[donatj]

Yes? lol. Why does everything always come to the Trolley Problem?

I think anyone who was ever in favor of any war would agree that sometimes a death is justified when it saves many more?

[JamisonM]

It is not the Trolley Problem, you seem to misunderstand the issue. There is no binary choice here, it is not comparable.

[4bpp]

There is one: (1) let Stallman keep his position and inspire/encourage one set of people, while discouraging/putting off another; (2) remove Stallman from his position, foregoing both the inspiration/encouragement and the discouragement/putting off.

[donatj]

> Is it okay for someone to murder a person if they saved more than one life before ?

That is a yes or no question. That is literally a binary choice. Yes or no - is murder OK if that murder saves more than one person.

That is literally the Trolley Problem.

[bitofhope]

That wasn't really the question, though. There was nothing there about saving lives _by_ murdering someone. It's more like "is it ok do do bad things if you've built up good karma beforehand by doing more good stuff".

[DarkWiiPlayer]

Nope. That's a strawman right there.

The question is, is it acceptable to tolerate someones bad deeds because the benefits of doing so is greater than the harm.

[JamisonM]

It is not the Trolley Problem because the literal question is "Is it okay for someone to murder a person if they saved more than one life before?" and that is not the Trolley Problem, that is the "letting someone off the hook for present and future misdeeds based on past good acts."

It just isn't the same thing.