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“The trouble with tainted money is t’aint enough of it.” - William Booth. Playing devil’s advocate here: Accepting tainted money as charity is not the problem.
by joosters 7y ago
“The trouble with tainted money is t’aint enough of it.” - William Booth.
Playing devil’s advocate here: Accepting tainted money as charity is not the problem. Promoting the donors, giving them prestige, contacts, access or some other benefits as a result of donations is the problem.
- pvg 7y agoIt is absolutely, very much a problem to take money from an unrepentant abuser and predator who is still publicly flaunting his abusive and predatory ways. You could argue that, perhaps, such institutions should also not cater to the merely wealthy and vain. But you can enable vanity without enabling sex trafficking.
- i_am_nomad 7y agoWhat if the money could be accepted in a way that could not possibly convey any status or glory back to the donor - something permanently anonymous - and also did not allow the donor any guidance over the use of the money? I’m asking as a philosophical question, not suggesting that Ito’s actions might be justified.
- pvg 7y agoIt's certainly a complex and worthy philosophical question but what does it have to do with a child rapist contributing to MIT? My take is 'nothing'. Like, you shouldn't have child rapists contributing to your institution. It seems morally and philosophically trivial.