When Should a Fight Become Physical?

Discussion in 'Debate Corner' started by cstar, Jun 8, 2014.

  1. cstar stay away from my waifu

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    Okay I need people to hear me out on this one because I'm pretty sure that I'm going to get the same reply from a lot of people and I truly do understand it, but I want to kind of explain my thought process because this is a question that has been popping up in my life a lot more recently and well... I'm not going to explain everything that has gone on but here are a couple things that have happened.

    About a week ago a 7th grader in our school system, one who is very well known for being rather... promiscuous, was raped by a high schooler. The girl did not tell authorities or her parents she messaged her friends. One of the high school guys that was good friends with her came into the school and freaked out on him and then they got into a pretty bad first fight. There's more to this story but I'm not going into detail.


    The other story goes like so:
    A few weeks ago these two girls got into an argument about something mundane and it escalated into something worse before one of the girls responded by insulting the other girl's sister for her disability, and the other girl (the one with the sister) responded with a punch to the girl's face. Again, there's more to this story but the details don't matter.

    The thing I want to know is, when do you guys think it is justified? Honestly... for me it depends on the particular situation that is going on. The examples I listed... I actually feel their physical responses was justified. Now that just might be because of my views on these situations but I feel like these two people (the girl who punched received multiple ISS's and the guy who started the fight above is suspended and being charged with assault) are getting more heat than they deserve.

    There are of course cases where people fight and I just shake my head and ask myself, "Why did they do that?" and in these cases I normally do not agree with violence... it's hard for me to truly explain my feeling for these topics.

    So what about you all?


     
  2. A Zebra Chaser

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    You respond with violence in self defense. If not for the moral reason of not hurting someone, then because picking a fight with someone is stupid, they might be stronger than you, they might be trained on formal combat. On top of that, throwing the first blow can have legal ramifications.
    Of course, this is all an ideal. In practice we have emotions, but the best outcome is rarely to get physical at all.
    Oh, and premeditating an attack on someone after something happens as far as I'm concerned immediately makes it the attackers fault, they chose what basically amounts to vigilante justice rather than going to the authorities. Though this can be a context thing, if the authorities can't be trusted for whatever reason
     
  3. Peace and War Bianca, you minx!

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    Fighting is a sort of social activity sometimes, a way to play and have fun, a way to show a dominance, a way to test ourselves, or even express ourselves. I've seen guys fights each other and then be friends again, as if the fighting was a way to get their issues out and settle them.

    Fighting should be a last resort, but it doesn't mean it always is. It is hard to justify anymore why someone fights another. We all as individuals may be able to sympathize with both these cases as to why these people fought each other, but to justify it in society's expectations may be trickier.

    I think both of these instances are justifiable. I am fine these people fought each other. I think it was stupid and rash, but I don't think they wanted to fight necessarily, as if their plan was to physically hurt someone else, they wanted to confront said person first but their emotions took hold. If they had ambushed these people without first talking, or even just having a shouting match or something, I would still understand but I would not think their actions justifiable.
     
  4. Ars Nova Just a ghost.

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    Sparring and ceremonial combat are lovely things in their own right, but I personally make a point to avoid fisticuffs to prove a point or anything like that—not even a last resort, but a non-option. Of course, like Hatok said, this is the ideal; I can't say I've never thrown a punch in anger before. I imagine the only thing that would make me mad enough to throw hands these days would be bullying, or if I felt the need to defend someone's honor. Otherwise, I recognize that I am big and that people who don't know me might find me intimidating, so mostly I use my power by not using it. My presence is often enough to diffuse tension. I have a lot of friends who feel the same way and are, funnily enough, only violent when they're fooling around. Or drunk, but we always have chaperones for the angry drunks.
     
  5. Makaze Some kind of mercenary

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    Physical confrontation was unhelpful in both of the scenarios you presented. No offense meant. It was not going to change minds or have a positive effect. It was not especially objectionable, but that doesn't matter. They cannot be justified by the intentions or the cold hard results that they have to face. They were bad gambles. Bad gambles are not something to be proud of.

    Physical fighting operates under a lot of the same rules as verbally fighting. Never do it when when what you do will not have a positive outcome.

    Self-defense and neutralizing a threat are good uses of physical violence. I avoid getting into physical fights because I am the type of person who doesn't pull their punches and I worry about seriously hurting someone or killing them because I don't know how to hold back. Because of that, there are only a handful of situations where I allow myself to start swinging.

    If someone attacks me, I won't have a choice but to defend myself. That kind of violence is straightforward. I don't think that is the kind you asked about so I'll move on.

    The second criteria covers things like attacking the rapist to stop further rapes from happening. This type of violence can have a good outcome, but it isn't as simple as punching them to make a point. You must think it out thoroughly. If I thought that they would continue to commit rape, I might murder them while making it look like disappearance. It would be justified because it would make the world a better place even if I got caught, which is doubtful.

    Acting out on emotion can be harmful whether you do it physically or verbally. Both of the examples you gave had emotional outburst as a controlling factor. They might have gone better had people been more composed.
     
    Last edited: Jul 1, 2014
  6. Railos Hollow Bastion Committee

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    Honestly, I don't think physically fighting is an option unless it's for self defense, or to stop someone in the act of doing perhaps a crime or something. I understand how bad the first situation was, but why didn't the guy just tell someone, so the other guy would get into something way worse than you could do with just fighting. As for the second situation, it seems a bit childish that they were arguing about something so simple, and let it escalate to actual insults, and then physically hurting one another. There are better ways to getting back at her, not that I'm implying anything.

    Personally, I would avoid any form of physical confrontation. Mostly because, I doubt I could actually deal any damage to someone, who would rather use his fists than words. If something's wrong, there might be a way to deal with it that doesn't include getting beat up, or beating someone up, so why not do it.