Comment by edent

7 hours ago

[flagged]

Comparing a run-of-the-mill defense contractor to a serial rapist and murderer is certainly up there in the most unhinged justifications that I've seen on HN.

  • I don’t think the parent comment was trying to equate the two, but rather pushing the argument to its logical extreme to test show that the reasoning doesn’t hold consistently across cases. Whether they made a convincing argument is separate.

    • Taking it to a logical extreme is good practice for thinking from first principles, but always pair it up with going to the logical extreme in the other direction. That might look something like: "would you really eat at a restaurant owned by a habitual jaywalker?".

    • Except pushing it to the logical extreme is what makes it wrong.

      Nevermind that he literally was equating the two and explicitly says so.

  • Yeah, one of them kills school kids for money. The other does it for the love of the game.

  • Run-of-the-mill. Ya know, a normal perpetuator of war profiteering. I mean he's your standard enabler of civilian bombing. Simply an average propagandist. Just a regular guy!

  • It's funny how retail versus wholesale death is seen so differently.

    Kill a few dozen people with your own hands and people are (rightfully) horrified.

    Run a business that enables the killing of orders of magnitude more people, and you can be a respected pillar of society.

    Killing instantly becomes respectable if it's done legally and for profit.

    • I suggest you look into the perception of self defense. Saving yourself and others via killing compared to killing to commit a crime are perceived very differently.

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  • [flagged]

    • > So you know, either go all in and live like you mean it or stop pointing fingers at only very select individuals.

      Careful. You're one step away from playing out the "Yet you participate in society. Curious!" meme. Besides, many people who are not in the Anduril fan club already boycott Microsoft for their ethical transgressions.

      1 reply →

    • > If we’re gonna go for a witch hunt then we better hack off Microsoft’s head as well, for instance, since even their Xbox controllers are used in military subs.

      Sounds like a great idea! I'm all for it