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> "Telling right from wrong, or deciding how to feel about other people's behaviour, is a job for our consciences." Well the moral and good men in WW2 would ne

> "Telling right from wrong, or deciding how to feel about other people's behaviour, is a job for our consciences." Well the moral and good men in WW2 would never even thought of killing. But then they were ordered to, and because everyone said "it's ok to kill" this taboo of killing was suspended for the few years of the war. So our morals are obviously complete relative to what most people around us are doing. Kill a random guy in 2010? Murder. Kill a random guy in a way in 1945? A pat on the back and the medal. From a biological survival standpoint "beeing good" matters only "within the tribe" because that is how you stay alive and thrive. But if the tribe would trive better as a whole if you murder the opposing tribe then that is also "being good". If morality is rooted in brain science it merely means that it's not absolute, but relative since brain changes if evolution happens. Today's goods are tomorrow's evils. And then there are doctors and academics who say we should dump chemicals in water to artificaly increase "altruism".

lowdose 6y ago
To kick off a morality discussion on HN with a Godwin shows you have good amount of confidence. I have changed my mind a lot on this stance when I read that in Protestants churches for 400 years was preached that the Jews killed Jesus. Antisemitism was baked in such that even the King of England is seen on pictures with Hitler himself. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_Christianity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_Christianity
- jxurueydyys 6y ago
  This is a really lazy criticism considering they never specified which side they were talking about. WW2 is a good example because most Americans have some general knowledge of the subject to help them understand the topic compared to other possible examples. Their point holds because there are numerous societies where killing is viewed as immoral but which make an exception for their soldiers performing their duties. Do you have an actual counter-argument or are we just using reddit memes as dismissals now?
  - lowdose 6y ago
    > Do you have an actual counter-argument or are we just using reddit memes as dismissals now? Your first comment under a throwaway account framing the argument at the level of reddit, are you kidding me?
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  Neither that Wikipedia article, nor the "Jewish deicide" one, mentions the "roman false flag" hypothesis[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24197646 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24197646 [1] How plausible is it? Bulgakov's novel is opposite to most which touch on this theme, in that its genre for the present day scenes is magical realism, but its genre for the pilate and christ scenes is hardboiled.
jokethrowaway 6y ago
That's one of the reasons soldier get PTSD or are/were drugged. There must also be a component of getting used to it at some point, but several people who killed someone (often with the sponsorship of some country that can socialise the cost of war) found their first experiences to be traumatic.

lowdose 6y ago

To kick off a morality discussion on HN with a Godwin shows you have good amount of confidence. I have changed my mind a lot on this stance when I read that in Protestants churches for 400 years was preached that the Jews killed Jesus. Antisemitism was baked in such that even the King of England is seen on pictures with Hitler himself. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_Christianity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_Christianity

jxurueydyys 6y ago
This is a really lazy criticism considering they never specified which side they were talking about. WW2 is a good example because most Americans have some general knowledge of the subject to help them understand the topic compared to other possible examples. Their point holds because there are numerous societies where killing is viewed as immoral but which make an exception for their soldiers performing their duties. Do you have an actual counter-argument or are we just using reddit memes as dismissals now?
- lowdose 6y ago
  > Do you have an actual counter-argument or are we just using reddit memes as dismissals now? Your first comment under a throwaway account framing the argument at the level of reddit, are you kidding me?
082349872349872 6y ago
Neither that Wikipedia article, nor the "Jewish deicide" one, mentions the "roman false flag" hypothesis[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24197646 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24197646 [1] How plausible is it? Bulgakov's novel is opposite to most which touch on this theme, in that its genre for the present day scenes is magical realism, but its genre for the pilate and christ scenes is hardboiled.

jokethrowaway 6y ago

That's one of the reasons soldier get PTSD or are/were drugged. There must also be a component of getting used to it at some point, but several people who killed someone (often with the sponsorship of some country that can socialise the cost of war) found their first experiences to be traumatic.