They aren't supposed to. Try reading again without that assumption.
OK. The disagreement might be instructive in some way though. I doubt anybody involved in this thought this disagreement on this forum was relevant for the actual parties involved.
BTW, you might want to add a "though" or something to the second sentence next time you say something similar: "It is not excessively important right now though given how little power we have over this scenario". Or a "but": "But it is not excessively important right now given how little power we have over this scenario."
The reason is that my misunderstanding was not atypical. Statements directly next to each other often imply that sort of relationship. A conjunction ("but", "though", "and", or whatever) would be necessary to make sure the reader knew the second two sentences weren't supposed to support the first.
"Shockingly unacceptable" or "shameful".
In comparison to what? Normal human behavior?
And the gist of my last reply was that there is actually slightly more to the (unimportant) disagreement than miscommunication even though it is nice when things work out that way.
And the gist of my reply to your last reply was that I disagree with that. Review it if necessary.
I am fully aware of the relevance of perspective and repeat that 'sincere' false beliefs don't carry nearly as much moral weight with me as excuses these days. Please refer to Robin Hanson and 'Homo Hypocritus' for more information.
I was making a semantic point, not a moral one. Your perspective-shifting sentence made it seem like the ordinary definition of "evil" fit, but making the perspective stay on them showed that it didn't.
Saying that their actions are evil whether intentionally harmful to innocents or not isn't a moral point that requires a citation; it's merely an idiosyncratic definition.
Saying that their actions are evil whether intentionally harmful to innocents or not isn't a moral point that requires a citation; it's merely an idiosyncratic definition.
I disagree strongly with both your argument and conclusion. Self delusion is not a get-out-of-ever-being-immoral free card. (Unlike most of the rest of this whole conversation tree) this point is a hugely important one to me and does not rely on idiosyncratic definitions.
If you are considering a species which is capable of constructing sincere but false beliefs for pragmatic purposes basing a morality entirely around whether individuals 'believe' they are doing something wrong is outright absurd!
See: You Be the Jury, The Amanda Knox Test
While we hear about Bayes' Theorem being under threat in some courts, it is nice to savor the occasional moment of rationality prevailing in the justice system, and of mistakes being corrected.
Congratulations to the Italian court system for successfully saying "Oops!"
Things go wrong in this world quite a bit, as we know. Sometimes it's appropriate to just say "hooray!" when they go right.
Discuss, or celebrate.