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[–] 4 points 8 months ago* (3 children)

This is close to the "if people were educated they wouldn't be evil" fallacy, as if people like Henry Kissinger didn't exist, lol.

No, as Hume brilliantly pointed out: shoulds and ares are fundamentally disconnected. You can be extremely smart and knowledgeable about the world and still conduct yourself viciously (at times, monstrously so). What's the name of that physically disabled physicist that cheated on his wife and was just chilling with/close to Epstein?

Anyway, sticking more to the topic at hand: the only real difference between a moral person and a monster is that the former 1) believes that, for every occasion and decision, some acts are visibly, objectively more moral than others; 2) believes they should always privilege righteousness before vice, and do the moral thing. That's it. One of my closest male friends is literally illiterate and he's an excellent dad who chooses virtue regularly, my dad was a lawyer and that didn't stop him from being abusive to his family and from cheating on his wife, lol.

So no, stop it, that's not how it works. Good people are good because they decide to be good (which is easy to see, you don't need degrees, you don't even need to know how to read or write!), every day, and even when they slip they still know that they DID slip, they don't just rationalize their mistake as something virtuous (because they believe in objective morality and etc etc.).

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  • [+] [S] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    He was raised in the streets and used to sell drugs, which is why he ended up in jail for 7 years. To this day, he doesn't know his mom or dad. The man had no support. Fair enough, "morality is a skill" as in the more you choose right over wrong, the easier it gets, it becomes a part of your identity you're proud of, but I don't think it requires resources the way you see it. Also, people can be and have been self-sacrificial, even in the absence of resources. The poorest people are the ones that give more to charity, there's more union and prosociality in Gaza amongst the bombs than in any American neighborhood... Idk man, I'm not buying this. I think that it's a variable that can affect your decision making, especially if your moral framework is flimsy, but not the main variable behind moral decision making.

    Maybe I'm misunderstanding your point, TBF.

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