The great merge of 2020

[loramin]

Originally Posted by Smellybuttface [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

But OP is an adult with the liberty to make his own choices, and as long as his choices don’t negatively impact someone else, then he’s free and clear to make them as he will. In your examples, those people’s actions affected or directly influenced the outcome, or had the opportunity to influence the outcome. We have no ability to realistically influence anything here.

The philosophical term for that first idea is "spheres of autonomy", as if everyone has a "bubble of rights" around them. It's an elegant concept, and one of the best/easiest ways of determining where to draw the line ... on people's rights. But rights and responsibilities aren't the same thing.

I'm very much not saying "no one here has the right to say what they want, or do what they want, because it might make someone else do something unhealthy." That's antithetical to what I personally believe.

What I'm saying is, we humans as a community have an social obligation to others in that community. The degree of it, the exact definition of community, etc. varies depending on which moral philosopher you subscribe to, and I'm not trying to pick a particular one. I'm just saying that every moral system sees communities as having at least some small responsibility to watch out for the least able in that community.

And as for not having the power to do that, I disagree. We could say this isn't right, something bad might happen, and protest to Rogean or something ... although of course I don't expect that.

Still, even just talking about the issue is doing something, compared to only ever laughing about people staying awake for 100 hours. It's like that "hold your wee for a Wii" radio contest. Everyone was having fun and laughing, until a nurse called up and said "this dangerous, you shouldn't have this contest" ... but the DJs ignored her and as a result someone died despite her call.

All I'm saying is, whether or not the nurse called, would it be her fault that the person died? Of course not.

But the nurse undoubtedly felt better because she did what little she could to try to prevent something bad from happening to someone she didn't know. The person's death wasn't the nurse's fault (and arguably it wasn't the DJ's either: they just offered a free Wii, they didn't put a gun to anyone's head) ... but good people still try and stop that sort of thing.