[alienfilesystem]

I appreciate your comment, but let's be honest, good and evil are binary like night and day. I don't cotton to the idea that one's morals can be suspended in "twilight". There are ways to make tons of money and be completely moral.

[tasuki]

> let's be honest, good and evil are binary like night and day.

Now why would you think that?

In fact I'm pretty sure you're wrong: good and evil are various shades of gray, never white nor black. In real life, there aren't entities (corporations or humans or whatever) that are "pure good", nor are there entities that are "pure evil".

[sidibe]

Furthermore by not differentiating between shades of gray there's no way to encourage good behavior from companies/people because they're all equally bad so you treat them the same even if one is making more efforts to do the right thing.

[tasuki]

Indeed. Saying that good and evil is binary might be... evil ;)

[read_if_gay_]

In a philosophical sense yes, but there’s degrees to both of them, and once you consider practical issues your options will often be a mix of good and evil.

[alienfilesystem]

Thank you for your comment, but please clarify how a moral person can see "degrees" of evil and allow themselves to make money with a conscience, knowing full well they are not being lawful good (Sorry, my D&D youth)?

As for myself, I work for non-profits largely because I want to do good for others. I cannot see taking advantage of another's data, for instance, without their consent (real or imagined) to make a profit and then share it with them. Perhaps I'm a goody-two-shoes, but I'll accept it. I cannot fathom working a job where my existence is to bleed out as much profit from others without them knowing, or if they do know, them not having a voice or a way out short of not using the devices of modernity.

[nxc18]

Do you work for a non-profit in the United States, Canada, the UK, France, or another western country and pay taxes?

Do your taxes contribute to murdering foreigners in a desert far away?

Are you evil?

This isn't a personal attack, I just really struggle when I see moral absolutism and binary thinking. The world isn't binary even though our work with computers and human systems often lead us to pretend that it is.

[throwaway_pdp09]

Do you eat meat? I don't, for moral reasons. If you do does that make you evil in my eyes? Are you in fact evil?

I could do this all day. A clear and unambigious view of what's wrong and right is a risky thing - you will be compelled to fix it, without limits to your interference.

That was provocative and I think you're a good person but I don't think it's so easy, or safe, to draw a dividing line. But that risks not drawing a dividing line, so more dangers lurk.

[alienfilesystem]

Thank you for your comments. I agree with you that this can be taken to the nth degree and it benefits no one. I guess I could say that I do my best to avoid "grey" areas if at all possible. If I don't stand for something, I fall for anything.

As far as meat goes, I don't eat red meat. Fish, yes. Chicken, don't really care for it. I could easily get by on fish, rice, beans, salads, etc. I see your point. My eating fish would be evil to someone else since a life is lost in doing so. Beef is nasty to me because I hate even seeing fat on food. As an aside, to me, nothing is better than fried fish or a salad made from chilled chickpeas, lime juice, cilantro, diced Roma tomatoes, and red onion. Add Serrano or Jalapeno peppers if you like spicy.

[dbliss]

So there's no nuance to anything people do, there are only good or evil people? That's quite an extreme view.

[6gvONxR4sf7o]

I think the idea of morality being a spectrum is pretty self evident. There's good, great, bad, worse, and neutral (like the action of me sitting in a chair right now). The reason it's important is in avoiding "'perfect' is the enemy of 'better'" issues.