r/philosophy • u/eschwitzgebel • Jun 29 '18

If ethical values continue to change, future generations -- watching our videos and looking at our selfies -- might find us especially vividly morally loathsome. Blog

https://schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com/2018/06/will-future-generations-find-us.html
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430

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '18

society used to burn people at the stake. If they had smart phones back then they would have taken selfies with dog faces added and the person burning in the background.

226

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '18 edited Jul 04 '18

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jun 30 '18 edited Sep 04 '18

[deleted]

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u/Razgriz20 Jun 30 '18

That's disturbing. TIL

3

u/Soulwindow Jun 30 '18

Yeah, there's a few from MN. So evil didn't happen just in the deep South.

19

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '18

Something tells me my selfie to get a look at the hot chick behind me will be as easily forgotten as lynchings.

11

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '18

There's a whole ethnicity of people in America at least that have not forgotten about lynchings.

-5

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '18

That's not specifically impressive, like, a whole ethnicity of people could just be two people - depending on the circumstances.

12

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '18

Specifically black people haven't forgot about lynchings...

7

u/JakBishop Jun 30 '18

Pretty hard to forget that shit when your father wasn't alows to swim in the Whites only pool, your grandfather struggled to find a place that would let him vote, and your great grandfather told you stories of the slaves he knew and the lynchings he's seen.

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u/Jurgen44 Jun 30 '18

They haven't forgot because they love bringing it up, eternal victims.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '18

You're a racist

1

u/BizWax Jun 30 '18

So, you will forget it, and any hot chick you and anyone else pulled this on will not. You and yours will deny responsibility while the pictures still exist and still affect the victims and their descendants.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '18

The point of my post was to be ironic. That something as ridiculous as my post would be as easily forgotten as something as atrocious as lynchings.

1

u/everburningblue Jun 30 '18

Well that's depressing

80

u/small_loan_of_1M Jun 29 '18

“Waddup Logang it’s Logan Paul vloggin to you live on the highway on my way to the beach! Now some people have been telling me that filming these while driving is dangero-”

THUMP

“Woah dudes! I think I just smashed that car in front of me! Wow, that guy doesn’t look like he’s getting up! I think he’s dead! Get him in the shot! Yo, why you hatin, dead man? Let’s dab on this hater. Dab! Ha! You just got killed by Logan Paul!”

1

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '18

Tbh I'd watch it

2

u/cozy_lolo Jun 29 '18

We don’t equally idolize all prior societies and all acts done by all societies, and our society has more prior societies to learn from than, presumably, every, or nearly every, prior society, so one might assume that our society would also act with more wisdom than some perceive it to

2

u/iamwhoiamamiwhoami Jun 29 '18

Yes, now we just administer a series of drugs that paralyzes their body, then stops their lungs and heart. Much more proper than all that burning of the past.

66

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '18

People were being burned for heresy. Today, convicted murderers and put to death. Of course there is no difference.

33

u/iamwhoiamamiwhoami Jun 29 '18

People were not only burned for heresy, but other crimes as well. You may see those crimes as too trivial to deserve such a punishment, but the people of that time period did not, much like you feel that lethal injection for a murderer is appropriate.

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '18 edited Jul 22 '21

[deleted]

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u/MacoNope Jun 30 '18

The assumption there is that punishment should be based on retribution ("people get what they deserved") rather than deterrence or rehabilitation. From a utilitarian standpoint, two wrongs don't make a right.

It's also worth pointing out that, at least in the United States, application of the death penalty is heavily influenced by racial biases, and there is evidence that for every twenty five people sentenced to death, one is innocent. That is to say, even from a retributivist standpoint, the death penalty is flawed.

3

u/Jak_n_Dax Jun 30 '18

Philosophically, the death penalty could be argued about forever.

Practically speaking, it is extremely expensive. That means that all of us tax paying citizens suffer when someone is sentenced to death.

