A consequentialist refers to anyone who says the ends justify the means. This might be something innocent, such as lying to a child about them being adopted in order to psychologically protect them, or it could refer to something darker, such as believing in Stalin’s old idea that “you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs”.
Looking back, we all know those people in life who use an identity to get out of something. Again, it might be innocent, such as people in wartime pretending to be Amish so they can say it’s discriminatory for you to draft them in a war they might be killed in, or it might be something less based in courtesy, such as people pretending to be a certain medical condition so they can eat something else during school lunch.
I never see anyone talk about this, but I look at consequentialism and see it as the ultimate form of this. “I did steal from the rich” they might say, “but I did it to give to the poor” (or alternatively “to feed my family”). Or they might say a death can be praised for the sole reason that it was the fastest way to achieve a certain societal outcome. Even if people were consistent about this, it would be one thing, but somehow saying something like “I’m going to apply this to religion and live Amish from now on to get out of all future war” raises a few eyebrows in our society that frowns upon things like religion both inside and outside the context of consequentialism. There are a number of things you can’t excuse with “but it was for a good outcome that outweighs the outcome of if I hadn’t done it”, though it definitely can be used that way, which is the issue.
Why is one (consequentialism) considered acceptable while the other (being something to get out of something) not acceptable?
Nemo@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
I have not found either of your premises to be true.
For one, consequentialism rightly has a pretty bad reputation among those who don’t practice it, eg. virtue ethicists or moral absolutists (including most of all three Abrahamic religions).
For two, the only people I see arguing against utilizing identity are generally both right-wing and priviledged (and generally even then only against identities to which they cannot relate).
Soooooo… do you have any specific examples of this phenomenon? Because the general case is not true, so either you’re begging the question or there a specific incident that made you ask.
PatrickStar@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Earlier this year, digital communities actually had to crack down on consequentialism because they were using it to support serial killers. I’m surprised someone in ours hasn’t seen how people view that.
Arguments against utilizing identity are typically argued in personal spaces. You may have heard of stories of family members who convert to a religion so that they can complain they’re being persecuted when someone speaks against them, only for that person to not follow through with it in other ways. My mom has a friend who is Jewish who comes to holiday dinners and takes home a ham, but you can’t even talk about the current wartime situation in you-know-where with this person without them burying you with ultra long responses about how you must be insensitive. My brother who was in prison also mentioned that a lot of the prisoners feign belonging to different minorities because people of those minorities get better prison food (a self-imposed rule on the officers). Before my aunt died, she would say her diabetes meant she should get to choose what restaurant to go to, but then you’d see the inside of her kitchen and see that it’s full of the worst cereals she could possibly be eating if she had diabetes (not an example I’d blame her for though since she died due to waiting in a car in the freezing cold which caused her accuchek to malfunction).
Once in a while, you see this in the media. Someone might say they have cardio issues because it attracts donations, but then you see them in amusement park pictures enjoying things that someone like that shouldn’t be enjoying. A politician might say they’re full-blooded indigenous to get more respect from people, only to take up offensive practices or end up doing something not typical of that group of people (e.g. drink large quantities of alcohol).