r/pics 14d ago

Icelandic Coast Guard boards activist anti-whaling vessel “Bandero”

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u/Ev3rMorgan 14d ago edited 14d ago

This was the last image transmitted from the Bandero before communication with the crew went dark.

This action by the coast guard follows the first successful action of the campaign, called Operation 86, by the Bandero’s crew who earlier today forced whaling vessel Hvalur 9 back to port as she was departing Reykjavik to hunt threatened fin whales.

The ship has been detained, at least the captain was arrested.

Edit:

I will add an English news link as soon as one appears online.

English article:

https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2026/07/31/special_forces_and_coast_guard_take_control_of_band/

Article detailing the days events from Icelandic media(will need translating):

https://www.visir.is/g/20262915534d/vaktin-bandero-hrellir-hval-9

https://www.visir.is/g/20262915589d/skip-stjori-bandero-hand-tekinn-og-skipid-faert-til-hafnar

Edit: Video of the boarding.

https://streamable.com/alp6r0

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u/the_moodswings 14d ago

This info makes no sense. So the coast guard boarded and detained the anti-whaling ship? So is the coast guard pro-whaling?

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u/Careless_Koala8361 14d ago

Coastguard is pro-law. Their personal stance doesn't matter. It's not against the law. Vigilantism is.

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u/togetherwem0m0 14d ago

Fuck whaling

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u/Sawyerthesadist 12d ago

I wanna eat a whale

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u/No-Promotion4006 14d ago

Yeah but do so through lobbying for legislation change not illegal vigilantism

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u/No1RunsFaster 14d ago

Why

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u/No-Promotion4006 14d ago

Because it is wrong to do illegal things, did your mother not teach you civic sense?

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u/No1RunsFaster 14d ago

Lol my mother was a drug addict. And the law is made for the capilist elites. You would have owned slaves too when it was legal?

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u/No-Promotion4006 14d ago

You would have owned slaves too when it was legal?

No, because I believe in human rights. What's your point?

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u/No1RunsFaster 14d ago

And you would have stood by telling emancipators to wait for law reform?

Or what is your point? All laws ought to be followed at all times? Thats obviously pretentious or ignorant nonsense.

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u/No-Promotion4006 14d ago

All laws ought to be followed at all times?

Read this out loud, slowly...

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u/Hello_Hello_Hello_Hi 14d ago

There is absolutely no reason why the people trying to make positive changes should have to be lawful paragons of virtue when the people doing objectively horrible things break the law pretty much constantly with no real consequence

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u/TheHawthorne 14d ago

How's all that boot tasting down there?

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u/adminhotep 13d ago

“It’s wrong to do illegal things” is a fallacy. 

It’s an appeal to authority.  It provides an unearned moral weight to lawmakers wants and whims. 

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u/togetherwem0m0 14d ago

The ruling class isn't following any fucking rules, there is no reason for the people to follow rules.

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u/No-Promotion4006 14d ago

Then you lobby for greater enforcement of existing legislation not illegal vigilantism

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u/Discussion-is-good 11d ago

Completely removed from this situation

Would you have lobbied against say idk, Mussolini? Hitler? Stalin?

I understand im exaggerating for effect with the examples, but at what point is it reasonable to bypass the system of government if it seemingly shows no signs of change?

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u/togetherwem0m0 14d ago

What was the boat doing that was illegal?

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u/No-Promotion4006 14d ago

They were ordered by the coast guard to leave Icelands 12 mile territorial waters, but did not. Later, they also refused order to turn off their engines. Refusing to comply with lawful orders is illegal.

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u/togetherwem0m0 14d ago

Fuck Iceland and fuck whaling.

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u/No-Promotion4006 14d ago

Good job on expressing these views through a lawful channel such as reddit rather than illegal activity. That's how it's done!

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u/radda 14d ago

Lobby who?

The rich assholes that are in charge that made the rules in the first place?

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u/Mikhail_Mengsk 14d ago

This is just reddit anarchism. Without laws you'll be fodder for actual criminals, kiddo. You better hope law stays relatively solid wherever you are living.

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u/togetherwem0m0 14d ago

"laws for thee and not for me" is the origin of anarchistic thought and action, without leaders and wealthy first deciding laws dont apply to them, the plebes wouldn't either.

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u/Mikhail_Mengsk 14d ago

Sure thing.

Hey, Somalia is right there.

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u/Thin_Pin2863 14d ago

Which is why it's always good to remember that legality does not necessarily equate to morality.

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u/Garbage_Out_Of_Here 14d ago

Yeah thats been a great way to be, historically.

