4 ms·
So you believe that doing the wrong thing for the right reason is better than doing the right thing for the wrong reason? That intent matters more than outcome?
by lghh 4y ago
So you believe that doing the wrong thing for the right reason is better than doing the right thing for the wrong reason? That intent matters more than outcome? And that laws being structured in a way you specifically find compelling matters more than the morality of a law?
- _aavaa_ 4y agoI think we can have some nuance here. As individuals I believe we have the leeway to do the right thing for the wrong reasons. But once we get to the level of government and acting in accordance with laws, I believe that acting for the right reasons (i.e. following the laws) is the only option that can lead to long term outcomes. For the government to selectively follow laws, saying that in this case they don't apply since they don't give us the right result, makes a mockery of the very idea of having laws.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- coryfklein 4y agoThe Roe vs. Wade decision was the wrong way to solve the problem because it specifically set the stage for decades where the legislature didn't enshrine abortion as a right, and thus left it up for grabs to be taken back away only decades later. Ruth Bader Ginsburg argues that if Roe vs. Wade had been less sweeping, that the existing cultural movement in favor of women's rights would have naturally led to the protection of this right on a more fundamental and long lasting level.
- margalabargala 4y agoIf we're speaking about what one should use as guiding principles, then it seems that if one acts for the "right" reasons, then that usually result in doing the right thing and only unusually results in doing the wrong thing. Whereas if one acts for the "wrong" reasons, then that will only rarely result in doing the "right" thing. One can look back at the original Roe v Wade and say "The right thing was done here, the outcome was good", but having that sort of consequentialist outlook tends to blind people to the downside of having the right things done for the wrong reasons- which is as we see here, those wrong reasons can in the future easily lead to the undoing of the right thing. The original Roe v Wade decision meant that Congress never had to pass a law that explicitly nationally legalized abortion. If they had, the current situation wouldn't exist.