Quote Originally Posted by wufwugy View Post
It is not my assertion that is disturbing, but the reality we live in
yeah, the reality we live in is pretty disturbing. most of us just tend not to think about it much and i'll fully admit that i'm guilty of that as well.

The misery of others is mostly unfathomable and entirely unjustifiable. I haven't said anything crazy, only taboo and poorly understood.


Regardless, it's an abstraction, not a practicality. If you have read The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, you may have noticed that one of the many profound implications of the allegory is that there is no real and practical solution. I think you've taken what I've said out of context.
possibly/probably

I don't want to discuss this though. While we're dealing with some of the deepest fundamentals of morality, it's unsolvable. I shouldn't have mentioned it anyways. It wasn't really that relevant to my post in the first place. But it is absolutely true. Nothing justifies the misery of others. Humans naturally feel differently than this, but that has no bearing on the truth of the matter
understandable if you don't want to discuss it. i will say though that 1,000,000,000 units of happiness/joy in my opinion justifies 1 unit of suffering given no better alternative. i'm not sure where i'd draw the line. i've spent all of 30 seconds thinking of it, and with little way of meaningfully quantifying it, i will set the line at 10:1 happiness:suffering as my starting point.


In a nutshell, my position on this topic is whatever position optimally reduces suffering. Nothing insane about that.

RE: billionaires. I never said I don't like them, I said I don't like societies that are structured in such a way as to necessitate a few billionaires riding on the backs of a billion sufferers. My comments on billionaires in the past had to do with economic constructs, not that I think they're bad people or whatever
fair enough. i think we agree in a roundabout way to an extent, although my point was mostly that you're an extremely smart guy and that you could do much more good in the world with the power, wealth, and status that comes with being more successful, but i have made similar points to you before and i feel it's mostly unwanted advice, maybe bordering on criticism but that's really not how i mean it.