Whatever civil stuff there is to oppose evil, in terms of removing an agent of evil from a position of significant power, it's nigh on ineffective. Partly because people, being ones putting all that civil stuff into practice, are corruptible. Imagine someone [further - TP (that person)] in a position of power being accused of some wrongdoing. Yes, if TP's an expendable part of a corrupt system they belong to, they may end up in prison. But what if TP isn't & have more than enough money for a bribe & connections big enough to end up with the case against them being dropped or not even initiated (in other words, untouchable)? And let's say a wrongdoing committed by TP is grave (just like a place deserved by villains such as autocrats to be put in). Such as sentencing a dissident to prison, thus making them a political prisoner, or usage of physical tortures, or even being a leader of an authoritarian regime waging an unjustified aggressive war, what's then? What are remaining options? Evil understands only the language of force & threats. And in comics, there's a type of individuals to punish such agents of evil: VIGILANTES.
Yes, vigilantes operate above the law, but they're above the law either when the rule of law is broken, or in cases when there isn't enough evidence to put a criminal into prison. And by vigilantes, I don't mean the "civil" type like the Batman bringing criminals to justice by neutralizing them unlethally so they can be handed over to law enforcement agents (though, it's worth noting that the Dark Knight strikes terror into criminals, at least into ones operating where he operates). I mean the type like Jason "Red Hood" Todd, Francis "Punisher" Castle, or V disposing of agents of evil as if they were weeds, which they are. Some may deem such individuals as criminals, if more precisely, murderers, but to me & ones like-minded, they're, first of all, society purgers. Necessary antiheroes, if you will.
It's understandable why there's no or nigh on zero such individuals in the real world. For there's little of those having nothing or nigh on nothing to lose & even less of those belonging to this type & being/willing to become expert assassins at the same time. As for professional killers present in the world, as far as I understand, most of them work for the underworld & have no or little principles. I wish there's a whole squad of those vigilantes/society purgers in the world targetting the most powerful ones among agents of authoritarian regimes & members of the underworld. For all those power-corrupted ******* understand only the language of force & threats, as it seems to me, &, as Rorschach from "Watchmen" said, evil must be punished. Of course, the problem is not that there are corrupt people committing wrongdoings, the problem is that there are corrupt ideas hosted by these or other people. But since there's no way to destroy an idea, especially in today's digitalized world, all there's that can be done is to make so that wrongdoing hosts of corrupt ideas are either stripped of power somehow, or isolated from the rest of society, if realization of either one is possible. If not, then liquidation of those hosts.
As Vladimir Makarov from "Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare III" (2023) said, the wicked prosper, they always will. The harsh reality is that this world's so terrible it could use having antiheroic vigilantes being lesser evil to fight villains being greater one.
Don't get it wrong, I neither support nor mean to glorify violence. My only intention is to justify usage of it towards wrongdoers in positions of power, in particular, towards, as I've said, the most powerful ones among agents of authoritarian regimes & members of the underworld.
This world needs more bold & principled individuals like vigilantes to fight the corrupt powers that be.
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