“If you studied the history of where the word “thug” came from, it was an Eastern religious cult that delighted in double crossing victims.”
It comes from Thugee, which was a religion in India that believed it was their god given right and duty to murder people and steal their stuff. The god was Kali, and they are believed to have murdered over a million people before they were wiped out by the British Empire.
We could learn a bit about handling religions that believe it is their duty to murder people from the British response. They did not release know Thugs back to the general population, as we have done with those held in Gitmo.
“Murder and steal” — which they did. The picture I got was one of doing it sneakily, through con games, which plumbed the depths of shame. I guess it was justified in their heads by the idea that someone had to deliver the negative karma of the universe and it might as well be them. Trouble was, it came sailing back their way. I’d agree that if a culprit is religiously dedicated to misdeeds, he should be treated with much more circumspection than an ordinary rogue.