watch true crime things because I despise murderers, and I love finding out how these assholes get caught, the process of solving the mysteries. But yeah, so many things piss me off with these cases. The crimes always piss me off, the motives never really make sense to me (even the "money" motive doesn't make much sense to me often because I'm pretty sure insurance companies don't ever pay out if someone was murdered, even if none of the beneficiaries were the murderers, which is why the common advice is "make it look like an accident"), there's almost always some degree of police incompetence and/or apathy involved, a great many of these killers are just so gods-damned stupid doing shit like leaving evidence laying around in their house or in their computer without even putting the files of their evidence into an encrypted drive, and on top of everything else, I'm always wondering how these idiots think they're going to get away with it even if they avoid stupid mistakes. I've watched enough true crime stuff to know that the only people who ever get away with murder are people who are ridiculously lucky. Even when they avoid all the ridiculous mistakes of other killers, they almost always get caught eventually, no matter how idiotic or apathetic the cops are. (And all cops are idiotic; there is an upper IQ limit to being a cop. Yes, that means it is possible and even easy to be too intelligent to be hired as a cop, as that upper limit is not much higher than the average IQ. They will literally not hire anyone who is much more intelligent than the average because they want people just smart enough to do the job, but stupid enough to go along with the myriad forms of corruption inherent in the system. Which is why most cops tend to be former schoolyard bullies.)

It also really pisses me off when some of these killers get off with really light sentences, like six years. Six years, for murder! Now, bear in mind I am mostly for prison abolition -- IE, getting rid of the current prison system because the system is racist, classist, and is set up in a way that encourages repeat offenses. So for most crimes, I believe the consequences of those crimes should be therapy and rehabilitation. Lots of crimes would also be almost entirely prevented with the implementation of Universal Basic Income, universal health care, and ideally an end to capitalism entirely.

But murder and other violent crimes like rape should absolutely be exceptions to prison abolition. Sure, the murder rate would go way down if money was no longer an issue for people -- if people could live in comfort and not have to be crushed under the weight of capitalism. But it would not be entirely eliminated because there are many other motives for murder, including sexual violence and misogyny. So yeah, prison abolition for the most part, with only the most violent criminals going to prison. Any crime that wasn't violent, or was only mildly violent like a bar fight, the answer is basically "court-ordered therapy / rehabilitation." But serial killers and people guilty of just one or two brutal murders, they would still go to prison. If you end someone's life on purpose or try to cover up an accidental killing, that should be an automatic sentence of life in prison with NO chance for parole, once your guilt has been determined.

Anyway yeah, I'm probably rare for being a true crime 'enjoyer' who both hates the criminals AND the cops. So many true crime fans are freaks who either want to suck murderer dick or cop dick or both. I also prefer the channels that are respectful of the victims and their families, like Crime Zone, Mr. Ballen, and Lore Lodge.

Crime Zone is especially good in this respect, as the first few minutes of the episodes are always focused on getting to know the lives of the victims, and the ends of the videos usually say a few more things to emphasize the victims and their loved ones. They also have so much content that I've been binging it for a few months now and still haven't run out. And the narrator guy's voice is very clear and soothing.

The fact that the world had a little ice age at the time of the black death just proves the black death could not possibly be the bubonic plague. There was already a lot of weird things about this theory that didn't add up, like the black death hitting a lot of places way too cold for fleas in the first place, and the fact the climate was even colder back then just makes that even weirder. It's far more likely the black death was a hemorrhagic fever. THAT fits the available evidence very well, unlike the theory of it being bubonic plague.