I'm not suggesting it's okay to be an asshole just because you see some other person somewhere being an asshole. If their behavior happens in their bubble and y

I'm not suggesting it's okay to be an asshole just because you see some other person somewhere being an asshole. If their behavior happens in their bubble and you live in your own, disconnected, then you're free to do whatever you want. I try to be good. I'd like that from others. But when your bubbles intersect and you're in the same game, competing directly, other people's ethics absolutely do constrain the ethics you can choose for yourself while remaining effective. I'm not saying you should sacrifice your principles; I'm saying you should mind the difference between sticking to your principles and winning, accept they aren't the same, and not insist they always are or would be "if everyone just." Because everyone won't just. Your principles may make you better as a person in some way (they really might!) but that doesn't mean they'll make you win. Not admitting this will make you less effective at defending them. Maybe I'm getting away from the point of the thread, I don't know. I guess in my analogy the war has come to the army of swords, like it or not. Team Machine Gun could have chosen to be nice. They didn't, so what now? The answer cannot be, "Well, then they're bad." It doesn't matter if they're good or bad: they're here. They don't care what you think. So what do you do?