Most upvoted comment

IAmA survivor of medical experiments performed on twin children at Auschwitz who forgave the Nazis. AMA!(r/IAmA)

this is a little o/t, but there is a book — “On Killing” — written by a US Army colonel about the psychology of killing in soldiery that cites some really amazing examples and data:

>”The compunction against killing occurs in close combat situations, including aerial dogfights where pilots can see each other. It does not prevail with killing at a distance by artillery or bombing from airplanes. Machine gun teams also boost the firing rate because individuals cannot simply pretend to fire or intentionally mis-aim. In aerial combat one percent of pilots made over thirty percent of kills; the majority of fighter pilots never shot down a plane, perhaps never tried to.”

>”In the U.S. Civil War, well-trained soldiers fired over the enemy’s heads, or only pretended to fire. Of 27,000 muzzle-loading muskets recovered at Gettysburg, 90 percent were loaded, almost half with multiple loads! That could not be inadvertent. Further evidence was the low kill rate in face-to-face battles.”

modern militaries devote a lot of thought and energy to overcoming man’s humanity (and also to remediating the psychological damage of the aftermath of success). although they are more successful today than in times past, they aren’t entirely, perhaps thankfully.

More details about a book.