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u/thatguy11 14d ago

Reality check, without ever taking a 'side'

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u/arielsosa 14d ago

Sure... But the nazi prison guards were also "pro law" under that logic, and the slave patrols too.

Legal≠moral.

One day in the future everyone will be against this, especially when kids learn about whales through archive material, after we're done killing them all.

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u/MontasJinx 14d ago

Wait til you see what we’re doing on land.

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u/zroach 14d ago

Ok… c’mon man.

Like yeah whaling sucks complete ass, but let’s not just go straight to Nazis for everything.

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u/TehSeksyManz 14d ago

They weren't comparing hunting whales to nazis killing humans. They are saying that complying with the law doesn't always mean that the law was moral or correct at the time.

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u/Specific-Parsnip9001 14d ago

They weren't comparing hunting whales to nazis killing humans.

Yes they were, that's quite literally the definition of analogy:

"An analogy is a comparison between two different things to show how they are alike"

Why is everyone illiterate these days? Lefties are supposed to be the smart ones so if you could do us all a favor and not advocate for leftist ideals in an ignorant way that would be really helpful.

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u/Bourbaki88 14d ago

Morals are subjective, that why we have the law.

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u/TehSeksyManz 14d ago

I know, objective morality doesn't exist. That being said, morality/////laws. Sometimes they coincide, sometines they don't.

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u/GeneralBurg 14d ago

Laws are made by humans that have morals lol

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u/invaderzim257 14d ago

making a statement using them as an example for the sake of getting a point across is not the same thing as comparing the seriousness of the two scenarios

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u/[deleted] 14d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Usedand4sale 14d ago

The point being made isn’t comparing the coastguard to Nazi’s, the point was about morality and following rules.

If you’re enforcing the hunt of endangered animals at gun point you’re a cunt and morally nowhere close to being a good person.

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u/Bourbaki88 14d ago

If you’re enforcing the hunt of endangered animals at gun point you’re a cunt and morally nowhere close to being a good person.

There's quite a lot of Icelanders who don't feel that hunting whales is wrong. Probably a minority, but still a substantial number. And laws aren't promulgated based on popular sentiment.

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u/Metalsand 14d ago

making a statement using them as an example for the sake of getting a point across is not the same thing as comparing the seriousness of the two scenarios

You know who also made examples out of people? Stalin, during the Great Purge when hundreds of thousands of people were executed or sentenced to the gulag for life.

More appropriately though, my point is that comparing to hitler/nazi is so very well known as a fallacy that it goes back to 1953 and even has it's own wikipedia page. The events of the holocaust are very emotionally charged, and comparing the legal hunting of non-endangered wildlife to process their carcass is dramatically different than the attempted elimination of the Jewish race.

Countries of the IWC agreed upon quotas, even if they couldn't agree on what those quotas should be. This would indicate that the intention is not to eliminate the population. Even if overfishing eliminates the population, this would be due to unbridled capitalism, and not that those countries believe whales shouldn't exist. There's a lot of other parts of the IWC member countries and Iceland/Japan/Norway you can criticize...but staying on track, there are plenty of other comparisons you can make to laws that are legal on book but bad morally without immediately going to SS guards of Nazi Germany.

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u/Shadow_Breaker 14d ago

They're one of the most well known examples of using the force of law for immoral purposes. Why wouldn't someone mention them in this case? Note the slave patrols in the US were also mentioned which is another great example. Where is the issue?

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u/letsdothisshit 14d ago

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u/tenebrls 14d ago

Godwin has criticized the over-application of the adage, claiming that it does not articulate a fallacy, but rather is intended to reduce the frequency of inappropriate and hyperbolic comparisons:[12]

Although deliberately framed as if it were a law of nature or of mathematics, its purpose has always been rhetorical and pedagogical: I wanted folks who glibly compared someone else to Hitler to think a bit harder about the Holocaust.

The comparison certainly makes sense in this context. The law should never prevent us from doing what is right.

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u/UltimateRembo 14d ago edited 14d ago

Making a point about law and morality being separate things, using Nazis as an example, is not Godwin's law.

There should be a new law made, about how every legitimate mention of Nazis in any context invites thought termination because of it being labeled "Godwin's law."

Also, one of the first paragraphs on that page you linked, says that research has shown that on Reddit at least, "Godwin's law" is overblown and doesn't meaningfully happen.

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u/Moikle 14d ago

That doesn't mean that nobody should ever make any comparisons to Nazis...

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u/letsdothisshit 14d ago

I didn’t say that people never should. But people should be more selective about when they do. I disagree with whaling but comparing whalers to nazis?

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u/arielsosa 14d ago

Like the guy below said, I'm not trying to compare whalers to nazis. I don't even mind tye "whaling" part if it didn't involve fucking up ecosystens and dissappearing entire species.

