12-07-2020, 12:14 AM
(12-07-2020, 12:04 AM)ijmorlan Wrote:(12-06-2020, 10:41 PM)plam Wrote: Words have meanings, though, and I think there is value to differentiating "murder" from "manslaughter". But maybe I'm too much of a prescriptivist.
You are correct; however, this particular discussion was started by Rainrider22 objecting to mention of the word “murder” in connection with deaths caused by drivers. Now I can’t actually speak for them, but my impression, just from that one message and not assessing everything they’ve ever written, is that their objection is to associating a word that describes a criminal act with the perfectly natural act of occasionally killing a few pedestrians while innocently driving ones car. If danbrotherston had used “manslaughter” instead of “murder” I think we would be having pretty much the same discussion.
Murder very clearly implies intent. And that, in turn, implies that the driver was intending to kill the pedestrians. Is that what we are trying to say?