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Old 09-25-2012, 09:21 AM   #159
jammies
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: In a land without pants, or war, or want. But mostly we care about the pants.
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Originally Posted by Itse View Post
Stop trying to hide in the crowd and take responsibility for what you are doing.
Vehemently agree. Do whatever you want, but don't justify it with "well, everyone does it!" First of all, no matter what behaviour it is, there will be a significant minority that doesn't do it, so your premise is wrong, and if your premise is wrong, your argument fails. Second, morality is not a democracy.

I always go back to the example of speeding. I speed, but I don't try to justify it by saying "everyone speeds, so I might as well." That's just a cop-out - I speed because I think the detriment of increased danger in my doing so is less than the benefit of getting where I want to go faster. I also calculate that the probability of punishment for my actions is negligible. This is definitely immoral behaviour, and I don't try to pretend it's moral, either, because to me, hypocrisy is a greater immorality than speeding.
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