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> Who goes to work knowing they'll spend their entire day ruining lives? We've got folks producing drugs at scale, anyone who works for the tobacco industry, t

> Who goes to work knowing they'll spend their entire day ruining lives? We've got folks producing drugs at scale, anyone who works for the tobacco industry, the liquor industry, the arms industry, we've got the oil industry. There are so many industries that are more or less directly murdering people every day and making life for everyone around them measurably worse. These folks sleep just fine, because they fundamentally just don't care about you: They care about the people around them. That's more or less normal, too. Caring about everyone is something you have to be taught.

tablespoon 4y ago
> We've got folks producing drugs at scale, anyone who works for the tobacco industry, the liquor industry, the arms industry, we've got the oil industry. There are so many industries that are more or less directly murdering people every day and making life for everyone around them measurably worse. That's a really, really simplistic take. Except for maybe the current-day tobacco industry, for every story you might have about how one of those industries is doing harm, someone else has one about how they're doing good, and you're both probably right. 1. Liquor: helping people have a good time. Have you heard how Prohibition went? 2. Arms: protecting the community from its enemies. Have you heard about a country called Ukraine? 3. Oil: literally enabling modern society to function. Even with today's electric cars, solar panels, and wind turbines; advanced countries would collapse without a steady supply of it. etc.
- krageon 4y ago
  I'm sure you and most other people can rationalise what you do quite well. That doesn't change anything about the harm you do, only about how well you sleep.
  - tablespoon 4y ago
    > I'm sure you and most other people can rationalise what you do quite well. That doesn't change anything about the harm you do, only about how well you sleep. Except what I listed weren't "rationalizations," they're actual truths. It's easy to make anything look harmful by listing the pros and cons, then throwing out the list of pros.
    - krageon 4y ago
      We're just going to have to agree to disagree I think. I don't think what you listed are genuine pros, just things that such people say to make themselves sound good. The only one where you may have a point is the oil industry - and while that is a pro, it's just as much of a con (given the enormous impact plastics have had on the environment).

tablespoon 4y ago

> We've got folks producing drugs at scale, anyone who works for the tobacco industry, the liquor industry, the arms industry, we've got the oil industry. There are so many industries that are more or less directly murdering people every day and making life for everyone around them measurably worse. That's a really, really simplistic take. Except for maybe the current-day tobacco industry, for every story you might have about how one of those industries is doing harm, someone else has one about how they're doing good, and you're both probably right. 1. Liquor: helping people have a good time. Have you heard how Prohibition went? 2. Arms: protecting the community from its enemies. Have you heard about a country called Ukraine? 3. Oil: literally enabling modern society to function. Even with today's electric cars, solar panels, and wind turbines; advanced countries would collapse without a steady supply of it. etc.

krageon 4y ago
I'm sure you and most other people can rationalise what you do quite well. That doesn't change anything about the harm you do, only about how well you sleep.
- tablespoon 4y ago
  > I'm sure you and most other people can rationalise what you do quite well. That doesn't change anything about the harm you do, only about how well you sleep. Except what I listed weren't "rationalizations," they're actual truths. It's easy to make anything look harmful by listing the pros and cons, then throwing out the list of pros.
  - krageon 4y ago
    We're just going to have to agree to disagree I think. I don't think what you listed are genuine pros, just things that such people say to make themselves sound good. The only one where you may have a point is the oil industry - and while that is a pro, it's just as much of a con (given the enormous impact plastics have had on the environment).