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I don't see this as a compelling argument. When I was 8, saying all the other kids did it too didn't make whatever I did ok. If a student gets caught cheating

I don't see this as a compelling argument. When I was 8, saying all the other kids did it too didn't make whatever I did ok. If a student gets caught cheating in Rice's class, and says 'but the other students were cheating too' that wouldn't make it ok.

victorhooi 11y ago
Your example doesn't really make any sense. This wasn't about cheating - this was about war leaders making decisions during times of war or conflict (or what they believed was war). As a President (or political leader) you will need to make hard decisions. And you are guaranteed to annoy some sub-section of the population by your decisions. And like it or not, conflict (or war) is a part of our world - and as a leader, you need to make tough calls. We can dissect those decisions afterwards - and offer our own commentary. But I am not arrogant enough to think that I would make a better President or political leader - I don't have the stomach for those sorts of decisions, or a thick enough skin. My question to you - do you think you could make better calls in each of those cases? Personal opinion - I didn't agree with a lot of Bush Jr's decisions. However, I think he did the best with the information and advice he had. Whilst some people may not like him, I don't think anybody has actually ever accused him of being outright deceptive, or misleading? (Stupid, perhaps, but he was anything if not earnest). Another thing - often on HN, we don't understand that we aren't really the majority - we're in our own little echo chamber here (for better or worse). Most of us are fairly affluent, technologically advanced - and let's face it, out of touch with the average person. And some of us are also part of the tin-foil hat crowd =). Take the Snowden leaks - a lot of us are up in arms about the invasion of liberties (and possibly for good reason). But for many average people, Snowden is nothing more than an American traitor - and the fact that we're spying on other nations? "Gee, I thought that's what our government was meant to do?". A lot of the people outside of tech don't really care that much about the invasion of privacy - they are so far removed from that sort of thing that it doesn't really impact them (or so they think).

victorhooi 11y ago

Your example doesn't really make any sense. This wasn't about cheating - this was about war leaders making decisions during times of war or conflict (or what they believed was war). As a President (or political leader) you will need to make hard decisions. And you are guaranteed to annoy some sub-section of the population by your decisions. And like it or not, conflict (or war) is a part of our world - and as a leader, you need to make tough calls. We can dissect those decisions afterwards - and offer our own commentary. But I am not arrogant enough to think that I would make a better President or political leader - I don't have the stomach for those sorts of decisions, or a thick enough skin. My question to you - do you think you could make better calls in each of those cases? Personal opinion - I didn't agree with a lot of Bush Jr's decisions. However, I think he did the best with the information and advice he had. Whilst some people may not like him, I don't think anybody has actually ever accused him of being outright deceptive, or misleading? (Stupid, perhaps, but he was anything if not earnest). Another thing - often on HN, we don't understand that we aren't really the majority - we're in our own little echo chamber here (for better or worse). Most of us are fairly affluent, technologically advanced - and let's face it, out of touch with the average person. And some of us are also part of the tin-foil hat crowd =). Take the Snowden leaks - a lot of us are up in arms about the invasion of liberties (and possibly for good reason). But for many average people, Snowden is nothing more than an American traitor - and the fact that we're spying on other nations? "Gee, I thought that's what our government was meant to do?". A lot of the people outside of tech don't really care that much about the invasion of privacy - they are so far removed from that sort of thing that it doesn't really impact them (or so they think).