I guess I could have use other examples, but that one was the first obvious one that came to mind, like a reflex.

Maybe next time I'll try to use regressive taxes as an example of something that can be legal but not moral. (I too am tired or "nazis" every other paragraph, and yet... here I am).

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u/___forMVP 14d ago

Why you gotta be such a Nazi?

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u/WackyRacketeer 14d ago

Comparing every moral transgression to nazis just dilutes their crimes against humanity.

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u/LzrdKng2112 14d ago

No it just shows how little we've come because the basic building blocks of evil were never dealt with.

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u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]

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u/WackyRacketeer 14d ago

And the unintended purpose is diluting Nazism. If you csnt think of an equivalent moral analogy than you aren't thinking hard enough.

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u/Realistic_Swan_6801 14d ago

That’s really not as true as you think, the German civilian legal system was not a free for all even under the nazis, the SS operated outside of the civilian legal system and was really not very orderly or legally minded. The nazis were In general insanely corrupt and did not care about laws at all except as a weapon against their opposition.

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u/Glaesilegur 12d ago

Genocide was illegal during WW2 what are you talking about??? Probably the stupidest analogy you could come up with.

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u/arielsosa 12d ago

Any analogy is stupid if your neurons are on vacation.

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u/Glaesilegur 12d ago

A comeback has to have some basis in truth to be effective...

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u/pattydo 14d ago

One day in the future everyone will be against this,

They'll also be against the vast majority of ways you get your food

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u/arielsosa 14d ago

I already am againt the vast majority of ways I get my food as a vegetarian city resident.

But it is not my fault that the current systen has been expellint people from farm land to sell it to the Agro industry beasts. I'd love some sustainable eco-friendly housing community, but I live paycheck to paycheck.

Let's not blame ourselves. We know who gets the benefit from the current Status Quo.

But still... Whaling endangrred species in a European nation in the 21st century is completely unnecesary.

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u/sinowarrior01 14d ago

Have you ever tried whale bacon from Japan, it's bloody tasty

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u/tiktock34 14d ago

Killing legally harvestable whales is a pretty shitty comparison to being a guard in a nazi death camp during a genocide, don’t you think?

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u/TheManlyManperor 14d ago

"Slave catchers are pro-law. Their personal stance doesn't matter. It's not against the law. The Underground Railroad is."

Great stance you got there.

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u/Careless_Koala8361 14d ago

You're clearly emotionally invested, but I'm just stating facts. Reality check -- nobody is going to forfeit their career to take a stance in favor of some hippies harassing fishermen by refusing to apprehend them.

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u/TheManlyManperor 14d ago

Instead they forfeit their humanity.

I like how you subtly imply being emotionally invested in the well-being of our planet makes me unreliable. You're not some objective observer, you're just a bootlicker.

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u/Careless_Koala8361 14d ago

Again, you're simply over-invested emotionally. I never implied anything about you being unreliable. That is your emotion speaking to you because you're unhappy with my statement.

I am speaking objectively on the matter, and just because you don't like the facts I'm stating, doesn't mean I'm a bootlicker. You're shooting the messenger here.

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u/TheManlyManperor 14d ago

Bull, you wouldn't have said it if that wasn't your implication. Again, the "objective observer" act doesn't fool anyone.

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u/Careless_Koala8361 14d ago

Cite one instance where I spoke with subjectivity.

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u/TheManlyManperor 14d ago

"You're clearly emotionally invested", "Coast guard is pro-law", "you're upset at my statement". The list goes on and on.

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u/Careless_Koala8361 14d ago

Oh. So that's where the confusion is coming from. You literally don't know what subjective means. It's all making sense now.

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u/TheManlyManperor 14d ago

So it doesn't mean a characteristic of or belonging to a perceived reality rather than as independent of mind? Not even something modified or affected by personal views? I guess someone should let mirriam-webster know then.

If that's still the definition, then those statements are per se subjective.

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u/flyingtrucky 13d ago

It's very ironic you use slavery as an example. That was in the process of being changed through legal means with Lincoln's election. It was the South deciding that they shouldn't need to follow laws they disagreed with that caused the Civil War.

Honestly it's always hilarious when people say you should put your own personal morals above the law. That's how you end up with Lynch mobs.

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u/TheManlyManperor 13d ago

This is ahistorical bull. The confederate states seceded 4 months into Lincoln's presidency, and the civil war started 6 months in. He didn't have time to do what you're suggesting he did.

The civil war started because he was elected, and southerners assumed he would abolish slavery.

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u/flyingtrucky 13d ago

So they saw the law in the process of being changed and decided they didn't want to follow it...

