i can't even guess as to why they went quiet. not one guess at all. we will never know.
edit: well they're not quiet now once they get called out
this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2024
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Yep, thats one of the classic criticism of utilitarian philosophy: it doesnt take into consideration if the actions being evaluated are evil or not. From a certain point of view I'm sure killing anyone can be made to be a good trade compared to some other greater evil, but you're supposed to just line up behind defeating evil and be done with it. Utilitarianism is taught almost solely to be mocked in philosophy class, same as solopsism.
Ironically it was only the college educated who are likely tro be exposed to these ideas, and they are primarily on the utilitarian side of the argument this time.
Makes no sense. I think they just werent paying attention in philo 101. They missed out on ethics 301 as well.
Exactly. Hell, you can go full Godwin if you want. The Holocaust itself was justified on utilitarian grounds.
"I'm sorry, times are tough, and we just can't afford to keep the disabled around anymore. Tough decisions must be made..."
"Those political prisoners we've sent to camps? Yes, it is an unfortunate violation of rights, but their ideas are so dangerous, and so harmful, that we really have no choice if we want to save society."
"The Jews? Well you see, history is never-ending contest between racial groups, simple Darwinian evolution. And having weak genes in our country harms our ability to survive. So unfortunately, we have to do what we have to do. It's for the greater good."
A whole lot of SS troops went to the gallows believing they did nothing wrong.
And Hell, from a purely utilitarian perspective, I can't even say for certain the Nazis were wrong. In theory, in a long enough timescale, could we not actually avert net suffering by committing an omni-genocide? Select one ethic group from a hat. Everybody else goes to the camps.
Sure, we kill 90% of the Earth's population now, but think of the long term. First, with such a reduced population, global warming is stopped in its tracks. Same with most other environmental problems. But the best result? The end of racism! Can't have racism if there's only one racial group. So sure, we sacrifice 90% of the human population today, but in exchange we've eliminated all racial hatred and violence, from now until the end of time! We sacrifice 7 billion humans today, but we probably save trillions on a long enough timescale.
From a purely utilitarian perspective, we should probably select one ethic group by random and just kill everyone else. In the long term, it will reduce net human suffering.