The execution of Frank Atwood.

[Rev. Rye]

I’m inclined to think that part of the reason they’re so bitter about a murder that happened before I was born is because of something in humanity that loves violence, but is keenly aware that totally indulging in it to their hearts content won’t end well. So we find proxies. Sometimes they’re in the form of sports games, sometimes it’s in the form of violent media. And sometimes, it’s in taking out someone who’s done something horrible. Someone who’s pushed the right buttons to get you pissed off. Maybe it’s something as objectively horrific as murdering a child, maybe it’s something comparatively mild, like making a particularly off-colour tweet. Then they have the opportunity to be held to account for what they’ve done, and it gives you that same sort of dopamine rush.

You want the truth, the way I see it, the only real difference between the people in the photo in the OP and the Social Media Hiveminds that targeted (just to use a highly visible recent example) either Amber Heard or (to a lesser extent) Johnny Depp because they got a bit too invested in a celebrity defamation trial and the larger meta narratives it represents is that the guys in the picture above are at least cheering on a final, decisive action; when Amber or Johnny end up back in the public eye for any reason, odds are, they’re just going to keep repeating the same old shit over and over because they haven’t realized that throwing a shit fit on Twitter isn’t guaranteed to end their prospective sacrifice’s careers.

Also worth noting, while trying to look up information on the crime, I found out that Atwood had to be the one to show his executioners to put the needle in his arm.