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Re:A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning by Retric on Tuesday July 12, 2016 @02:36PM (#12081353)
You are presupposing a suicide bomber somehow had a bad life. I am rejecting that assumption and saying a swat team and the person their shooting could both have lived a great life.

Following the rules of society results in lower friction, and is generally a net positive trade off. That does not mean it's always the correct path. After-all George Washington could easily have been shot as a traitor.

It may seem the strange for a hangman to respect the hanged, but morality and rules need not be 1:1.

PS: This also set's up an interesting freedom duality where someone is free to impose rules and others are free to break them. With the right set of rules you end up with a Darwinian system with huge pressures to enjoy conforming. And a safety valve of people rebelling if the rules are unacceptable. Oddly enough this actually maps fairly well to the real world.

Re:A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning by virmundi on Tuesday July 12, 2016 @03:02PM (#12081509)
No, I make no assumption about the the suicide bomber. I'm say he didn't do anything bad. He could kill thousands. Not bad. The reason is that "bad" is meaningless. There is no such thing as right or wrong in a materialistic view. Aesthetics doesn't get you there. If the bomber things that the death of thousands looks good, it is. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Re:A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning by Retric on Tuesday July 12, 2016 @03:18PM (#12081627)
You are trying to add morality where there is zero need for it. "Tell me why that is wrong? ... You cannot interfere with them"

My point was you don't need to say what someone did was "bad" to stop them. As long as more people prefer an ordered world then the dissidents can be dealt with.

If majority rule says giving to the homeless is a capital offense then so be it. Physics and thus biology are going to impose a few rules. Further, completion kicks in at the social level. But, that does not mean Anarchy is "bad" just out competed.

Thus, while morality does not impose any rules collective groups of people do. Not because might makes right, but might exists and there is no right.

PS: At the extreme at one point I realized I was being paid in part to help maintain nuclear weapons. Not because I believed in them instead I liked money and other people want them.

Re:A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning by c22 on Thursday July 14, 2016 @05:18AM (#12092538)
Killing thousands might not be "bad" for a suitably vague definition of the word, but it's undeniably rude.