Depends on exactly how it was written, I think. “The paradigmatic criticism of utilitarianism has always been that we shouldn’t rob banks and donate the proceeds to charity”—sure, that’s not actually going to conceptually promote the crime and thereby make it more probable, or make LW look bad. “There’s this bank in Missouri that looks really easy to rob”—no.
Uncharitable reading: As long as taking utilitarianism seriously doesn’t lead to arguments to violate formalized 21st century Western norms too much it is ok to argue for taking utilitarianism seriously. You are however free to debunk how it supposedly leads to things considered unacceptable on the Berkeley campus in 2012, since it obviously can’t.
Best way would be to construct the comment in a way that makes it least likely to seem bad when quoted outside of LW. For example we could imagine an alternative universe with intelligent bunnies and carrot-banks. Would it be good if a bunny robbed the carrot-bank and donated the carrots to charity?
If someone copied this comment on a different forum, it would seem silly, but not threatening. It is more difficult to start a wave of moral panic because of carrots and bunnies.
What about discussions which discuss flaws in security systems, generally? e.g. “Banks often have this specific flaw which can be mitigated in this cost-ineffective manner.”?
Depends on exactly how it was written, I think. “The paradigmatic criticism of utilitarianism has always been that we shouldn’t rob banks and donate the proceeds to charity”—sure, that’s not actually going to conceptually promote the crime and thereby make it more probable, or make LW look bad. “There’s this bank in Missouri that looks really easy to rob”—no.
Uncharitable reading: As long as taking utilitarianism seriously doesn’t lead to arguments to violate formalized 21st century Western norms too much it is ok to argue for taking utilitarianism seriously. You are however free to debunk how it supposedly leads to things considered unacceptable on the Berkeley campus in 2012, since it obviously can’t.
What abot pro-robbing banks in general?
Best way would be to construct the comment in a way that makes it least likely to seem bad when quoted outside of LW. For example we could imagine an alternative universe with intelligent bunnies and carrot-banks. Would it be good if a bunny robbed the carrot-bank and donated the carrots to charity?
If someone copied this comment on a different forum, it would seem silly, but not threatening. It is more difficult to start a wave of moral panic because of carrots and bunnies.
What about discussions which discuss flaws in security systems, generally? e.g. “Banks often have this specific flaw which can be mitigated in this cost-ineffective manner.”?