Honestly, for me, nothing makes me just switch off during a debate when someone tells me my opinion is my opinion. It's literally the weakest possible argument you can make against someone's case.
If you were paying attentiuon you'd have seen that i wasn't advancing that as an argument against your argument - but against your assertion that ruth was categorically wrong
and in actual fact thats the weakest possible argument " you are wrong because i say so , your opinion is wrong and mine is right because i believe i am " - that is the view of a fundamentalist , not someone who is open to any debate
There is no ivory tower or a utopian view, there is only the social ideals to which western civilisation must hold itself if it is to remain the guiding force in morality.
But western civilisation doesnt hold itself to those ideals - as i said earlier every western country sanctions violence and killing when it suits their ends , ie to defend themselves, their citizens, and their way of life.
You can deny this if you wish, but a blinkered denial of facts is exactly what i mean about ivory towers.
for example you say that we don't kill under any circumstances - rebbutal to which as i said earlier afghanistan, iraq, falklands, korea, WW2 etc
so okay may you mean we don't kill outside of war - rebbutal Aden, cyprus, ulster, malaysia
okay so our armed forces kill but other than that we dont - except of course for armed police
so we don't kill as a punishment - well except for war crimes
well we don't kill people for general crimes - well we don't but america does and they are a major western power.
so at the end of the day we return to the basic question , is it true that we dont kill for any reason - um no, not really
Also who says that the west is the guiding light in morality - that is an extremly arrogant view, especially when you look at the failings in western society - many of which have come about in my view through lack of effective punishment of offenders