Philosophy

Hey, this is cool.

I fancy myself somewhat of a philosopher, and I did a little tiny bit of jail time and I did it too, mostly cause I can't help myself lol.

We had some real good talks. Some of the smartest people I've met tbh, mostly thrown to circumstance.

I agree, prison should be a learning thing, not strictly a punitive thing. It feeds the cycle of this behavior more often than not. Ime. Mostly by design, sadly.

I kind of don't support either side here

men need to be strong, that's ok, they just don't need to use that violence to harm others aggressively unprovoked, but sometimes may need to use it to defend themselves or others, so the prisoners rightly understand this to some extent

the "philosophy" therefore sounds like brainwashing given how it's phrased that "macho" culture is somehow in itself "toxic" or "damaging"

so the prisoner side is open to committing violent crime but the teacher side sounds like a kind of passivity that can not be useful for defending against legitimate threats (like aggressive fellow inmates that a prisoner may encounter?)