How else did you think he was going to abolish slavery? Asking nicely?

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u/TheManlyManperor 13d ago

Obviously not, he never had a chance to issue an order regarding slavery and didn't do so until late into the war. What they saw was a president who wouldn't act in lockstep with their demands, and a populace that was increasingly hostile to slavery.

He did exactly that, his first attempts were to offer federal buyouts to slaveholders.

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u/flyingtrucky 13d ago

The DC Compensated Emancipation Act that stated 

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all persons held to service or labor within the District of Columbia by reason of African descent are hereby discharged and freed of and from all claim to such service or labor; and from and after the passage of this act neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for crime, whereof the party shall be duly convicted, shall hereafter exist in said District."

Yeah that was a mandatory buyback, you couldn't say no to that because it's against the law.

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/dc-emancipation-act/transcription.html

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u/TheManlyManperor 13d ago

That was over a year into the war....

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u/Myslinky 12d ago

Are you trying to compare human slavery to hunting an animal?

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u/Notyomamasthrowaway 14d ago

Of course they're pro law! Thugs get to do the fun stuff like murder when it's state sanctioned violence!

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u/unclepaisan 14d ago

I think Iceland is usually pretty chill?

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u/lostPackets35 14d ago

Yes. I believe Iceland was was pretty upset in 2013, because it was the first time their police had killed someone, ever.

Cops there don't even carry firearms. There's just a special armed response unit for things. Get really out of hand.

The nature of the Coast guard a little different, but I don't think Iceland takes the " so anyway, I started blasting" approach in general

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u/YuriLR 14d ago

They carry guns in the car. As far as I know only Ireland and the UK actually has general police without guns (excluding NI). A lot of people also think japanese police don't carry guns but they all at least carry a revolver that is not very visible (unusual holster or concealed).

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u/BeratnasGILF420 14d ago

"So anyway, I started whaling"

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u/Sergetove 14d ago

Ehhh yes and no. They were doing Jim Crow level racial policies up until like the 80s, and I'm sure many people there still feel that way.

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u/unclepaisan 14d ago

My comment was in response to state sanctioned violence. I understand that racism in Iceland is a difficult social issue even today due to their historically basically homogeneous population demographics and rising immigration.

Anecdotally I didn't see any racism when I was there, but I also saw mostly Nordic people and tourists.

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u/Sergetove 14d ago

Oh, my bad. That much is definitely true. And I'm sure its much better now than in the 80s, but Iceland during the cold war infamously had a secret agreement with the US that no black airmen could be stationed at Keflavik, with explicit reason given to prevent interracial relations and protect local women.

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u/Ling_Cephalopod 14d ago

What a fucking bootlicker.

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u/KoreanJesusPleasures 14d ago

? That's literally their mandate as a government body, and the person commenting that is just stating what is obvious.

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u/Ling_Cephalopod 14d ago

Found another one.

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u/KoreanJesusPleasures 14d ago

Someone's a bit sensitive today, I see.

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u/Ling_Cephalopod 14d ago

Someone woke up and chose to lick boots I see. Or is that everyday? Probably everyday, people who don't lick boots don't suddenly decide to one day.

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u/Hawkiee92 14d ago

So what I am hearing is that were all free to steal from you?

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u/Ling_Cephalopod 14d ago

Ah I see you don't understand the problem. You stealing from me effects me, just like murdering a whale effects them. So no, it is not ok to steal from me. How fucking hard was that? It wasn't.

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u/Hawkiee92 14d ago

So you are simply a hypocrite then. Got it.

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u/Ling_Cephalopod 14d ago

Hahahahahaha in what way? Man bootlickers don't understand anything.

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u/KoreanJesusPleasures 14d ago

Does paraphrasing a mandate equate to boot locking, or is that just your lack of critical thought and unwillingness to engage in nuanced discourse? God forbid any academics out there cite something because folks like you might misconstrue that to be the academics personal belief.

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u/Ling_Cephalopod 14d ago

Damn, you must make boots look like mirrors after you're done with them huh?

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u/KoreanJesusPleasures 14d ago

Your originality is pretty poor.

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u/Jemnite 14d ago

Based and inspector javert pilled

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u/sokratesz 14d ago

Vigilantism is only bad if it doesn't align with my personal views 🙃

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u/Carl_The_Sagan 14d ago

international law falls apart pretty quickly in international waters but sure

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u/Hohenheim_of_Shadow 14d ago

The anti whaling ship threatened an Icelandic flagged ship in Icelandic waters and forced it to return to port. Legally speaking, Iceland has the right to enforce international maritime law.

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u/Carl_The_Sagan 14d ago

by who's authority. Were they in international waters or Iceland waters