Zuzak

Moral rules are not things to be blindly followed, but rather are useful guidelines to avoid screwing things up. They are "the manual," they are "standard operating procedure," they are there for a reason and you can deviate from them, sure, but you'd better have a damn good reason, or you can expect it to blow up in your face.

Virtually everyone seems to have this all twisted up. On the one hand, you have people who always try to follow SOP, even if there's good reason to deviate from it. On the other hand, you have people who see that there are situations where SOP doesn't apply, so they just ignore it altogether. Both of these approaches are foolish and lead to making mistakes.

The trolley problem is a thought experiment specifically designed to be an exception to the otherwise reasonable SOP of "Don't kill innocents." But you don't make a rule from the exception. You don't go around treating, "The ends justify the means," or "It doesn't matter how many people I have to sacrifice in persuit of the greater good," as your new SOP, just because you saw a thought experiment where the old SOP doesn't apply.

The whole reason moral guidelines are necessary is because the mind if fallible and prone to making mistakes. Our emotions, or our desire to fit a particular identity, may get in the way of good decision making. For example, the use of torture post-9/11 was driven by hatred, a desire for revenge and domination, and a desire to embody the image of the Jack Bauer antihero, willing to do whatever it takes to keep people safe. I've read reports of NSA torturers walking out of torture sessions while visibly erect. It was driven by, well, evil. This "ends justifies the means" mental framework makes it all to easy for hate or other emotions to hijack reason. Of course, in reality, this torture never produced any useful information, and in at least one case caused a previously cooperative informant to clam up.

Likewise, if a problem can be pushed out of sight and out of mind, it can easily be ignored or rationalized away. This is the case with liberals and the Palestinian genocide. When something is far away, when it affects people who I don't know, then psychologically it becomes much easier to write off anything that happens - even moreso if you are operating on the framework of, "Any cost to achieve my aims." But these situations are where moral guidelines are more important than ever. It is fundamentally unacceptable to act on willful ignorance of the suffering caused by one's actions, to say, "This makes me feel guilty so I just won't look at it or think about it." This is another way in which one's mind can compromise their reason and better judgement.

That's also what's at play, at least imo, when people continue to eat meat despite knowing about the cruelty involved in that industry. When we see someone beat a dog, we are horrified, we are outraged, we are moved to act to stop it - because our empathy extends to the pain the dog feels. But cows and pigs can feel pain just as a dog can, which means that rationally, we should be equally horrified at the conditions those animals are kept in. But those practices are always kept out of sight and out of mind, and the mind has powerful forces, like the force of habit, that are capable of compromising reason and good judgement.

When people try to convince me of things (especially things like torture or genocide) based on them being "the lesser evil," to say it goes against SOP is an understatement. It's like asking me to dance a waltz on the raised forks of a forklift. Now, maybe some set of circumstances exists in which standing on the raised forks of a forklift makes sense, like maybe it's the only way to escape a fire. But I'm never going to accept that this is just a normal or generally acceptable way of doing things.

The rules are there for a reason and you shouldn't deviate from them without a very good reason and the majority of the time that people think they have a good reason they are wrong.

I think I see your point a bit more, I didn't really think about the implications of American fascism being a new thing. Also didn't want to single you out or anything.

I hear you, I just feel like the meme was about the ordinary soldiers rather than the government. Fully respect wanting to correct the record regarding the government, just felt it was worth a reminder that there were people like the soldier in the meme who did sacrifice a lot fighting for a worthy cause and who do deserve respect, and our criticism of the government shouldn't overshadow that. Just a small pushback on that, but one I felt was important.

There were also 400,000 soldiers who died fighting fascists under the US flag, who were not responsible for their government's decisions regarding the use of nuclear weapons, nor Operation Paperclip, nor any other major government decisions.

I gotta push back against the criticism that several of my comrades in here are expressing. Y'all are talking about the US collaborating with Nazis after the war, and you're not wrong about that, but that was the US government, while this meme is about a soldier. The soldiers on the ground fought for all sorts of reasons, they might have opposed the Nazis for all sorts of ideological reasons, or they might have just been doing it out of loyalty, or any of the other reasons soldiers fight. But there were people on the ground fighting the Nazis under a US flag who were committed antifascists and even communists. As for the others, whatever their reasons, when the call came to save the world from fascism, they answered, and were willing to sacrifice life and limb to do it. That's pretty heroic if you ask me. And they weren't the ones who made the decision to let Nazis into NATO and stuff afterwards.

I understand the defensiveness against attempts to glorify the US while villifying the USSR and downplay their (more substantial) sacrifice and contribution to the war. But there's nothing in this meme that's doing that, and there were Americans who contributed to the war effort. Is it necessary to kneejerk react to a meme celebrating someone who fought the Nazis by talking about the government that ruled over them? People aren't defined by their nation or their government.

Let's not forget the proud tradition of people like Woody Guthrie, who explicitly tied the war effort to a broader idea of antifascism, nor of the people on the front lines who he inspired.

Magneto.

Pirating Andor bc Disney+ is on the BDS list. One of the best shows I've ever seen but I'd sooner drop it than violate the boycott, even if money was no object. As things stand, piracy is the only ethical way to watch it.

CP violation in weak interactions

Weak force, why don't you have a seat over there

You could say that but you could also say that they're biden their time

Is this horseshoe theory?

What's your plan when your preferred party nominates someone above your maximum age?

The vibes on RedNote aren't so bad.