| I want to discuss this in more detail as I see this argument come up now and then. I think we first have to discuss the word blame. What do you actually mean by "blame"? Merriam-Webster:
>1 to find fault with : censure <the right to praise or blame a literary work>
>2 a : to hold responsible <they blame me for everything>
> b : to place responsibility for <blames it on me> Do you agree with this? For the sake of the argument I will assume yes. According to this definition did dreen blame the victim? Yes. dreen claims that the victim acted wrong: Victim should not have ran the applet. Using my powers of intuition [i.e. shout if I am wrong] I assert that dreen considers the victim responsible for securing his bitcoins. A responsibility the victim failed. Hence blame. Now using further powers of intuition, I believe that you, burntsushi, think that blaming the victim is inherently wrong. Interpreted strictly that means that the behaviour of a victim is always flawless, and and a victim always lacks responsibility for bad outcomes. This is in my mind a quite ridiculous view, so I don't think this is what you mean. So what DO you mean? I will consider two possible guesses and discuss them. >The thief acted wrong. Stealing the coins was immoral.
-I think we can all agree with this statement. Hence no need to state "you are blaming the victim" so insistently.
>But then you shouldn't say "your own fault entirely"
-Maybe you are right. Could be argued that everyone gets this anyway. Unsure. >We should pity, not scorn the victim
I probably, maybe agree with this. Clearly the victim is in crappy situation and has my sympathies. On the other hand, scorn discourages others from following his example, which could be useful. |
Yes. This is my main point. It's easy to agree with in hindsight. I was insistent because it seemed like the parent completely forgot that there were more than two parties involved in this affair: the OP, MtGox and the phisher.
There is a certain attitude among folks that some people who don't properly secure themselves somehow "deserve" what they get. I vehemently disagree with this sentiment, and it is in essence what I was trying to combat.
> We should pity, not scorn the victim I probably, maybe agree with this.
I am all for calling out the victim's poor security practices as stupid, senseless, etc. But it's another thing entirely to blame the victim for someone stealing from them.