“There is something in meanness which excites a species of resentment that never subsides, and something in cruelty which stirs up the heart to the highest agony of human hatred”

These words, written in Thomas Paine’s The Crisis referred specifically to the British Empire, the tormenter of his place and time. Nonetheless, as with so much of Paine’s writing, his thought applies to all times and all places.

Cruelty merely begets more cruelty in a never-ending cycle of hatred and violence. Attempting to claim a moral high ground while engaging in cruelty, killing, and torture, does not make such actions moral.

Whether it is the Bible, the Koran, or the Constitution of the United States, there is no legitimate cover for unnecessary acts of cruelty.

And in all cases, to put it colloquially, mean people suck.