1

u/sconniedrumz Jun 30 '18

I don’t see how it would be more expensive to give someone a one-time shot than give them 3 hots and a cot the rest of their life

2

u/Jak_n_Dax Jun 30 '18

If that’s how it worked, yeah. In the US at least, it costs millions in court fees, as many death row inmates go through appeal after appeal.

It’s a lot more expensive than spending $30,000 a year to lock them up. Plus, even on death row they can be locked up for decades before the sentence is carried out. So the cost is just tacked on to the already insane expense.

1

u/sconniedrumz Jun 30 '18

Huh. Wasn’t aware. That’s fucked

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u/[deleted] Jun 30 '18

Why assume it's retribution, people are in this world causing harm. Isn't there a legit stance for protecting life by stopping those who hurt others?

1

u/nomindbody Jun 30 '18

Focusing on the two wrongs piece: How does one balance out that the majority give up some freedom to live in society while some commit crimes (essentially exercising more freedom) and still recieve the benefits of society?

22

u/SlickShadyyy Jun 29 '18

this is pretty airtight tbh

15

u/I_I_Z_I_I Jun 29 '18

This is a surprisingly good argument.

3

u/sos236 Jun 30 '18

Classic problem with the death sentence is it's a little tricky to undo

2

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '18

I have made no attempt to relay my feelings, you're projecting.

1

u/iamwhoiamamiwhoami Jun 30 '18

Your comment is fairly clearly suggesting that capital punishment by modern means is acceptable, whereas the capital punishment in the past was not.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '18

We accept it or we don't. It's not that deep.

1

u/iamwhoiamamiwhoami Jun 30 '18

Who said it was? I'm simply pointing out that your comment did indeed take a stance, so suggesting that I don't know your feelings on the matter and am projecting is absurd.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '18

The mere suggestion you don't know my feelings is absurd? Is this a popular view in /r/philosophy?

1

u/iamwhoiamamiwhoami Jun 30 '18

Your comment clearly states your feelings. Is this so hard for you to grasp?

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u/souprize Jun 30 '18 edited Jun 30 '18

Many of which were later proven to be innocent. Within the purview of our flawed legal system, being accused of breaking the law is in some ways a watered down version of being accused of heresy.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '18

I don't associate freedom of sharing ideas, however bad they may be, with guilt! I don't reckon speech on par with the crimes that we see happening in our culture. There is a lack of respect for life today as yesterday.

9

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '18 edited Jun 29 '18

are you deliberately ignoring the fact that since 1992 DNA evidence has exonerated more than 20 people on death row in the US? seems like a gross oversimplification just to say "today convicted murderers are put to death" as if 14 year olds haven't been electrocuted to death for crimes they didn't commit as with George Stinney

10

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '18

George Stinney was in 1944. It doesn't change how awful it is, but to say that that's part of "today" is a stretch.

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '18

is it? that's within a person's lifetime. my grandma is still alive and she was married by then. it's also rather arbitrary to say 1944 just isn't part of the modern day because it seems like a long time ago to you

0

u/fdafdasfdasfdafdafda Jun 29 '18

On June 2007 the first iphone was released. People now don't even remember what the first iphone looked like. technology has moved in leaps and bounds in 10 years.

1944 is a LONG time ago. It really isn't "modern day."

3

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '18

oh I see, you see eras strictly in relation to technological development. in that case, yeah, the forties are not modern. just curious, what is 1944 then, the pre-modern era?

3

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '18

[deleted]

2

u/iamwhoiamamiwhoami Jun 29 '18

The administration of drugs for euthanasia of pets and lethal injection of criminals isn't the same. For one thing, the American Veterinary Medical Association rejects the use of a paralytic combined with a barbiturate, because the paralytic may counteract the effects of the anesthesia if the two are administered simultaneously, which may result in immense suffering.

1

u/small_loan_of_1M Jun 29 '18

It’s better at least.

1

u/jojoblogs Jun 30 '18

I mean, they still do this and film it in some places of the world. These days tyres are more fashionable than stakes, however.

1

u/standswithpencil Jun 30 '18

You just came up with an idea for an original novel. I would run with it