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> Tens of thousands of Russian people will die each year because of the greed and corruption The "because of greed" way of phrasing these things seems like a w
by oconnor663 10y ago
> Tens of thousands of Russian people will die each year because of the greed and corruption
The "because of greed" way of phrasing these things seems like a weird place to stop to me. If a rock falls on your head and kills you, I think it's fair to say you died "because of a rock". That seems like the key difference between your situation and everyone else's, that explains why you _in particular_ just died. But it would be weird to say that you died "because of gravity" or "because of the frailty of man".
- RodericDay 10y agoincorrect blandishments about "human nature" being greedy or whatever do nothing to move the discussion forward. they're thought-terminating cliches.
- projektir 10y agoThe point is that humans are not dying due to bad luck, due to their own faults, due to lack of resources, or due to any other "acceptable" cause. They're very much dying because someone else is working to amass extra wealth at their expense.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoIt's pretty simple. Greed seems to be what motivated the act of corruption, which leads to people dying when they could be not dying. It's as if I was drunk-driving and drove you over. It would not be said that "the car killed" you, but that "a drunk driver" killed you.