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> Who cares what is right or wrong

Kind of an odd thing to say in a conversation with a bunch of other people who clearly care what is right and wrong.

> 400 years ago you'd have owned slaves and not think twice about it.

An oversimplification, to say the least! This is only even a little bit true if we limit ourselves to the small number of nations with chattel slavery (but why would we do that?), and actually not even true of Americans, many of whom were opposed to slavery even 400 years ago.




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It seems like you're making a big, unjustified leap from: "people don't always do the right thing" to "right and wrong don't matter and are not worth discussing."

Edit: OK, I'll unpack: your points about Foxconn and modern-day slavery don't seem to establish anything other than that people don't always act according to their moral judgments. But that doesn't demonstrate that right or wrong don't matter and are not worth being discussed. (Or, in your words: "Who cares what is right or wrong?") For one thing, moral judgments could have attenuated, but still significant, effect on peoples' behavior. Or, it could be worth discussing for reasons other than its effect on peoples behavior.

I hoped it would be understood that the quotation marks aren't intended to be interpreted as literally quoting your statements but, rather, are just a way of referring to two different propositions, the first of which is the one actually supported by the evidence that you cite and the latter of which seems to be the one you're espousing.


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If I've misunderstood your argument here, please feel free to explain how. I certainly don't intend to straw-man anything. But if you'd rather do something else with your brief precious time on earth besides arguing with a stranger on the internet, I respect that decision!




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