Are all your employment options equally in the moral grey area? Or did you just not want to think about it?

Look, do what you want, it's your life. I spent a decade working in defense and now I don't. Some times were uncomfortable. I hope you keep your eyes open when making decisions to avoid some of the discomfort I've felt in the work I've done.

If you're working for defense or weapons contracts you're supporting the industry that has kept us in the Middle East for almost two decades.

I agree that it's often a moral grey zone but in this case it's pretty clear. If you're an engineer there's plenty of other companies to choose from.

While that is true, I've worked in manufacturing environments with high tech equipment. This manufacturing equipment is so sensitive it gets covered with tarp during dog-and-pony shows. We are using equipment and techniques in the USA that other nations could only dream of implementing. Why do you think most airplane manufacturers are located in the USA? Don't you think an airline would buy aircraft engines from China if they could?

Keeping America on the forefront of technology has its benefits. If we don't invest in cornering these technologies; our adversaries will.

Unfortunately it's the same technology that has kept us in the middle east that's also been a forceful deterrent which safeguards all Americans.

Products that may be sold to terrorists include canned beans and Toyota trucks. Your situation might actually be less morally compromising than the Facebook stuff being discussed, because in their case they are the "questionably motivated 'freedom fighters,'" (i.e. they're directly doing the morally questionable stuff) whereas you're just selling stuff to a broad market that may include questionably motivated "freedom fighters." It's sort of the difference between selling lockpicks that may eventually be used in a burglary or might also be used to get Grandma's safe open, versus breaking in yourself.

Forgive me for the bluntness, but nobody with any set of technical skills "gotta eat" by supporting those kinds of efforts. I've worked to practice what I preach, too; I've consistently worked in do-no-harm jobs. I make rowing machines today and the worst you can hang on me from the past is that I had a daily-fantasy-sports site for a client for a while (which I'm not proud of but it's a pretty venal sin)--and I have made more than enough money to do very well for myself.

Makes me think of a quote from an old West German anti-napalm film "Nicht Löschbares Feuer" (The Inextinguishable Fire) [1].

"The students of the Harvard University write that I should leave the criminal Dow Chemical Company.

I'm a chemist. What should I do?

If I develop a substance, someone can come and make something out of it. It could be good for humanity, or it could be bad for humanity.

Besides napalm, Dow Chemical manufactures 800 other products.

The insecticides that we manufacture help mankind.

The herbicides that we manufacture scorch this harvest and cause him harm."

[1] https://vimeo.com/107990231

Are you actively looking for employment elsewhere so that you can transition away from supporting harmful causes? Or are you using the excuse that you have to eat as a reason not to do hard things in your life?

I have used that excuse myself. I'm trying to get better at not using it.