almost wrote "white bear, black panther" by accident

As someone who doesn’t support the death penalty, my feelings toward Black Mirror’s White Bear episode are probably pretty predictable. One of my biggest issues with the death penalty is the idea of someone whose essential job title is an executioner because I don’t believe it’s possible to take or degrade human life, especially through extreme violence or torture, in any capacity without it fundamentally changing you. I think on one level, it begins to desensitize people to human suffering and impairs the ability to truly empathize. On another level it has the capacity to leave psychological scars that linger on permanently. The most famous example of this I can reference is the Stanford Prison Experiment. Despite it being a farce, the role of jailer left a lasting impact on the men who played it, specifically the idea that in that circumstance, they were able to tap into a level of cruelty they didn’t previous realize they were capable of. It became a downward spiral because for the most part, the behavior was fairly unchecked and allowed to worsen as the men in the experiment became progressively desensitized to their role and the abuse of power they were capable of. It sets up a kind of terrifying precedent, the idea of people walking around society who are capable of committing inhumane acts of torture on other people day in and day out. Whether or not it’s moral at all is another discussion, but it’s impossible to completely disassociate yourself from the psychological ramifications of something like torture. I think allowing something like that to go on regardless of the crime committed would lessen the threshold for socially acceptable violence and that we would return to a time not unlike the middle ages when punishment was something almost theatrical rather than rehabilitative. That isn't to say our justice system is perfect, but at least we're not putting people in stocks or iron maidens. The only reason they put her through that torture is to exact vengeance which is different from justice. Justice can be harsh but it shouldn’t be inhumane or excessively cruel. With the kind of eye for an eye punishment of this episode, regardless of what she did, in my opinion the people participating in her torture are acting just as immorally as she did. They’re still violating the rights of another person and corrupting themselves even if they’re doing it with good intentions, which as we know can pave the road to hell sometimes. Brainwashing and repeatedly torturing a woman who doesn’t even remember what she did wrong is definitely hell road worthy.