0201 - Okay with it. - 2021.08.09 |
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Comment: Have you ever experienced someone you like and trust mentioning, offhandedly, that they'd be okay with an atrocity? Sometimes it's more flippant than other times, of course. You might hear a frustrated parent saying "well, let's just send all the kids to school with peanut butter sandwiches, and it'll be sad for a bit, but in the long run, maybe the gene pool will be healthier...". You might hear a racist-but-we-don't-talk-about-it uncle clapping a returning veteran on the back and thanking them for "fighting all those damn Muslims over there so we don't have them swarming over here". You might hear your date muttering approval of an action movie hero torturing bad guys to gain information about their crimes. You might hear a weary nurse suggesting that idiots who don't follow COVID-19 protocols should all be made to catch the virus that they apparently don't care about. Does it change your perception of someone, if they haven't done anything terrible, but you know, hypothetically, that they'd be okay with it happening? Does it make a difference if the terrible thing is unlikely or unrealistic? We experience this quite a lot on social media, I think. Lord knows, I've certainly made flippant or sarcastic remarks that would make me look quite heartless, if taken out of context... which is what social media excels at. How much leeway do you give someone before you pull them aside and confront them? Would you break off a relationship if someone expressed hypothetical support for electro-shocking non-standard children, or killing off everyone who follows a given ideology, or segregating society into good citizens and deviants? Would you warn a friend away from dating someone if they've never actually treated a romantic partner badly, but have casually suggested that if you've paid for dinner & drinks, you're owed something at the end of the night? If someone agrees with something monstrous that their nation is doing, are they culpable? Does it make a difference if they pay taxes or vote or participate in online political discussions? We all accept, to a certain degree, that the price of affordable consumer goods is that somewhere in the supply chain of fungible resources, there may be trace amounts of brutal union-busting or child slavery or environmental decimation. Is the same attitude reasonable towards governments? |
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