The per-capita death rate was higher in Mexico in 2006-2016, was it not? (I understand it was over 111,000 people murdered by Cartels from 2006 to 2012 alone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War#Casualties
Also, numerous VICE and other "alt media" have covered the insane number of shootings in Juarez, etc.)
--I don't think the individual witnesses in the prior pieces are lying. Whether they are "pro-west" propaganda is also up for question.
Also: the Mexican police will gladly ruin your life if you have a gun, which is why the civilian defense groups don't trust the government there, and are also targeted by them, in addition to the cartels. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupos_de_Autodefensa_Comunitaria
Also: there is even less pretence at due process in Mexico than in the USA. (For example, a friend of mine who is a grade-school principal in Mexico was abducted and tortured by Mexican police for days because he had the same name as someone on their wanted list. When they realized they had the wrong guy, they just let him go, black and blue from head to toe, and one of his testicles ruptured.)
The cartels themselves are a symptom of US prohibition. Therefore, the blame lies squarely at the feet of non-libertarian US voters, so in that regard, the lower-hierarchical-level decision-maker is less morally culpable than the highest-hierarchical-level decision-maker.
I agree with you, to that extent. (Nothing you said in this essay contradicts that, but it also isn't quite as clear. For example: The cartels also extort, and kill those they can't extort, which is a far lesser extortion than the street cops in Chicago and New York are guilty of, when they steal someone's warez for not having a "vending license," or kill them, as they did Eric Garner.)
The agency of the US voter is higher than that of the cartels, who are opportunists who take advantage of the stupidity of the US voter to engage in the risk/reward paradigm created by prohibition. That said, the cartels are also full of sociopaths, and sociopaths will trend toward the greatest waste and ruin of life, by default. The ruin extends far beyond the drug trade, due to the fact that once you're controlling territory, that control allows many more immoral income streams
--extortion and theft being primaries.The tragedy is immense. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War#Casualties ...And many of the victims are completely innocent of wrongdoing. In fact, they are likely the easiest targets. Those who try to establish a true free market are also likely to be killed.
We might agree about this: The first responsibility/culpability for the entire mess lies with the intellectually lazy, unphilosophical US voter.
Its weird, you talk about things like mexico's high murder rate, which you say the cartels are responsible for. Then you blame the United States for Mexico's problems because we've outlawed the drugs they import to us. The United States are the buyers in a huge drug market, no doubt about that. But a country is responsible for its own problems, so by my logic, street gangs in Chicago are the fault of the united states, even though they may be selling drugs imported from Mexican cartels, whereas Mexico is responsible for its cartel problem. They have a shitty weak government that can't stop the cartels from operating, and the responsibility for that lies primarily with each individual Mexican. If your country is a piece of shit, and you haven't opted out of the concept of the nation state, you are partially responsible for your country being a piece of shit. What I am saying is that the country with the highest standard of living and the best governing structure, whatever the latter means to you, is responsible for that achievement, they built that culture, that nation, and that standard of living, while the country that is its polar opposet is also responsible for building themselves a shithole.