re: #391 Obdicut

what I was saying is that people have a quite natural revulsion towards people they think are evil, and so they want bad things to happen to them, and not good things.

Sure - and that may be a bigger part of it.

But I think that insecurity about one’s own power is definitely a piece of the psychology behind why people advocate torture even when it is ineffective. Maybe it’s over-reaching, but I would say it is highly likely that there is a connection to fear of being “soft,” and that there is a gender-identity component.