3 ms·

I think you missed the caveat about the actual damage caused. Wasting people's time is nowhere close to murder.

• jlg23 11y ago
  And I think you missed the point of my response. I chose a admittedly drastic picture to get across the point about causing collateral damage.
  • CydeWeys 11y ago
    Hyperbolic analogies don't prove points though.
    • jameshart 11y ago
      Hyperbolic analogies are a perfectly valid tool for refuting absolute statements, in particular arguments of the form 'the end justifies the means'. If someone argues that some $noble_end is served by $means_under_debate, as a justification for the means, that argument can be refuted by giving a circumstance where the same $noble_end is served by some $extreme_means where both parties can agree that $extreme_means is never justifiable. Then once we've agreed that the form of that argument doesn't work, it is reduced to 'the ends justify sufficiently noble means', we can move on to discuss whether the $means_under_debate are sufficiently noble, setting aside the fact they they lead to $noble_end.