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Parent: That company does unethical things. Reply: A lot of people reading this comment do unethical things, so we probably shouldn't be on our high horse in t
by arcanemachiner 3y ago
Parent: That company does unethical things.
Reply: A lot of people reading this comment do unethical things, so we probably shouldn't be on our high horse in this thread.
I don't necessarily endorse that line of thinking as I believe it falls under the purview of "classic whataboutism".
- neilv 3y agoMy reply was intended more like: You're addressing a bank robber convention, to morally condemn a convenience store robber. (That parent should have the guts to broaden their scope of condemnation. Unless throwing the first stone in a glass house was a clever Socratic prompt intended to lead to this discussion.)
- ImPostingOnHN 3y agothat is indeed classic whataboutism, and also the analogy sounds contrived and self-serving
- neilv 3y agoMy intent was not to dispute their argument, but I didn't have the stomach to see techbros piling onto that, as tends to happen. If the OP didn't point out that tech overall has become a cesspool industry doing comparable things, then someone had to.
- ImPostingOnHN 3y ago> My intent was not to dispute their argument indeed, with whataboutism, the intent never is to solve the problem, only to deflect, with the aim usually of ensuring the problem remains unresolved, and perhaps even undiscussed > If the OP didn't point out that tech overall has become a cesspool industry doing comparable things, then someone had to. I suppose this is true if you start with the assumption that someone is going to engage in the intellectually dishonest fallacy of whataboutism as for your portrayal of HN, it is as self-serving as your prior analogy.
- mulmen 3y agoReading a comment in no way implies support for the views expressed.