It's 36th on the world democracy rating; a deficient democracy, though not yet a failed one. That might be next year. — Vera Mont

I don't think the thesis that society is experiencing decay in some important aspects can be easily written off by pointing to progress in other areas. — Count Timothy von Icarus

Modern society is decaying; and this decay is a direct result of moral anti-realism. It is hard to say why moral anti-realism has caught wind like wild fire, but I would hypothesize it is substantially influenced by Nietzschien thought. — Bob Ross

I think Bob is pointing to moral decay, which might itself exist along other elements of positive growth. For example, in A Brave New World we see a picture of a society that would surely get extremely high marks on virtually every metric by which modern technocrats tend to evaluate policy "success." Crime is largely a non-issue, there is no poverty, self-reported well being is surely quite high, and technology has allowed for a great deal of comfort, even largely removing the symptoms of aging. But at the same time it seems fair to say that such a society, despite these positive attributes, has slipped into the direst form of moral and ethical decay.

And there are aspects in which the trajectory of society since Huxley's time has followed his dystopian vision, even as it generally still fails to deliver on at least the "pleasure" part of the equation. — Count Timothy von Icarus

One simple solution would be to refuse to buy products from companies who use children in that way. — Leontiskos

What do you think makes ideas simple? The lack of a physical component? — Treatid

If we were to create a universe, what are the simplest possible building blocks that we could use? — Treatid

disagree. You have fallen into the consequentialist trap. You think it is ok to use people as a means towards (or at as sacrifices for) good ends. — Bob Ross

Sounds familiar, but no. Probably knew at some point. Is Bayesian Probability where you estimate the probability of a hypothesis being true, or am I just mixing things up? — Igitur

That is the main reason why a high school diploma is completely worthless in the labor market. — Tarskian

Okay. Let's dispense with education altogether. On their sixth birthday, give every child a laptop and put them to work on real life problems. — Vera Mont

Correct. If they know that they are going to kill an innocent person by intentionally killing hitler; then they are intentionally killing that innocent person to kill hitler. — Bob Ross

If you want to tweak the scenario so that he suffers while he's playing, then in effect we're complicit in torturing him, in which case the situation is essentially the same as it was with the kid, and so we shouldn't hand him over, we should fight the aliens instead. — Herg

It is always wrong to intentionally kill innocent people; so utilizing a means which has a foreseen consequence of killing an innocent person (thereby making it a part of the accidental aspect of the intention) is wrong. — Bob Ross

This all just further supports your argument that antinatalism is not natural. — Fire Ologist

It would be, indeed. But I take the view that the hedonic calculus should only be applied subject to the imperative to treat sentient beings as ends, and handing the kid over for torture would be treating him or her as a mere means, not an end.

The moral thing to do is what it has always been in such situations, e.g. in 1939 when we were made a not dissimilar offer by the Nazis: you fight the bastards. — Herg

I am an ethical naturalist and hedonist: I believe that the only intrinsic good is pleasure (strictly, pleasantness), and the only intrinsic evil is pain (strictly, unpleasantness). If you wish to go into further detail, I can explain further why I believe this. — Herg

Ukraine was to give up Donbas and recognize Crimea as part of Russia — jorndoe

Why are drugs so alluring to some and growing in popularity amongst (quite a few) Americans? — Shawn

The question is then whether these exceptions to (1) apply to the case of procreation. For example, we can cause suffering absent consent when punishment is due, but is punishment due in the case of procreation? — Leontiskos

Sorry, but war is hell. Collateral damage.

Oh and the IDF fight for a belief system of apartheid and ethno-nationalism. No thanks. — Mikie

How tiresome.

By that logic, Hamas is also justified in what they did. Innocent people die in war — “too bad.” I suppose the Israelis shouldn’t demand justice for all the dead civilians. War is hell. — Mikie

Lol. I guess we will never know for certain......and I am surely not going to argue with you about what you think are my ethical commitments. — Bob Ross

I would let the whole world get destroyed — Bob Ross

The genocide is not a narrative but fact largely self-documented by Israel. — boethius