I don’t think you can argue that steal from friend is the best in that situation. If truly the options are steal from friend or starve to death right now, then

I don’t think you can argue that steal from friend is the best in that situation. If truly the options are steal from friend or starve to death right now, then perhaps but that’s not realistic. I’m not sure what you think someone should do rather than make the best decision given all options. There are many ways to absolve yourself of tricky moral quandaries. But I don’t think using a fake name on a web form is a mora quandary. If we’re in a world where the only options are that one can’t lie about themself online or not participate then that’s a bad world. I think it depends on the intent of the lie in that lying to get out of advertising seems ok, but lying to trick someone into a date seems bad. Of course it’s hard to truly know, so people have to fall back do what they think is best and rely on the guidance of trusted friends. This is how morality in general works, I think. And we just have societal morals that are widely accepted. I think advertising is immoral and unethical, but that’s not a belief commonly held by enough to make it into culture and laws.