Well I am apparently too stupid to understand why the quoted article is stupid or evil, not to mention incredibly stupid or naively evil.
In any consequentialist theory combined with some knowledge of the actual world as it functions that we live in I don’t see how you can escape the conclusion that a politician running has a right to lie to voters. An essential conclusion from observing reality is that politicians lie to voters. Upon examination, it is hard NOT to conclude that politicians who don’t lie enough don’t get elected. If we are consequentialist, then either 1) elected politicians do create consequences and so a politician who will create good consequences had best lie “the right amount” to get elected or 2) elected politicians do not create consequences in which case it is consequentially neutral whether a politician lies, and therefore morally neutral.
If you prefer a non-consequentialist or even anti-consequentialist moral system, then bully for you, it is wrong (within your system) for politicians to lie to voters, but that conclusion is inconsequential, except perhaps for a very small number of people, presumably the politician who’s soul is saved or who’s virtue is kept intact by his pyrrhic act of telling the truth.
Well I am apparently too stupid to understand why the quoted article is stupid or evil, not to mention incredibly stupid or naively evil.
In any consequentialist theory combined with some knowledge of the actual world as it functions that we live in I don’t see how you can escape the conclusion that a politician running has a right to lie to voters. An essential conclusion from observing reality is that politicians lie to voters. Upon examination, it is hard NOT to conclude that politicians who don’t lie enough don’t get elected. If we are consequentialist, then either 1) elected politicians do create consequences and so a politician who will create good consequences had best lie “the right amount” to get elected or 2) elected politicians do not create consequences in which case it is consequentially neutral whether a politician lies, and therefore morally neutral.
If you prefer a non-consequentialist or even anti-consequentialist moral system, then bully for you, it is wrong (within your system) for politicians to lie to voters, but that conclusion is inconsequential, except perhaps for a very small number of people, presumably the politician who’s soul is saved or who’s virtue is kept intact by his pyrrhic act of telling the truth.