I think a big part of the problem you point to is that people can read things like my “the penalty is always death” posting, and come away from it saying that Bob was wrong at some point in the chain of escalation. At some point, Bob just should have gone along to get along. Either that, or they deny that such a situation would ever actually arise — either because, well, of course everyone complies, or because the don’t believe that the state’s principle mode d’etre is force.

What’s the line from “The Usual Suspects”? The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing people he isn’t real.

Sadly, this happens all the time. Correct me if I am mistaken, but this idea could be translated to one of the main reasons every group/country who has gone to war; either they want to defend themselves from being assimilated or they want to assimilate and when I say assimilate, I mean they want to most likely take all of their property as their own. It is quite a disgusting human trait-almost animalistic.

I suppose you could make the arguement that at least most humans would give the individual a choice before killing them while most animals would just kill…but that point would be moot, at least to my ears.