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A comment on French homeland intelligence threatens a sysop into deleting a Wikipedia Article. Parent comment

Re:French homeland intelligence threatens a sysop into delet... by scarmig on Saturday April 06, 2013 @12:49PM (#5504125)
Not enough. If something can predictably end in disaster and horrible things and someone does it anyway, that person is just as evil as if they had planned it from the beginning.

If someone throws rocks at oncoming cars, you can't claim innocence because "I didn't mean to kill a family in a car crash!" If you invade an oil-rich Middle Eastern country and cause half a million excess deaths, it's just as bad as if you personally murdered each and every one of them.

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Re:French homeland intelligence threatens a sysop into delet... by sesqu on Saturday April 06, 2013 @04:08PM (#5504836)
> you can't claim innocence

If you read very carefully, you'll notice that person you're replying to was delineating between evil and culpable.

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Re:French homeland intelligence threatens a sysop into delet... by omonra on Saturday April 06, 2013 @02:29PM (#5504492)
Meta advice - there is no need to turn every discussion into one about Iraq war.

On the actual statement - I disagree 100%, but we're talking ethics, so rational arguments can't go very far :)

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Re:French homeland intelligence threatens a sysop into delet... by fnordfnordfnord on Saturday April 06, 2013 @06:43PM (#5505338)
No, we don't say that drunks are evil when they get drunk and then drive their car over someone. We do still throw them in prison though.
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Re:French homeland intelligence threatens a sysop into delet... by duncan_bayne on Sunday April 07, 2013 @02:00AM (#5506250)
We? You might not, but I certainly do.
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Re:French homeland intelligence threatens a sysop into delet... by omonra on Sunday April 07, 2013 @04:09AM (#5506487)
Let me explain the problem here.

What you are doing is diluting the 'evil brand'. If you call a drunk driver evil, you have nothing left for the likes of Hitler and Pol Pot. What are they then - double evil?

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Re:French homeland intelligence threatens a sysop into delet... by duncan_bayne on Monday April 08, 2013 @09:48PM (#5515996)
It's a spectrum. It's possible to be 'slightly evil' or 'very evil', or - in the case of Hitler or Pol Pot - 'one of the most evil humans who ever lived'.
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Re:French homeland intelligence threatens a sysop into delet... by GHFigs on Saturday April 06, 2013 @03:11PM (#5504657)
Do you consider legal systems which distinguish between degrees of culpability to be unethical?
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