Careful examination of real-world conflict does occasionally uncover not moral equivalents, but moral approximates. Though the two sides’ moral status is not precisely equal, they are morally more-or-less the same.
Tag: change
Evil’s Supporters
Helping someone commit evil acts, or supporting them while they commit them, is just as bad as committing the evil acts yourself.
“Red Flag” Laws Violate Human Rights
Red-flag legislation is all the rage, politically. I don’t call them laws because they aren’t laws. Laws can’t violate natural human rights; this legislation does. Imposing or enforcing legislation that violates life, liberty, or property in any way makes you the wrongdoer. It doesn’t change matters to write words giving yourself permission to violate people. Legislation can’t make wrongs right, and it is wrong to punish someone for something you imagine they might do.
Trump’s First Offer was a Better Deal for Palestine — and Israel
If Israel’s regime was interested in peace, or even in its country’s survival, it would unilaterally withdraw to its 1967 borders, begin negotiating administration of Palestinians’ “right of return” to their stolen land, and recognize the existing State of Palestine.
Elon Musk Wants Talent, Not Diplomas
The founder and CEO of corporate innovation giants Tesla and SpaceX tweeted on February 2 that he is hiring for his artificial intelligence group at Tesla and wants to recruit the most talented people he can find. Talent, to Musk, means “deep understanding” of artificial intelligence and the ability to pass a “hardcore coding test,” but it doesn’t necessarily include degrees and diplomas.
Being Forced to Help Not Helping
Being forced to help isn’t helping. Complying with a threat doesn’t make you a compassionate or moral person. It shows you can be manipulated and easily scared into doing what someone else thinks you should instead of acting on your own values.
The Source of Decisions vs. the Sequence of Decisions
In reality, only individuals can ever decide. Only individuals act. Individuals decide to listen to other individuals or ignore them. You can’t change this. To say, “Let the experts/government/market decide” is just a less clear way of saying, “Let individuals decide”. The thing that changes are the consequences and incentives for those individuals. What is really being debated is what happens after an individual decides.
Is Bernie Sanders a Crypto-Communist? A Bayesian Analysis
The word “crypto-communist” has a paranoid, McCarthyite connotation. But during the Cold War, numerous communist intellectuals and politicians deliberately concealed their commitment to Marxism-Leninism. Why? To be more successful intellectuals and politicians.
Good to Occasionally Consider “What If?”
Everyone would be smart to consider “what if?” — especially where their beliefs and assumptions are concerned.
The Problem of Living in the Now
Gurus will tell us that we are better off in a state of mindfulness, receiving only the sensory information of the present. Historians insist that we must learn the lessons of the past, else we will be doomed to repeat them. Futurists try to convince us that we should plan meticulously, in order to manage the pain (or pleasure, or ennui) of unforeseen consequences.