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I've always been surprised none of the "teachers" participating threatened to call the police. (I would probably have gotten arrested for assaulting the experim

by apl 16y ago

I've always been surprised none of the "teachers" participating threatened to call the police. (I would probably have gotten arrested for assaulting the experimenter, myself.) You and 99% of all people hearing about the Milgram experiments. The essential point, however, is that in fact you wouldn't. Just like 80% of all people state they'd DEFINITELY have been in the resistance during Third Reich. It's convenient to say that, but statistics tell us otherwise.

rdl 16y ago
For me it is a lot more specific. I wouldn't have a big problem with enhanced interrogation in some contexts (I think torture is a bad policy and a losing strategy for a country, but in a classified interrogation context, wouldn't rock the boat). I have certainly been around recreational bdsm scenes which were fairly intense as well. I just don't trust doctors (psychologists, MDs) to be competent -- I have seen too many fuckups. Plus, there would be little personal risk in standing up to them. In the ww2 context, I am kind of ashamed to say I would have been an amoral defense contractor, doing whatever made me the most money with access to the best technical challenges and toys. I wouldn't have been initially willing to start off with war crimes, but I could definitely see using slave labor, overlooking virtually any other crimes, to ship, especially if it seemed like losing could lose the war. Or, if not a defense industrialist, a soldier.