Comment by chmod775
7 months ago
Truly one my favorite thought-terminating proverbs.
"Hurting people is wrong, so you should not defend yourself when attacked."
"Imprisoning people is wrong, so we should not imprison thieves."
Also the modern telling of Robin Hood seems to be pretty generally celebrated.
Two wrongs may not make a right, but often enough a smaller wrong is the best recourse we have to avert a greater wrong.
The spirit of the proverb is referring to wrongs which are unrelated to one another, especially when using one to excuse another.
> "Hurting people is wrong, so you should not defend yourself when attacked."
This is exactly what Californian educators told kids who were being bullied in the 90's.
> a smaller wrong is the best recourse we have to avert a greater wrong
The logic of terrorists and war criminals everywhere.
I admire your deontological zealotry. That said, I think there is an implied virtuous aspect of "internet vigilantism" that feels ignored (i.e. disabling a malicious bot means it does not visit other sites) While I do not absolve anyone from taking full responsibility for their actions, I have a suspicion that terrorists do a bit more than just avert a greater wrong--otherwise, please sign me up!
Defense and Offense are not the same.
Crime and Justice are not the same.
If you cannot figure that out, you ARE a major part of the problem.
Keep thinking until you figure it out for good.
And also how fuctioning governments work: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_on_violence
Do you really want to live in a society were all use of punishment to discourage bad behaviour in others? That is a game theoretical disaster...
And sometimes one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter.... (Not to defend terrorism, but it's just not that simple)