Poll: The Ends Justifes The Means

[Nukey]

it really depends
stealing to help a poor family = okay
nuking a city filled with civilian's to kill a war criminal = not okay

 

[Rajin Cajun]

Generelly no, with a few exceptions.

Killing a murderer to get revenge or "serve justice" is not one of those. Those two are the government's job.
Killing a murderer in direct self-defense (or in assistance to a would-be victim) is.

If everybody could go around dealing their own personal brand of justice, we'd descend into anarchy within two days.

It's a shame the government is incompetent.

Damn it Max and I just about to go out and commit some rape. Guess I will have to find someone to kill instead.

If it's a rapist, I'll buy you a puppy!

OMG a puppy? Yay! Now I just need to log on to the sex offenders database and pick my victim!

 

[hamster mk 4]

The ends justify the means so long as all the ends are taken into account.

For example if you torture someone to get information to save a life. Your means are torture and must be justified. You could say that "look I have saved a life this was justified," however saying that would be a half truth. You have run the risk of torturing an innocent person, you have crippled another human being, you have violated laws that keep yourself from torture, and you have created a martyr for those who oppose you to rally around.

 

[Xanadu84]

It depends on the ends, and it depends on the means.

Generally that term means that a bad act is justified by an even greater, good consequence. I say yes, this is always true. If you argue its not in any circumstance, I say the person doing the justifying did it wrong in the first place.

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

Yes. Of course, I believe in Realpolitik(Do whatever it takes to get what you want) So in my world, the End does justify the Means.

 

[ThePoodonkis]

I think like Ozymandias from Watchmen. If the end is a good enough cause, then the mean will me worth it.

 

[ElephantGuts]

Usually, yes.

 

[Agayek]

To me, I don't see the ends justifying the means, ever.

People should simply be better than that.

 

[Rajin Cajun]

Yes. Of course, I believe in Realpolitik(Do whatever it takes to get what you want) So in my world, the End does justify the Means.

OMG someone else who believes in Realpolitik. I salute you sir!

Seriously. I will ship you a puppy if you do this.
I swear I will.

I wouldn't need much convincing. The last and only time I looked at the local sex offender list I wondered how many I could wipe out before the cops got onto my trail. I figured around 90% I could get if I was not very thorough and just straight up brutal. <.<

 

[Socken]

You should include the option "depends", since that seems to be what most people think.

I.e.
Stealing to prevent starving: OK.
Killing every human being in the world but yourself in order to create world peace: No-no.

 

[sallene]

Yes. Of course, I believe in Realpolitik(Do whatever it takes to get what you want) So in my world, the End does justify the Means.

OMG someone else who believes in Realpolitik. I salute you sir!

Seriously. I will ship you a puppy if you do this.
I swear I will.

I wouldn't need much convincing. The last and only time I looked at the local sex offender list I wondered how many I could wipe out before the cops got onto my trail. I figured around 90% I could get if I was not very thorough and just straight up brutal. <.<

If you were more cerebral about it you could eliminate them all by posing as underage bait and luring them away to a secluded location. Then all it would take is to have something nearby to dispose of the corpse.

me choice would be thermite.


but thats just my inner pyro speaking.

 

[VTNC]

To me, I don't see the ends justifying the means, ever.

People should simply be better than that.

I agree

I would also like to add that all those saying it is better to kill x to save y, provided y > x, are merely attempting to assign utility to another person's life, which is, in effect, removing actual utility since it is, after all, said person's life, not yours.

 

[Agent Larkin]

You should include the option "depends", since that seems to be what most people think.

I.e.
Stealing to prevent starving: OK.
Killing every human being in the world but yourself in order to create world peace: No-no.

I was gonna mention it but i thought i needed to make more divinitive choices.

 

[Agayek]

For example, killing a man to save the lives of thousands of others is justified.

No. It's not.*

You are saying that the more people you save, the better it is. That assigns a value to human life, something intrinsically priceless.

*Note: This only applies in the hypothetical situation of killing an innocent to save those lives. If the victim is actively setting up/doing something that will kill those people, it is perfectly acceptable.

 

[Rajin Cajun]

Yes. Of course, I believe in Realpolitik(Do whatever it takes to get what you want) So in my world, the End does justify the Means.

OMG someone else who believes in Realpolitik. I salute you sir!

Seriously. I will ship you a puppy if you do this.
I swear I will.

I wouldn't need much convincing. The last and only time I looked at the local sex offender list I wondered how many I could wipe out before the cops got onto my trail. I figured around 90% I could get if I was not very thorough and just straight up brutal. <.<

If you were more cerebral about it you could eliminate them all by posing as underage bait and luring them away to a secluded location. Then all it would take is to have something nearby to dispose of the corpse.

me choice would be thermite.


but thats just my inner pyro speaking.

True but I figured typical home invasion style. Boot in the back door and bring along the 12 gauge for a Turkey Shoot. The luring thing might work but I imagine that would alert the cops since it would take longer then one night of rampage.

 

[sallene]

True but I figured typical home invasion style. Boot in the back door and bring along the 12 gauge for a Turkey Shoot. The luring thing might work but I imagine that would alert the cops since it would take longer then one night of rampage.

True, but then you can always do the black bag treatment and stalk them and wait for the right moment to strike, and then you can always make it look like an suicide to keep the cops of your trail.

Lets face it, if a person is on the sex offenders list chances are their life isnt going to great so a suicide might not be looked at too closely.

 

[Rajin Cajun]

True but I figured typical home invasion style. Boot in the back door and bring along the 12 gauge for a Turkey Shoot. The luring thing might work but I imagine that would alert the cops since it would take longer then one night of rampage.

True, but then you can always do the black bag treatment and stalk them and wait for the right moment to strike, and then you can always make it look like an suicide to keep the cops of your trail.

Lets face it, if a person is on the sex offenders list chances are their life isnt going to great so a suicide might not be looked at too closely.

Me and you should probably not ever meet in real life otherwise there could be a severe lack of perverts and thermite.

 

[Skeleon]

It's a shame the government is incompetent.

You might disagree with me here, but in my opinion it'd be better to let a guilty man go free than punish an innocent.

And vigilantism has this annoying tendency of being very permanent (i.e. lynching). And a horde of angry peasants wielding pitchforks and torches doesn't really investigate that much before dishing out punishment, either.

I'd much rather trust, you know, specialists who are actually trained to find the bad guy.