Decius comments on By Which It May Be Judged - Less Wrong

35 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 10 December 2012 04:26AM

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Comment author: Eugine_Nier 20 December 2012 03:54:48AM 2 points [-]

Secret police and soldiers act outside the law enforcement portion of the social contract.

Why?

Comment author: Decius 20 December 2012 05:28:54AM 0 points [-]

There's a little bit of 'because secret police don't officially exist' and a little bit of 'because soldiers aren't police'. Also, common language definitions fail pretty hard when strictly interpreting an implied social contract.

There are cases where someone who is a soldier in one context is police in another, and probably some cases where a member of the unofficial police is also a member of the police.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 21 December 2012 03:39:46AM 1 point [-]

There's a little bit of 'because secret police don't officially exist'

Well, they generally do actually. They're called 'secret' because people don't know precisely what they're up to, or who is a member.

You can replace them with regular police in my hypothetical if that helps.