So is robbery blackmail? “The status quo is not to harm or steal. Give me your money, or I will hurt you and take your money.” Wouldn’t most crimes fall under the same definition?
In fact, isn’t the social threat of negative publicity just blackmail against would-be public adulterers? “-affair for A, +prudish satisfaction for Bs” or “-status for A, whatever Bs get out of shaming A”. And justice is probably just blackmailing people into being nice against the status quo of natural selection to avoid punishment...
The robbery case is certainly blackmail according to my definition. I agree it sounds strange to call it that way, but I am quite happy to call it “extortion”. And I think the distinction between blackmail and extortion in ordinary language (is it that in blackmail the threat must be to reveal information? I’m not sure, not being a native speaker) is slippery and of little theoretical significance.
The other two are not blackmail because the status quo I am talking about is an actual state, vague to define but roughly composed of the reasonable expectations of A before B makes a concrete threat and changes them. It is not a counterfactual “state of nature” in which the public is not scandalized by adulterers and justice does not punish criminals.
So is robbery blackmail? “The status quo is not to harm or steal. Give me your money, or I will hurt you and take your money.” Wouldn’t most crimes fall under the same definition?
In fact, isn’t the social threat of negative publicity just blackmail against would-be public adulterers? “-affair for A, +prudish satisfaction for Bs” or “-status for A, whatever Bs get out of shaming A”. And justice is probably just blackmailing people into being nice against the status quo of natural selection to avoid punishment...
The robbery case is certainly blackmail according to my definition. I agree it sounds strange to call it that way, but I am quite happy to call it “extortion”. And I think the distinction between blackmail and extortion in ordinary language (is it that in blackmail the threat must be to reveal information? I’m not sure, not being a native speaker) is slippery and of little theoretical significance.
The other two are not blackmail because the status quo I am talking about is an actual state, vague to define but roughly composed of the reasonable expectations of A before B makes a concrete threat and changes them. It is not a counterfactual “state of nature” in which the public is not scandalized by adulterers and justice does not punish criminals.