3 ms·
Armed guards in 1980's East Germany open your luggage and poke through it by hand. TSA employees in 2000's USA scan your luggage and poke through it with techn
by csense 1y ago
Armed guards in 1980's East Germany open your luggage and poke through it by hand.
TSA employees in 2000's USA scan your luggage and poke through it with technology. For any reason or no reason, they can open it up and poke through it by hand, or ask for assistance from nearby policemen with guns.
Is there any moral difference? If so, what is it?
(Also, nitpick: The East Germans were Communists, not fascists.)
- arlort 1y agoYes, the moral difference is in the motivation and consequences. We take into account motivation pretty often to evaluate morality not sure why you can't apply it here TSA's purpose is prevent harm to other passengers (effectiveness is debatable but not the point), the east German border guards were there to keep control on what information the population could access and share They are not the same thing even if the means look the same
- anal_reactor 1y agoSo basically, "when we do it it's good, when they do it it's bad"? I didn't think I'd see someone seriously practice such morality on this website.
- Veen 1y agoMost morally mature people practice that sort of reasoning. They take into account intentions, likely consequences, the state of knowledge of those involved, and other complicating factors before coming to a conclusion.
- anal_reactor 1y agoI think we have exactly opposite definitions of "moral maturity".
- Veen 1y agoYou may be right, anal_reactor.
- arlort 1y agoIs it moral for an ambulance to cut through traffic, run red lights and break speed limits? Is the same moral for drunk teenagers? There's no action (and by that I do mean action, not something abstract that involves multiple actions and choices) that won't be moral some times and immoral others. Intent is always to be accounted for. I'd be happy to have counterexamples if you have any in mind Also pretty weird to see you infuse a sense of moral superiority to this website of all places