I do believe that what I have called populist democracy is to be preferred to what I have called elitist democracy.

It is true (independently of our conceptualisation) that it is wrong to inflict pain on a sentient creature for no reason (she doesn't deserve it, I haven't promised to do it, it is not helpful to this creature or to anyone else if I do it, and so forth). But if this is a truth, existing independently of our conceptualisation, then at least one moral fact (this one) exists and moral realism is true. We have to accept this, I submit, unless we can find strong reasons to think otherwise.

It is hard to tell if capital punishment has such an effect. And even if, in some contexts it has (such as in the American South with a very high incidence of murder), this effect may very well go away if a decent welfare state was replaced for the existing social order.

The democratic thought is based on that 'ordinary people' are suitable to rule themselves.

According to deontology it is wrong to kill an innocent human being, period.

I am a left winger, thought.

We should not accept moral nihilism unless we find strong arguments to do so.