Have any cultures in history viewed cruelty positively?

Modern Mongolians worship Genghis Khan.

Fuck, user that's deep.

>2630569
>intentionally inflicting or allowing unnecessary and unwanted suffering
slavery? torture by the state or the church? warrior culture?

by that definition will be every civilizations (even moderm ones)

fuck

...

Aztecs
Nazi Germany

How is that not cruel?

Depends on who you're applying it to.

Sounds fair. Don't do shoddy workmanship, you twats.

Hammurabi's code was supposed to be an improvement.

In tribal and familiar cultures, an offense/crime can be disportinately visited upon the offender.

"You killed my brother now i'll kill 3 of you!"
"You raped my wife so I'm going to rape your 7 year old, her mother, and her grandmother"

In contrast, Hammurabi's Code was progressive.

> have made a pillar facing the city gate, and have flayed all the rebel leaders; I have clad the pillar in the flayed skins. I let the leaders of the conquered cities be flayed, and clad the city walls with their skins. The captives I have killed by the sword and flung on the dung heap, the little boys and girls were burnt.
>t.Ashurnasirpal II

Don't think that's possible since cruelty by definition precludes decency or virtue, in the same manner that there is no such thing as a justifiable murder, even if there's justifiable homicide.

The Comanche and to a lesser extent the Apache believed that a person's "power" could be absorbed at the point of death if they died in excruciating agony. As a result of this belief, they would routinely torture their captives to death.

>In the eastern woodlands cultural area (roughly encompassing the eastern one-half of the United States, and the southern portion of Quebec and Ontario), cultural traditions for dealing with captives predated the arrival of Europeans, and involved either adoption or execution by torture.
>adult captives [2] as well as teenage boys,[3] would usually face death by ritual torture. The torture had strong sacrificial overtones, usually to the sun.[4] Captives, especially warriors, were expected to show extreme self-control and composure during torture, singing "death songs", bragging of one's courage or deeds in battle, and otherwise showing defiance.[5] The torture was conducted publicly in the captors' village, and the entire population (including children) watched and participated.[6] Common torture techniques included burning the captive, which was done one hot coal at a time, rather than the Hollywood-style firewood pyres; cutting with knives, beatings with switches or sticks, and jabs from sharp sticks. Prisoners' fingernails were ripped out. Their fingers were broken, then twisted and yanked by children. Captives were made to eat pieces of their own flesh, and were scalped alive. To make the torture last longer, the Native Americans would revive captives with rest periods during which time they were given food and water. Tortures typically began on the lower limbs, then gradually spread to the arms, then the torso. The Native Americans spoke of "caressing" the prisoners gently at first, which meant that the initial tortures were designed to cause pain, but only minimal bodily harm. By these means, the execution of a captive, especially an adult male, could take several days and nights.[7]

Looks like murder via ritual torture was quite a widespread native American tradition.