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Re:Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off by kadendogthing on Sunday September 16, 2018 @08:41PM (#18002254)
> It eliminates any military, security or even anything useful.

Haha, I love the implicit signaling you're doing. I mean not only is it just not true but your qualifications for "useful" and "not useful" are really stupid.

Re:Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off by hatchback176 on Sunday September 16, 2018 @10:13PM (#18002657)
Are guidance systems on missiles OK or not?
Re:Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off by kadendogthing on Monday September 17, 2018 @09:18AM (#18005627)
Yes. Despite your attempts at playing philosophically dumb it is okay.

This is the dumbest form of virtue signaling while erecting scare crows I've ever seen in an online forum.

Re:Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off by komali2 on Monday September 17, 2018 @01:05AM (#18003355)
If everyone refused to build guidance systems for missiles, perhaps the missiles would never get built?

I think likely yes, because if the zeitgeist among engineers was strong enough to make it nearly impossible to find one willing to build a missile guidance system, it would also be strong enough to make it impossible to find someone willing to build the actual missile.

To directly answer your question: no, I believe no weapon of war is OK. The reasons are all of the typical pacifist ones but I don't think it's necessary to reiterate verbatim here unless you feel otherwise.

Re:Linus Torvalds apologizes for his behavior, takes time off by mmirate on Monday September 17, 2018 @11:50PM (#18012320)
> If everyone refused to build guidance systems for missiles, perhaps the missiles would never get built?

Correct but incomplete.

In that scenario, unguided rockets get built instead of missiles. Rockets, being unguided, will miss their targets more often than missiles. Rockets, being unguided, will also tend to be used in slightly-scattered volleys, so as to increase the chance that at least one rocket hits the target.

Any explosive ordnance that misses its target has some chance of instead killing some civilians.

Do you see the problem here?