I particularly enjoyed this part, as it gave me that “click” and understand the difference between a reasonable and unreasonable extension of one’s political beliefs:
Saying “People who buy dangerous products deserve to get hurt!” is not tough-minded. It is a way of refusing to live in an unfair universe. Real tough-mindedness is saying, “Yes, sulfuric acid is a horrible painful death, and no, that mother of 5 children didn’t deserve it, but we’re going to keep the shops open anyway because we did this cost-benefit calculation.”
Sorry for the self-reply, but I wanted to make a different point whose voting will probably not correlate with the parent.
I think a lot of the basis for the mentality that “stupid people deserve to get hurt” comes from a feeling of insufficient respect/social status for those that do contribute to society through their greater intelligence, and who do take the care to avoid dangerous things.
There’s a tradeoff between how much the victims of misjudgment should suffer for mistakes vs. how much everyone else has to suffer from restricted opportunities that result from limiting the downside of misjudgment. Like EY notes, saying that poor judgment should lead to death is obviously going too far. And the crtiique he gives in that quote shows why. I just thought I’d point out the resentment that makes people jump to such a conclusion.
I particularly enjoyed this part, as it gave me that “click” and understand the difference between a reasonable and unreasonable extension of one’s political beliefs:
Sorry for the self-reply, but I wanted to make a different point whose voting will probably not correlate with the parent.
I think a lot of the basis for the mentality that “stupid people deserve to get hurt” comes from a feeling of insufficient respect/social status for those that do contribute to society through their greater intelligence, and who do take the care to avoid dangerous things.
There’s a tradeoff between how much the victims of misjudgment should suffer for mistakes vs. how much everyone else has to suffer from restricted opportunities that result from limiting the downside of misjudgment. Like EY notes, saying that poor judgment should lead to death is obviously going too far. And the crtiique he gives in that quote shows why. I just thought I’d point out the resentment that makes people jump to such a conclusion.