10-02-2020, 12:56 PM
(10-02-2020, 12:11 PM)GMDino Wrote: Isn't that where it gets gummy though?
Iran thinks Trump is a terrorist. We kill terrorists. They can justify a killing as some who is "extreme".
I get Hitler is an extreme example but had we captured him would that be worse? Of course we'd have sentenced him to death and killed him anyway.
It's why I have a hard time with it. Not that I think Trump is the same as Hitler or Kim but that humans use their own justifications for such actions. We all do.
I get your point, but "evil" governments don't perceive themselves as such and see their opponents as the evil ones. There are some objective moral points that help us overcome this hurdle though. Does the US government hang gay people from cranes or thrown them off rooftops like Iran does? Does the US government sanction stoning a person to death for offenses like adultery and apostasy? Do we order a virgin to be raped so we can then execute her, as a virgin cannot be executed? Do we throw ideological opponents in prison and torture them simply because they are ideological opponents? The US certainly has its faults, as all nations do, but if we adhere to what is commonly thought of as moral and just Iran's perception of the US as evil and them as the good guys immediately falls apart.
(10-02-2020, 12:28 PM)hollodero Wrote: Sure it is gummy (never heard that word, but I assume I get the meaning). And of course I chose an extreme to somewhat counter a principle.
Of course you've heard of gummy, it means rubber in English.
Quote:As for Hitler, the US killing him is one thing, but the assassination attempts came from several German people within, that didn't have an alternative to killing him. So they engaged in an act of violence that usually gets condemned in principle, but in that extreme case, I can no longer uphold the principle. Eg. I wish he would have gotten killed in '39 by a politcally motivated assassination.
And because of that, I can not really claim that I think acts like those are the wrong choice in virtually every case. Not in this one.
Using the same standards as listed above Nazi Germany's government is morally evil, there's no debating this (I know you weren't debating it). As Hitler was the lynchpin for the state's existence as is killing him would absolutely not have been a morally evil act. At least not in the classic way of viewing morality.
