4 ms·
@braythwayt considered an engineer following orders to implement an unethical (illegal?) "feature" is directly comparable to Nazis following orders to commit ge
by close04 8y ago
@braythwayt considered an engineer following orders to implement an unethical (illegal?) "feature" is directly comparable to Nazis following orders to commit genocide. Even in principle. But...
The Nuremberg Principles define War Crimes. It's quite literally what they're for. Do you not understand this massive difference? All laws take magnitude into consideration. Look at the jurisprudence. It's all related to acts far above what's being discussed here. But if you really really want to draw the parallel between a "regular" act and a the kind of crimes that see this principle applied then keep this in mind [0]:
> An individual must be involved at the policy-making level to be culpable for a crime against peace ... the ordinary foot soldier is not expected to make his or her own personal assessment as to the legality of a conflict. Similarly, such an individual cannot be held criminally responsible for fighting in support of an illegal war, assuming that his or her personal war-time conduct is otherwise proper
You're both conveniently ignoring the fact that this defense was attempted mostly by generals, captains, field marshals. Foot soldiers were never on the same footing as the superiors. Not in the execution of their duties, not in taking responsibility.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_orders#Legal_proceedings_of_Jeremy_Hinzman_in_Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_orders#Legal_proceedi...
- llukas 8y agoFocus is only if Nurnberg principle IV can apply to corporation/employee (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_principles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_principles): "The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him." Nobody tries to pull Nazis in any other context except you. Relation to "normal things" is that in '30 Germany process of making genocide a "normal thing" happened. This similar as with Google under process of changing their ways from "do no evil" to privacy consuming profit first corporation. It doesn't happening overnight - and is using similar mechanisms. I don't see any argument from you that would invalidate claim that those two situations are similar.