Someone who runs around murdering people they don’t like does deserve punishment imo. I wouldn’t say it’s right to dehumanize them, but we must recognize that humans can be evil and if they are they must change or suffer the consequences. I’d also argue lacking hard lines about behavior is exactly why we currently have a fascist takeover. Society cannot survive if the average person doesn’t condemn people who do bad things. If that’s not possible, one of the only remaining ways to prevent negative behavior is to collectively agree to use the government to prevent it. Look at where we are now-- laws not being enforced on the rich and powerful. People voting for racists, fascists, and others who want to take away our rights. Constant blatant lies and unwarranted attacks. Propaganda. Sex crimes. Human trafficking. Widespread support for rapists and muderers-by-proxy. Misinformation/disinformation. Price fixing. Xenophobia and tribalism. In short, a lack of basic empathy.

We (or at least, some of us) recognize that these things are bad, but we do not have the will or power to stop it at its source. Only through collective agreement can we create a system that can enforce consequences on these behaviors. I will advocate for reform first, and we should make sure that we’re trying to do it in the best way that we can, but if that is not possible or effective, then yes, the people who continue to exploit and deceive and hurt should be punished. It has to stop.

Of course, no system is immune to corruption. Authoritarian systems especially are prone to being taken over by groups with special interests, whoch not only guts their effectiveness but completely revrses their intended goals if they were noble ones. That’s why I advocate for more democratic processes, not actual authoritarianism. We should have direct votes on core issues-- those that I mentioned above-- to implement laws to stop those behaviors. Spokespeople for all options should present their arguments to a panel of fact-checkers who have experience or credentials in related fields, who must unanimously approve the statements, which are then presented before the public votes on the issues. Enforcement should be handled by anonymized trials. The court system should scrub all references to who did the crime (and any related actors) and present the series of actions to a jury to decide their fate. These tricks are similar to the classic “two children need to share a cake; have one person cut it and the other select their slice first” solution. They must ensure that the incentives to cheat in our current system cannot be effective.

TL;DR: Through collective action we can build a system that uses tricks to avoid the pitfalls of our current system. This system should be robust and can be used to enforce rehabilitation and prevention, and then punishment if behavior does not improve, for violations of the social contract.