I definitely agree that we should start shifting to a norm that focuses on punishing bad actions, rather than trying to infer their mental state.
Do you have limitations to this in mind? Consider the political issue of abortion. One side thinks the other is murdering babies; the other side thinks the first is violating women’s rightful ownership of their own bodies. Each side thinks the other is doing something monstrous. If that’s all you need to justify punishment, then that seems to mean both sides should fight a civil war.
(“National politics? I was talking about...” The one example the OP gives is SBF, and other language alludes to sex predators and reputation launderers, and the explicit specifiers in the first few paragraphs are “harmful people” and “bad behavior”; it’s such a wide range that it seems hard to declare anything offtopic.)
You’ve actually mentioned a depressing possibility around morality, and it’s roughly that without shared ethical assumptions, conflict is the default, and there’s nothing imposing any constraints except social norms, which can break down.
My answer for people in general is: Try to see what others think, but remember that sometimes, bad outcomes will happen to stop worse outcomes, and you should always focus on your own values to decide the answers.
Do you have limitations to this in mind? Consider the political issue of abortion. One side thinks the other is murdering babies; the other side thinks the first is violating women’s rightful ownership of their own bodies. Each side thinks the other is doing something monstrous. If that’s all you need to justify punishment, then that seems to mean both sides should fight a civil war.
(“National politics? I was talking about...” The one example the OP gives is SBF, and other language alludes to sex predators and reputation launderers, and the explicit specifiers in the first few paragraphs are “harmful people” and “bad behavior”; it’s such a wide range that it seems hard to declare anything offtopic.)
You’ve actually mentioned a depressing possibility around morality, and it’s roughly that without shared ethical assumptions, conflict is the default, and there’s nothing imposing any constraints except social norms, which can break down.
My answer for people in general is: Try to see what others think, but remember that sometimes, bad outcomes will happen to stop worse outcomes, and you should always focus on your own values to decide the answers.